PERCY, CATESBY, AND TRESHAM.
ON occasion of a notorious trial in the Star Chamber, in the year
1604,[292] Bancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury, made the significant
observation[293] that nothing was to be discovered concerning the
Catholics "but by putting some Judas amongst them." That amongst the
Powder Plot conspirators there was some one who played such a part, who
perhaps even acted as a decoy-duck to lure the others to destruction,
has always been suspected, but with sundry differences of opinion as to
which of the band it was. Francis Tresham has most commonly been
supposed at least to have sent the warning letter to Monteagle, which
proved fatal to himself and his comrades: some writers have conjectured
that he did a good deal more.[294] Monteagle himself, as we have seen,
has been supposed by others to have been in the Plot and to have
betrayed it. It would appear, however, that neither of these has so
strong a claim to this equivocal distinction as one whose name has been
scarcely mentioned hitherto in such a connection.
The part played in the conspiracy by Thomas Percy is undoubtedly very
singular, and the more so when we learn something of the history and
character of the man. Till within some three years previously[295] he
had been a Protestant, and, moreover, unusually wild and dissolute.
After his conversion, he acquired the character of a zealous, if
turbulent, Catholic, and is so described, not only by Father Gerard and
Father Greenway, but by himself. In a letter written so late as November
2nd, 1605,[296] he represents that he has to leave Yorkshire, being
threatened by the Archbishop with arrest, "as the chief pillar of
papistry in that county."
It unfortunately appears that all the time this zealous convert was a
bigamist, having one wife living in the capital and another in the
provinces. When his name was published in connection with the Plot, the
magistrates of London arrested the one, and those of Warwickshire the
other, alike reporting to the secretary what they had done, as may be
seen in the State Paper Office.[297]
Gravely suspicious as such a fact must appear in connection with one
professing exceptional religious fervour, it by no means stands alone.
Father Greenway, in describing the character of Percy,[298] dwells much
on his sensitiveness to the suspicion of having played false to his
fellow Catholics in his dealings with King James in Scotland, coupled
with protestations of his determination to do something to show that he
as well as they had been deceived by that monarch. We find evidence that
as a fact some Catholics distrusted him, as in the examination of one
Cary, who, being interrogated concerning the Powder Plot, protested that
"Percy was no Papist but a Puritan."[299] There is likewise in the
king's own book a strange and obscure reference to Percy as the possible
author of the letter to Monteagle, one of the chief grounds for
suspecting him being "his backwardness in religion." It would moreover
appear that he was not a man who always impressed those favourably who
had to do with him, for Chamberlain reminds his friend Carleton that the
latter had ever considered him "a subtle, flattering, dangerous
knave."[300]
[Illustration: THOMAS PERCY.]
We have seen something of the extraordinary manner in which Percy
transacted the business of hiring the house and "cellar," wholly unlike
what we should expect from one whose main object was to escape
observation, and that he brought to bear the influence of sundry
Protestant gentlemen, amongst them Dudley Carleton himself,[301] in
order to obtain the desired lease. We know, moreover, that various
unfortunate accidents prevented the history of these negotiations from
ever being fully told.
Yet more remarkable is a piece of information supplied by Bishop
Goodman, his authority being the eminent lawyer Sir Francis Moore, who,
says he, "is beyond all exception."[302] Moore, having occasion during
the period when the Plot was in progress to be out on business late at
night, and going homeward to the Middle Temple at two in the morning,
"several times he met Mr. Percy coming out of the great statesman's
house, and wondered what his business should be there." Such wonder was
certainly not unnatural, and must be shared by us. That a man who was
ostensibly the life and soul of a conspiracy directed against the king's
chief minister, even more than against the sovereign himself, should
resort for conference with his intended victim at an hour when he was
most likely to escape observation, is assuredly not the least
extraordinary feature in this strange and tangled tale.
Not less suspicious is another circumstance. Immediately before the
fatal Fifth of November, Percy had been away in the north, and he
returned to London only on the evening of Saturday, the 2nd. Of this
return, Cecil, writing a week later,[303] made a great mystery, as
though the traitor's movements had been of a most stealthy and secret
character, and declared that the fact had been discovered from Faukes
only with infinite difficulty, and after many denials. It happens,
however, that amongst the State Papers is preserved a pass dated October
25th, issued by the Commissioners of the North, for Thomas Percy,
posting to Court upon the king's especial service, and charging all
mayors, sheriffs, and postmasters to provide him with three good horses
all along the road.[304] It is manifestly absurd to speak of secrecy or
stealth in connection with such a journey, or to pretend that the Chief
Secretary of State could have any difficulty in tracing the movements of
a man who travelled in this fashion; and protestations of ignorance
serve only to show that to seem ignorant was thought desirable.
Considerations like these, it will hardly be denied, countenance the
notion that Percy was, in King James's own phrase, a tame duck employed
to catch wild ones. Against such a supposition, however, a grave
objection at once presents itself. Percy was amongst the very first
victims of the enterprise, being one of the four who were killed at
Holbeche when the conspirators were brought to bay.
This, unquestionably, must at first sight appear to be fatal to the
theory of his complicity, and the importance of such a fact should not
be extenuated. At the same time, on further scrutiny, the argument which
it supplies loses much of its force.
It must, in the first place, be remembered, that according to the belief
then current, it was no uncommon thing, as Lord Castlemaine expresses
it[305] the game being secured, to hang the spaniel which caught it,
that its master's art might not appear, and, to cite no other instance,
we have the example of Dr. Parry, who, as Mr. Brewer acknowledges,[306]
was involved in the ruin of those whom he had been engaged to lure to
destruction.
There are, moreover, various remarkable circumstances in regard to the
case of Percy in particular. It was observed at the time as strange and
suspicious that any of the rebels should have been slain at all, for
they were almost defenceless, having no fire-arms; they did not succeed
in killing a single one of their assailants, and might all have been
captured without difficulty. Nevertheless, the attacking party were not
only allowed to shoot, but selected just the wrong men as their mark,
precisely those who, being chiefly implicated in the beginnings of the
Plot, could have afforded the most valuable information,[307] for
besides Percy, were shot down Catesby and the two Wrights,[308] all
deeply implicated from the first. So unaccountable did such a course
appear as at once to suggest sinister interpretations--especially as
regarded the case of Percy and Catesby, who were always held to be the
ringleaders of the band. As Goodman tells us,[309] "Some will not stick
to report that the great statesman sending to apprehend these traitors
gave special charge and direction for Percy and Catesby, 'Let me never
see them alive;' who it may be would have revealed some evil counsel
given." A similar suspicion seems to be insinuated by Sir Edward Hoby,
writing to Edmondes, the Ambassador at Brussels[310]: "Percy is dead:
who it is thought by some particular men could have said more than any
other."
More suspicious still appears the fact that the king's government
thought it necessary to explain how it had come to pass that Percy was
not secured alive, and to protest that they had been anxious above all
for his capture, but had been frustrated by the inconsiderate zeal of
their subordinates. In the "King's Book" we read as follows: "Although
divers of the King's Proclamations were posted down after those Traitors
with all speed possible, declaring the odiousness of that bloody
attempt, and the necessity to have Percy preserved alive, if it had been
possible, ... yet the far distance of the way (which was above an
hundred miles), together with the extreme deepness thereof, joined also
with the shortness of the day, was the cause that the hearty and loving
affection of the King's good subjects in those parts prevented the speed
of his Proclamations."
Such an explanation cannot be deemed satisfactory. The distance to be
covered was about 112 miles, and there were three days to do it, for not
till November 8th were the fugitives surrounded. They in their flight
had the same difficulties to contend with, as are here enumerated, yet
they accomplished their journey in a single day, and they had not, like
the king's couriers, fresh horses ready for them at every post.
But we have positive evidence upon this point. Father Greenway, who was
at the time in the Midlands, close to the scene of action, incidentally
mentions, without any reference to our present question,[311] that while
the rebels were in the field, messengers came post haste continually,
one after the other, from the capital, all bearing proclamations
mentioning Percy by name.
It must also be observed that though the couriers, we are told, could
not in three days get from London to Holbeche to hinder Percy's death,
they contrived to ride in one from Holbeche to London with news that he
was dead.[312]
Another circumstance not easy to explain is, that the man who killed
Percy and Catesby,[313] John Streete by name, received for his service
the handsome pension of two shillings a day for life, equal at least to
a pound of our present money.[314] This is certainly a large reward for
having done the very thing that the government most desired to avoid,
and for an action, moreover, involving no sort of personal risk, killing
two practically unarmed men from behind a tree.[315] If, however, he had
silenced a dangerous witness, it is easy to understand the munificence
of his recompense.
Against Catesby, likewise, there are serious indictments, and it seems
impossible to believe him to have been, as commonly represented, a man,
however blinded by fanaticism, yet honest in his bad enterprise, who
would not stoop to fraud or untruth. It is abundantly evident that on
many occasions he deliberately deceived his associates, and those whom
he called his spiritual guides, making promises which he did not mean to
keep, and giving assurances which he knew to be false.[316] It will be
sufficient to quote one or two examples quite sufficient to stamp him as
a man utterly unscrupulous about the means employed to gain his ends.
On the 5th of November, when, after the failure of the enterprise, he
arrived at Dunchurch, in Warwickshire, Catesby, in order to induce Sir
Everard Digby to commit himself to the hopeless campaign now to be
undertaken, assured him,[317] that though the powder was discovered, yet
the king and Salisbury were killed; all were in "a pother;" the
Catholics were sure to rise in a body, one family alone, the Littletons,
would bring in one thousand men the next day; and so on,--all this
being absolutely untrue. That he had previously employed similar means
on a large scale to inveigle his friends into his atrocious and
senseless scheme, there is much evidence, strongest of all that of
Father Garnet;[318] "I doubt not that Mr. Catesby hath feigned many such
things for to induce others."
Worst of all, we learn from another intercepted letter of Garnet's,
Catesby had for his own purposes circulated an atrocious slander against
Garnet himself, although passing as his devoted disciple and friend:
"Master Catesby," he wrote,[319] "did me much wrong, and hath confessed
that he told them he asked me a question in Q. Elizabeth's time of the
powder action,[320] and that I said it was lawful. All which is most
untrue. He did it to draw in others."
In view of this, and much else of a similar kind, it is difficult to
read Father Gerard's _Narrative_, and more particularly Father
Greenway's additions thereto, without a growing feeling that if Catesby
sought counsel it was with no intention of being guided by it, and that
his sole desire was to get hold of something which might serve his own
purposes.
We have already seen that a great deal of mystery attaches to Francis
Tresham, who is generally supposed to have written the letter to
Monteagle, and was clearly suspected by some of having done a great deal
more; for the author of the _Politician's Catechism_ speaks of him as
having access to Cecil's house even at midnight, along with another
whose name is not given, these two being therefore supposed to have been
the secretary's instruments in all this business. What is certain is,
that Tresham did not fly like the rest when the "discovery" had taken
place, not only remaining in London, and showing himself openly in the
streets, but actually presenting himself to the council, and offering
them his services. Moreover, though his name was known to the
government, at least on November 7th, as one of the accomplices, it was
for several days omitted from their published proclamations, and not
till the 12th was he taken into custody. Being confined in the Tower, he
was shortly attacked by a painful malady, and on December 23rd he died,
as was officially announced, of a "strangury," as Salisbury assures
Cornwallis "by a natural sickness, such as he hath been a long time
subject to."[321] Throughout his sickness he himself and his friends
loudly declared that should he survive it "they feared not the course of
justice."[322] Such confidence, as Mr. Jardine remarks, could be
grounded only on his possession of knowledge which the authorities would
not venture to reveal, and it is not surprising that his death should
have been attributed, by the enemies of the government, to poison. It is
no doubt an argument against such a supposition that during his illness
Tresham was allowed to be attended by his wife and a confidential
servant. On the other hand, not only does Bishop Goodman inform us[323]
that "Butler, the great physician of Cambridge," declared him to have
been poisoned; but the author of _Mischeefes Mystery_, a violent
government partisan, contradicts the notion of a natural death, by
asserting that "Tresham murthered himself in the Tower."
It thus appears, once again, that the more its details are scrutinized,
the less does the traditional history of the Plot commend itself to our
acceptance. It is hard to believe that within the ranks of the
conspirators themselves, there was no treachery, no one who, lending
himself to work the ruin of his associates, unwittingly wrought his own.
* * * * *
The evidence hitherto considered may fitly conclude with the testimony
of a witness living near the time in question, who had evidently been at
pains to make inquiries amongst those most likely to give information.
This is an anonymous correspondent of Anthony a Wood, whose notes are
preserved in Fulman's collection in the library of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford. These remarkable notes have been seen by Fulman, who
inserted in the margin various questions and objections, to which the
writer always supplied precise and definite replies. In the following
version this supplementary information is incorporated in the body of
his statement, being distinguished by italics. The writer, who explains
that his full materials are in the country, speaks thus:[324]
"I should be glad to understand what your friend driveth at about the
Fifth of November. It was, without all peradventure, a State Plot. I
have collected many pregnant circumstances concerning it.
"'Tis certain that the last Earl of Salisbury[325] confessed to William
Lenthal[326] it was his father's contrivance, which Lenthal soon after
told one Mr. Webb (_John Webb, Esq._), a person of quality, and his
kinsman, yet alive.
"Sir Henry Wotton says 'twas usual with Cecil to create plots, that he
might have the honour of the discovery, or to such effect.
"The Lord Mounteagle knew there was a letter to be sent to him before it
came. (_Known by Edmund Church, Esq., his confidant._)
"Sir Everard Digby's sons were both knighted soon after, and Sir Kenelm
would often say it was a State design, to disengage the king of his
promise to the Pope and the King of Spain, to indulge the Catholics if
ever he came to be king here; and somewhat to his purpose was found in
the Lord Wimbledon's papers after his death.[327]
"Mr. Vowell, who was executed in the Rump time, did also affirm it
so.[328]
"Catesby's man (_George Bartlet_),[329] on his death-bed, confessed his
master went to Salisbury House several nights before the discovery, and
was always brought privately in at a back door."
Then, in answer to an objection of Fulman's, is added: "Catesby, 'tis
like, did not mean to betray his friends or his own life--he was drawn
in and made believe strange things. All good men condemn him and the
rest as most desperate wretches; yet most believed the original
contrivance of the Plot was not theirs."
Whatever else may be thought of the above statements, they at least
serve to contradict Mr. Jardine's assertion,[330] that the notion of
Cecil's complicity,--which he terms a strange suggestion, scarce worthy
of notice,--was first heard of long after the transaction, and was
adopted exclusively by Catholics. Clearly it was not unknown to
Protestants who were contemporaries, or personally acquainted with
contemporaries, of the event. Yet the document here cited was known to
Mr. Jardine, who mentions one of its statements, that relating to Lord
Monteagle, but says nothing of its more serious allegations.
It must also be remarked that we find some traces in the evidence which
remains of certain mysterious conspirators of great importance,
concerning whom no investigation whatever appears to have been made,
they being at once permitted to drop into the profoundest obscurity, in
a manner quite contrary to the habitual practice of the authorities.
One such instance is afforded by the testimony of a mariner, Henry
Paris, of Barking,[331] that Guy Faukes, _alias_ Johnson, hired a boat
of him, "wherein was carried over to Gravelines a man supposed of great
import: he went disguised, and would not suffer any one man to go with
him but this Vaux, nor to return with him. This Paris did attend for him
back at Gravelines six weeks. If cause require there are several proofs
of this matter." None of these, however, seem to have been sought.
FOOTNOTES:
[292] That of Mr. Pound.
[293] Jardine, _Criminal Trials_, ii. 38, n.
[294] _E.g._, the author of the _Politician's Catechism_.
[295] "About the time of my Lord Essex his enterprise he became
Catholic" (_i.e._ 1601). Father Gerard, _Narrative_, p. 58.
[296] P.R.O. _Gunpowder Plot Book_, n. 4.
[297] Justice Grange, of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, to Salisbury, November
5th, 1605. Justices of Warwickshire, to the same, November 12th.
[298] MS., f. 31-32.
[299] Tanner MSS., _ut sup._, f. 167.
[300] P.R.O. _Dom. James I._, November 7th, 1605.
[301] The case of Carleton is not without mystery. At the time of the
discovery he was at Paris, as secretary to the English ambassador, but
about the middle of the month was ordered home in hot haste and placed
"in restraint." On February 28th, 1605-6, he wrote to his friend
Chamberlain that he was airing himself on the Chilterns to get rid of
the scent of powder, asking his correspondent to consult a patron as to
his best means of promotion (_Dom. James I._ xviii. 125). Far from being
injured by any suspicion that he might seem to have incurred, he
subsequently rose rapidly in favour, was intrusted with most important
diplomatic missions, and was finally created Viscount Dorchester.
[302] _Court of King James_, i. 105.
[303] To the ambassadors, November 9th.
[304] _Dom. James I._ xv. 106.
[305] _Catholique Apology_, p. 415.
[306] Goodman's _Court of King James_, i. 121, note.
[307] See Goodman's remarks on this subject (_Court of King James_, i.
106). The author of the _Politician's Catechism_ writes: "It is very
certaine that Percy and Catesby might have been taken alive, when they
were killed, but Cecil knew full well that these two unfortunate
Gentlemen would have related the story lesse to his owne advantage, than
himself caused it to be published: therefore they were dispatched when
they might have been made prisoners, having no other weapons, offensive
or defensive, but their swords."
[308] About the death of the Wrights there are extraordinary
contradictions. In the "original" of his famous confession T. Winter
says: "The next shot was the elder Wright, stone dead; after him the
younger Mr. Wright." In _Mischeefes Mystery_ we read that Percy and
Catesby were killed "with a gunne," the two Wrights "with Halberts." The
day after the attack, November 9th, Sir Edward Leigh wrote to the
Council, that the Wrights were not slain, as reputed, but wounded. Not
till the 13th was their death certified by Sir Richard Walsh.
[309] _Court of King James_, i. 106.
[310] Nichols, _Progresses of King James I._, i. 588.
[311] MS., f. 70, b.
[312] Cecil writing to the ambassadors, November 9th, mentions in a
postscript the fate of the rebels.
[313] They were slain by two balls from the same musket.
[314] Warrant, P.R.O.
[315] Father Gerard mentions this circumstance (_Narrative_, p. 110).
[316] This point is well developed in the recent _Life of a
Conspirator_, pp. 120-126.
[317] _Dom. James I._ xvi. 97.
[318] _Dom. James I._, March 4th, 1605-6.
[319] _Gunpowder Plot Book_, 242.
[320] The strange story of a powder-plot under Elizabeth is variously
told. According to one of the mysterious confessions attributed to
Faukes, which have disappeared from the State Papers, Owen told him in
Flanders that one Thomas Morgan had proposed to blow up her majesty
(Abbot, _Antilogia_, 137). The _Memorial to Protestants_ by Bishop
Kennet (1713) says that the man's name was Moody, who wanted the French
ambassador to subsidise him. The idea was to place a 20 lb. bag of
powder under the queen's bed, and explode it in the middle of the night,
but how this was to be managed is not explained.
[321] Winwood, _Memorials_, ii. 189.
[322] Wood to Salisbury, December 23rd, 1605.
[323] _Court of King James_, i. 107.
[324] _Collection_, vol. ii. 15.
[325] William, second earl (born 1591, died 1668), son of the minister
of James I.
[326] Speaker of the Long Parliament.
[327] Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon, third son of Thomas, first Earl
of Exeter (the elder brother of Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury),
died 1638.
[328] Peter Vowell, a Protestant, executed with Colonel John Gerard for
an alleged plot against Cromwell, July 10th, 1654.
[329] "George Bartlett, Mr. Catesby's servant," appears amongst the
suspected persons whose names were sent up to Cecil by the justices of
Warwickshire, November 12th, 1605. (_Gunpowder Plot Book_, 134.)
[330] _Criminal Trials_, ii. 188.
[331] _Gunpowder Plot Book_, 130.