Titus Oates
Titus Oates (* 15. September 1649 in Oakham , Rutland , † July 12 / 13. July 1705 ) was an English clergyman and main informant on one he invented Popish Plot (English Popish Plot ), in which supposedly Catholics the murder of Charles II. Planned so that his Catholic brother should carry out the Counter Reformation in England. Oates sparked a national hysteria that lasted over three years and plunged England into a serious domestic political crisis.
Life
origin
Titus Oates was born on September 15, 1649 in Oakham to a family of Baptist clerics. He attended the Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood , and then attended Gonville and Caius College and St John's College in Cambridge . He was then an Anglican priest, but was soon released for blasphemy and homosexuality .
A few months later, he was curate and vicar of the parish of Bobbing in the county of Kent . But here, too, he was dismissed for blasphemy and alleged homosexuality.
Royal Navy
In 1677 he was appointed clergyman of the ship Adventurer of the Royal Navy . He was soon charged with anal intercourse , which was a capital offense in England at the time , and was only spared because he was a clergyman. Oates fled abroad and temporarily joined the Jesuits .
Jesuit
Oates found shelter in the two Jesuit houses of Saint-Omer (France) and Valladolid (Spain). He later claimed he had become a pretend Catholic to learn more about the secrets of the Jesuits and an alleged Jesuit meeting in London . He also pretended to have a doctorate in Catholic theology . When he returned from London, he befriended the anti-Catholic clergyman Israel Tonge .
Papist conspiracy
In August 1678, King Charles II was warned of Catholic conspiracies by Christopher Kirkby and later by Israel Tonge. Tonge in particular voiced very far-reaching suspicions that included the Jesuits, the English Catholics and the French King Louis XIV . Charles II, however, was in no way concerned and turned the matter over to the Earl of Danby . But he was anti-Catholic, listened willingly to the allegations and asked Tonge to introduce him to Oates.
On September 6, 1678, Oates and Tonge turned to the Anglican examining magistrate Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey . Oates pretended to be able to provide evidence that Catholic conspirators were planning an attack on the king and intended to replace him with his Catholic brother, Jacob, the Duke of York. All Protestant leaders were supposed to be killed afterwards.
The Privy Council interrogated Oates, who on September 28 made 43 allegations against various followers of the Catholic faith, including 541 Jesuits and various Catholic nobles. He specifically accused Sir George Wakeman, the Queen's personal physician, and Edward Coleman, the secretary of the Duchess of York, Mary of Modena , of planning an attack on the King. Although Oates had probably come up with the names at random or with the help of the Earl of Danby, Coleman’s correspondence actually contained a letter to a French Jesuit that appeared to confirm Oates’s allegations.
Others who Oates accused were Dr. William Fogarty, the Archbishop of Dublin , Peter Talbot , Samuel Pepys and Lord Belasyse. With the help of the Earl of Danby, the list grew to 81 accused. Oates was given command of some soldiers and he began arresting Jesuits, even those who had helped him in the past.
The king still did not believe Oates' allegations, but was urged by parliament and public opinion to set up a commission of inquiry. Oates became more and more daring and accused five Catholic lords of participating in the conspiracy that the Earl of Shaftesbury , an opponent of the king, had immediately thrown into the Tower of London . On November 24th, Oates claimed that the Queen, together with her personal physician, wanted to poison the King and secured the help of "Captain" William Bedloe , who was willing to testify for money. The king then personally cross-examined Oates, pointed out some inaccuracies and lies, and ordered his arrest. However, a few days later parliament demanded his release, which amounted to a constitutional crisis. Charles II had to give in.
In offices and dignities
Oates moved into a state-owned apartment in Whitehall after his release and received an annual maintenance allowance of £ 1,200 . He soon made new accusations. He claimed that assassins intended to shoot the king with silver bullets, which would leave incurable wounds. Oates was showered with praise. He hired the College of Arms to research his ancestry and design a family crest for him. The heralds gave him the coat of arms of an extinct family. Rumors even said Oates would marry a daughter of the Earl of Shaftesbury.
The turn
After fifteen innocent people were executed on Oates' testimony, including the Archbishop of Armagh , Oliver Plunkett , who was executed on July 1, 1681, Judge Scroggs began declaring people innocent. The king also took countermeasures, and public opinion soon began to turn against Oates.
On August 31, 1681, Oates was ordered to leave his Whitehall apartment, but continued to express public suspicions against anyone he considered his opponent, including the King and the Duke of York. He was arrested for sedition and fined £ 100,000, which was equivalent to life imprisonment for lack of that sum.
Vengeance of Jacob II
When James II ascended the throne in 1685, he had Oates tried again. Since the latter had confirmed all his accusations by oath, James II had him sentenced for perjury to stand in the pillory for a few days each year , to lose his spiritual dignity and to remain in prison for life. Oates was taken out of his cell once a year and taken to the pillory at the entrance to Westminster Hall , wearing a hat that read: "Titus Oates, convicted of two horrific perjuries with overwhelming evidence." Passers-by were allowed to bring eggs to him and throw rubbish. The next day he was taken across London and on the third day he was stripped, tied to a car and whipped from Aldgate to Newgate . On the fourth day, the flogging was repeated. Its judge was Judge George Jeffreys , who stated that Oates was a "disgrace to mankind."
Oates spent the next three years in prison. When Wilhelm III took office and Mary II of England he was pardoned and given a pension of £ 5 a week. His honor and reputation were not restored. The pension was later canceled but re-granted in 1698 and increased to £ 300 a year. Titus Oates died on July 12 or 13, 1705.
Aftermath
- In 2006, Titus Oates was voted worst British of the 17th century by the BBC history magazine. He's also ranked third on the list of the worst Brits in the last millennium.
See also
literature
German
- J. Spillmann: The martyrs from the days of the Titus Oates conspiracy 1678–1681. Herder, Freiburg i. Br. 1901.
- Eckehard Korthals: The anti-papist movement in England during the restoration period. 1970, DNB 482075929 .
English
- Elaine Kidner Dakers: Titus Oates, by Jane Lane. Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. 1971, OCLC 252027600 .
- Malcolm V. Hay: Jesuits and the Popish Plot. Kessinger Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-7661-3381-8 .
- John Pollock: The Popish Plot: A Study in the History. Kessinger Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-4179-6576-2 .
- Caroline M. Hibbard: Charles I and the Popish Plot . University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 1983, ISBN 0-8078-1520-9 .
Web links
- Titus Oates from a Catholic perspective
- Willibald Alexis : The new Pitaval. The papist Complot in the Gutenberg-DE project
- About the papist conspiracy
- Merchant Taylors' School. ( Memento from June 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 215 kB). Oates attended Merchant Taylor's School
swell
- ^ 'Worst' historical Britons list. (news.bbc.co.uk)
- ↑ Jack the Ripper is 'worst Briton'. (news.bbc.co.uk)
- ^ Jack the Ripper voted worst Briton in history. ( Memento of July 9, 2006 on the Internet Archive ) (www.originpublishing.co.uk)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Oates, Titus |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Otes, Titus; Oats, Titus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English clergyman and agitator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 15, 1649 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oakham , Rutland |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 12, 1705 or July 13, 1705 |