What was the Gunpowder Plot? The Traditional Story Tested by Original EvidenceGerard, John
History
What was the Gunpowder Plot? The Traditional Story Tested by Original Evidence
Gerard, John
Gunpowder Plot, 1605
There can be no question as to the wide prevalence of the belief that
previous plots had owed their origin to the policy of the statesmen who
finally detected them, a belief witnessed to by Lord Castlemaine,[24]
who declares that "it was a piece of wit in Queen Elizabeth's days to
draw men into such devices," and that "making and fomenting plots was
then in fashion; nor can it be denied that good grounds for such an
opinion were not lacking". The unfortunate man Squires had been executed
on the ridiculous charge that he had come over from Spain in order to
poison the pommel of Queen Elizabeth's saddle. Dr. Parry, we are
informed by Bishop Goodman, whose verdict is endorsed by Mr. Brewer,[25]
was put to death by those who knew him to be guiltless in their regard,
they having themselves employed him in the business for which he
suffered. Concerning Babington's famous plot, it is absolutely certain
that, whatever its origin, it was, almost from the first, fully known to
Walsingham, through whose hands passed the correspondence between the
conspirators, and who assiduously worked the enterprise, in order to
turn it to the destruction of the Queen of Scots. As to Lopez, the
Jewish physician, it is impossible not to concur in the verdict that
his condemnation was at least as much owing to political intrigue as to
the weight of evidence.[26] Concerning this period Mr. Brewer says: "The
Roman Catholics seem to have made just complaints of the subtle and
unworthy artifices of Leicester and Walsingham, by whom they were
entrapped into the guilt of high treason. 'And verily,' as [Camden]
expresses it, there were at this time crafty ways devised to try how men
stood affected; counterfeit letters were sent in the name of the Queen
of Scots and left at papists' houses; spies were sent up and down the
country to note people's dispositions and lay hold of their words; and
reporters of vain and idle stories were credited and encouraged."[27]
Under King James,[28] as Bishop Goodman declares, the priest Watson was
hanged for treason by those who had employed him.[29]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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