London and the Kingdom - Volume 2: A History Derived Mainly from the Archives at Guildhall in the Custody of the Corporation of the City of London.Sharpe, Reginald R. (Reginald Robinson)
History
London and the Kingdom - Volume 2: A History Derived Mainly from the Archives at Guildhall in the Custody of the Corporation of the City of London.
Sharpe, Reginald R. (Reginald Robinson)
London (England) -- History
On the 8th November the mayor issued his precept for bonfires to be
lighted that evening in the principal streets of the city in token of joy
and thanksgiving for the deliverance of the king and parliament from this
"most horrible treason."(42) A week later (16 Nov.) another precept was
addressed to the alderman of each ward to furnish an extra watch, as those
who had been engaged in safe-guarding the city had found the work too much
for them "since the troubles begonne."(43) A diligent search was
subsequently ordered to be made in every cellar and vault for any illegal
store of gunpowder.(44) Fawkes and such of his fellow-conspirators as were
taken alive were brought to trial at Westminster, in January (1606), and
executed, some in St. Paul’s Churchyard and others before the
parliament-house, their quarters being afterwards placed on the city’s
gates, whilst their heads were stuck up on London bridge.(45) Pending
their trial a double watch was kept in the city and fresh halberds
issued.(46)
Three Jesuits were implicated in the plot, their names being John Gerrard,
Oswald Greenway, and Henry Garnet. Gerrard and Greenway effected their
escape, but Garnet was captured after having suffered much deprivation
whilst in hiding, and was brought to trial at the Guildhall. Gerrard is
described as tall and well set up, but his complexion "swart or blackish,
his face large, his cheeks sticking out and somewhat hollow underneath,"
his hair long unless recently cut, his beard cut close, "saving littell
mustachoes and a littell tuft under his lower lippe," his age about forty.
Equally precise descriptions are given of Greenway and Garnet; the former
being represented as of "meane stature, somewhat grosse," his hair black,
his beard bushy and brown, his forehead broad, and his age about the same
as that of Gerrard; whilst Garnet is described as an older man, between
fifty and sixty years of age, of fair complexion, full face and grisly
hair, with a high forehead, and corpulent.(47) At his trial, which took
place on the 28th March, Garnet denied all knowledge of the plot save what
he had heard under the seal of confession. He was nevertheless convicted
and executed (3 May) in St. Paul’s Churchyard.(48)
(M16)
Notwithstanding the capture and execution of the chief actors in the late
conspiracy, some time elapsed before the nation recovered from the shock,
and every idle rumour of mishap to the king soon became exaggerated as it
flew from one end of the kingdom to the other. Thus it was that the
citizens of London awoke on the morning of Saturday, the 22nd March, to
learn that the king was reported to have been killed with a poisoned
dagger whilst engaged in his favourite pursuit of hunting. The alarm thus
raised was with difficulty laid to rest by the following precept(49):—
_By y_e_ Mayo_r_._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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