Exeter conspiracy

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As the Exeter Conspiracy (English: Exeter Conspiracy ) an alleged conspiracy between conservative English nobles against King Henry VIII in 1538 was called. The alleged target was the death of the king and the restoration of papal authority in England. In fact, it was a conspiracy theory as part of an intrigue to neutralize conservative nobles who stood in the way of the Reformation . She got her name from the title of one of the defendants, Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter , a cousin of the king. Both he and Sir Edward Neville, a close friend of the King,Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu , son of Margaret Pole and Sir Nicholas Carew , brother-in-law of Sir Francis Bryan , fell victim to the intrigue and were executed as traitors.

Political background

Reformation under Henry VIII

There had been some major changes in England by the early 1530s. The reason for this was King Henry's cancellation of his marriage to Queen Catherine of Aragón . As the Pope refused to cancel, Henry eventually broke with Rome. Thereupon he was excommunicated by the Pope . Heinrich appointed himself head of the English Church, had the marriage annulled and married Anne Boleyn in 1534 . Heinrich's lord seal keeper Thomas Cromwell , a sympathizer of the Protestant Reformation, encouraged the king in his course. This led to the closure of monasteries and shrines and to iconoclasts of the Reformation , which particularly outraged the religious rural population.

Nevertheless, there were still nobles with Catholic sympathies. The most famous among them was Heinrich's daughter Maria , who was now officially a royal bastard and had been excluded from the line of succession. Even friends and relatives of the king displeased her treatment, and the influence of Cromwell, a man from a humble background, was a thorn in the side of the old nobility in particular. In the north of England there were uprisings in the population in 1536 such as the so-called Pilgrimage of Grace (German: Pilgrimage of Grace). The bloody suppression of the uprisings stoked general discontent. In addition, it was feared that the Pope, with the help of English agents, would incite Mary's cousin Charles V and possibly also the French King Francis I to go to war with England. The political climate in England was marked by tension and distrust.

The Pole and Courtenay families

Reginald Pole , son of Margaret Poles

Two families in England, like Heinrich, came from the royal house of Plantagenet , the Poles and the Courtenays. This made the Poles and Courtenays potential heirs to the throne. Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury , was a cousin of Henry's mother Elizabeth of York through her father George Plantagenet . Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, on the other hand, was Heinrich's cousin and a prince from the House of York through his mother, Katherine of York . He was a close confidante of the king and a gentleman of the Privy Chamber, the royal private chambers to which few hand-picked favorites had access. Margaret Pole had even been Princess Maria's governess. Because of their sympathy for Catholicism, both families could represent an alternative to Heinrich for the dissatisfied, which is why he began to distrust them over the years.

The Poles were given special importance by Margaret's second son, Reginald Pole . He was Heinrich's second cousin and had earlier protested against Heinrich's divorce from Katharina von Aragón, but had avoided subsequent confrontations with the king as much as possible. In December 1534, however, Heinrich asked for a clear statement on his religious policy. So Pole abroad wrote the treatise Pro Ecclesiasticae Unitatis Defensione (German: To defend church unity ) in 1536 , a merciless attack on Heinrich's policies. The king, firmly believed that Pole was loyal to him because of the royal funding of his studies, angrily urged him to return to England and answer for his attack. Pole ignored this request, whereupon his own family threatened him with disinheritance. As a cardinal , he was made a legate in Spain in order to convince Charles V to free England from “wicked tyranny”. He also advocated and supported the Pilgrimage of Grace .

course

Sir Geoffrey Pole

The main witness in the wake of the Exeter conspiracy was Sir Geoffrey Pole , Montagues and Reginald Pole's younger brother. Although the Poles had largely distanced themselves from Reginald, Heinrich suspected that they were still in secret contact with him. In late August, Geoffrey Pole and his former servant Hugh Holland were arrested and locked in the Tower of London . Official reasons were not given, but it was soon rumored that Holland had smuggled letters to Reginald and that Geoffrey Pole secretly wanted to send soldiers to his brother. Presumably, Geoffrey Pole suspected what was in store for him and his family, because he made a desperate, unsuccessful suicide attempt in the Tower.

Thomas Cromwell , a potential mastermind of the Exeter conspiracy

After two months of imprisonment, he was finally subjected to various interrogations to find out whether he had been in contact with Reginald or had supported his attacks against Heinrich. He was also asked which people had communicated with him and whether they also wanted a “change of things”. Explicitly asked Cromwell et al. a. after Margaret Roper and Margaret Giggs , the daughters of the executed Sir Thomas More , who made no secret of their displeasure about the closure and destruction of the monasteries. But even though Geoffrey gave him information about the two, Cromwell soon concentrated on much more influential suspects. Under the pressure and possibly also out of fear of torture, Geoffrey named u. a. his brother Montague, his mother, the Courtenays and Sir Edward Neville as his sympathizers. He testified that Neville had cursed the king at the Palace of Westminster as "beast and worse than a beast," a serious libel case .

He also claimed that Montague asked him not to serve the king, but to serve the outcast Catherine of Aragón, because he “did not like the king from childhood”. Montague should also have welcomed the prospect of the king's death, which, under the law of the time, constituted high treason . Evidence against the Courtenays was also not long in coming. Henry Courtenay allegedly said to Montague in August: "I am sure that one day we will triumph over these villains who control the king and that one day I will see a happy world." His sympathies for Princess Maria were also and the late Catherine of Aragón. In June 1536 he was released from the Privy Council because Maria refused to recognize her illegitimacy. At this point Heinrich had taken steps to arrest Mary as a disobedient subject and suspected that Courtenay was supporting the princess in her stubbornness. An examination of things therefore seemed only logical.

Arrests and interrogations

The Poles, the Courtenays and Sir Edward Neville were arrested on November 4th and 5th on the basis of Geoffrey Pole's testimony. During subsequent interrogations in the Tower, Gertrude Courtenay incriminated Neville by suggesting that he had tried his hand at prophecy. She also testified that he had announced in her garden that "one day villains will be overthrown and lords will rule again," which was taken as an attack on the simply born Cromwell. In addition, Gertrude's closer acquaintance with Elizabeth Barton was investigated, who had been executed in 1534 because of her prophecies against Heinrich's marriage to Anne Boleyn. Among other things, Barton had predicted Heinrich's death, which was considered high treason. Gertrude, however, denied having ever believed Barton.

The suspects' servants were also interrogated. Elizabeth Darrell, lover of Thomas Wyatt , said during her interrogation that she was told by a stranger that the king had sent a murderer named Peter Meotes to the continent to kill Reginald Pole. Then, according to Darrell, Geoffrey Pole replied, "By the blood of God, if he had killed him, I would thrust my dagger into him, servant of the king or not." Other servants testified that both Montague and Geoffrey Pole were last Burned many letters, which was used as further evidence against them.

Richard Morison, Cromwell's favorite propagandist, summarized the clues and rumors in his work An Invective Ayenste the Great and Detestable Vice, Treason (German: An insult against the great and hideous vice, betrayal ). This is where the so-called conspiracy was first named. The work claimed that Courtenay had declared himself the rightful heir to the throne as early as 1531 and called men to arms in Cornwall. In order to enforce his claim, so Morison, he would now have made common cause with Reginald Pole, who in turn had planned to marry Heinrich's daughter Maria and overthrow the king. For the suspects, the allegations could not have come at a worse time. At the same time, news leaked into England that Charles V and Francis I were considering invading England as part of their alliance of July 1538 in order to put an end to the "heresy". With Courtenay and the Poles as potential allies of the Roman Catholic kingdoms, conspiracy theory now assumed proportions that warrant a charge of treason.

output

The fact that the "evidence" against them was mere circumstantial evidence that Morison had puffed up into a conspiracy did not save the defendants. Although Courtenay, Montague and Neville protested their innocence and pleaded “not guilty” at their trial, the jury sentenced them to death as traitors. On December 9, 1538, her execution took place on Tower Hill . Montague's mother Margaret Pole, Courtenay's wife Gertrude and son Edward remained in custody. Gertrude was finally released after 18 months, her son Edward was only regained his freedom under Queen Maria. Margaret Pole remained imprisoned in the Tower until her execution on May 28, 1541.

Sir Nicholas Carew , a late victim of the Exeter conspiracy

A few weeks after the deaths of Courtenay, Neville and Poles, the intrigue claimed another victim. Sir Nicholas Carew , also a prominent favorite of the king and supporter of Princess Maria, was arrested on December 31, 1538. The reason was a letter found in Gertrude Courtenay's house allegedly incriminating Nicholas Carew as a contributor to the Exeter conspiracy. He was also convicted of a traitor and executed on March 8, 1539.

Geoffrey Pole, the only one who pleaded guilty at his trial, was convicted but not executed. On December 30th, Thomas Cromwell indicated to the French ambassador that he was hoping for more information from his prisoner. On January 4, 1539, Geoffrey finally received a pardon, but was repeatedly dragged to court for alleged offenses. After his mother's execution, Geoffrey felt unsafe in his life and left England a broken man. His brother Reginald Pole brought him before the Pope, who gave him absolution for his statements against his family. Geoffrey Pole only returned to England under Queen Mary.

Behind the scenes

It is believed by historians that Thomas Cromwell was the mastermind behind the intrigue. He actively promoted the English Reformation and had accused Henry Courtenay, Nicholas Carew and Francis Bryan as early as 1536 of wanting to reintegrate Princess Maria into the line of succession, although they had supported him in the overthrow of Anne Boleyn. He had also used similar methods in the case of Anne Boleyn to get rid of a dangerous opponent: an arrest - then Mark Smeaton , this time Geoffrey Pole - and subsequent confessions, which weighed heavily on noble people. Historians suggest that Courtenay's prominent role in the Privy Chamber and his influence on King Cromwell was a thorn in the side. There appeared to be personal tensions between them, for in 1537 it had been rumored in Somerset that Courtenay had stabbed Cromwell with a dagger and had been sent to the Tower for it. Carew, too, was powerful enough to pose a threat to Cromwell when in doubt. Although Heinrich Cromwell explicitly supported Reformation policies, the king still viewed burgeoning Protestantism as heresy and retained the Catholic rites. It is very likely that Cromwell saw Heinrich's conservative friends as a threat to his Reformation policy.

It is unclear whether Henry VIII knew that it was not a real conspiracy. According to contemporaries, the King himself had no interest in getting his relatives and friends out of the way, for on November 13th his secretary Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton , wrote to Thomas Wyatt: “The accusations against them are very grave are supported by credible witnesses, but the king loves them so much and is so unwilling to act against them that it is unclear what he will do. ”On the other hand, the king was known for his fear of rivals for his heir apparent and of rebellions against his Domination. As early as 1537 he had sent Francis Bryan to Europe to arrest or kill Reginald Pole for his meetings with Heinrich's enemies. He also mistrusted his daughter Maria and took care to isolate her politically, as he always feared a rebellion of her sympathizers. The imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote somberly after the executions: "It seems as if they wanted to leave their [Maria] as few friends as possible." But although the king would have had motives to overthrow the Poles, Courtenays and Neville, his remains actual involvement in the intrigue unexplained.

literature

  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 10: Cappe-Chancellor. 2004 Oxford University Press.
  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 13: Constable-Crane. 2004 Oxford University Press.
  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 40: Murrell-Nooth. 2004 Oxford University Press.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c England under the Tudors - Cardinal Reginald Pole , accessed April 21, 2011 at 5:17 pm
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h J. PD Cooper: Courtenay, Henry . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 13: Constable-Crane. 2004 Oxford University Press
  3. ↑ a b Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 13 Part 2: August-December 1538 , accessed on April 21, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
  4. ↑ John Guy: A Daughter's Love. Harper Perennial 2009, p. 267
  5. ↑ a b c November 1538 11-15
  6. ^ Anna Whitelock: Mary Tudor. England's first queen . Bloomsbury Publishing 2010, p. 87
  7. ↑ a b Alasdair Hawkyard: Neville, Sir Edward . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 40: Murrell-Nooth. 2004 Oxford University Press
  8. ↑ a b Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 13 Part 2: August-December 1538
  9. ↑ a b Anna Whitelock: Mary Tudor. England's first queen . Bloomsbury Publishing 2010, p. 100
  10. ↑ JPD Cooper: Courtenay, Gertrude . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 13: Constable-Crane. 2004 Oxford University Press
  11. ^ A b Stanford Lehmberg: Carew, Sir Nicholas . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 10: Cappe-Chancellor. 2004 Oxford University Press
  12. ↑ a b Susan Bridgen: Bryan, Francis . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 8: Brown Burstow. 2004 Oxford University Press
  13. ↑ Eric Ives : The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. 'The Most Happy'. Blackwell Publishing, Malden 2004, ISBN 0-631-23479-9 , p. 326