John Ballard
John Ballard (* in the 16th century; † September 20, 1586 in London ) was an English Jesuit priest and mastermind of the conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth I , the so-called Babington conspiracy .
John Ballard studied at Caius College in Cambridge and at the English College in Reims . During his stay in Reims in 1584/85 he prepared the so-called Babington conspiracy, of which he is considered to be the mastermind today. Priest John Savage swore to him to kill Queen Elizabeth.
Ballard had a meeting with Cardinal Allen in Reims in 1584 and traveled to Rome in August / September 1584, where he had a discussion with the rector of the English College Alfonso Agazzari about the legality of a plot against the Queen and the blessing of Pope Gregory XIII. for his planned conspiracy.
After completing his training as a Jesuit priest in Reims, Ballard returned to England in 1585 as a Catholic missionary. In order to conceal his true identity, he appeared under various names such as Turner, Thompson or made himself a soldier of the court, Captain Fortescue or Black Foskew.
In May 1586 he informed Charles Paget , a supporter of Queen Mary of Scotland and the Spanish minister Mendoza , in Paris that the Catholic nobility in England were ready to revolt against Elizabeth and her advisors if Spain could help. At the end of May 1586 he immediately instigated Anthony Babington , Chidiock Tichborne and others to murder the English Queen Elizabeth, ultimately as a prelude to a planned invasion of Spanish-led Catholics in England.
The conspiracy was betrayed and Ballard was arrested on August 4, 1586. Ballard was tortured. After the trial, Ballard was the first of the conspirators to be executed on September 20, 1586.
literature
- Charles Cotton: The Bardon Papers. A Collection of Contemporary Documents (MS. Eg. 2124) Relating to the Trial of Mary Queen of Scots, 1586, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 1908
- JH Pollen: Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington Plot, Edinburgh Scottish Hisrory Society 1922
- AF Steuart: Trial of Mary Queen of Scots, Edinburgh, Hodge, 1923
- Austin K. Gray: Some Observations on Christopher Marlowe, Government Agent, PMLA 1928