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Still Investigating Gunpowder Plot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Francis Edwards S.J.
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Extract

Dr. Mark Nicholls’s Investigating Gunpowder Plot published in May, 1991, is a useful reminder that Guy Fawkes: the Real Story of the Gunpowder Plot?, to name nothing else published in or near 1969, has by no means found universal acceptance as the more probable solution of the confused evidence surrounding this bizarre episode. This is not surprising. The last mentioned book was written for a wide audience. Thanks no doubt in large measure to the kindly influence of Lady Antonia Fraser it was chosen as the Book of the Month by PUNCH all those years ago. Evidently, such a choice, however desirable in itself, could not be regarded as the highest of recommendations by the world of Academe. Nevertheless, it must be insisted that the book was based on extensive research not only in this country but also abroad, notably in Rome, Florence, Spain, Holland and Belgium. Errors occurred which will need to be corrected in any future edition or new work. Dr. Nicholls, while attempting to refute the basic thesis, was fair enough to admit, ‘such views have found perhaps their most determined and skilful advocate in Fr. Francis Edwards’. But one hopes that an opposing view is based on more than skill, which could be mere forensic adroitness, and on determination which could be another word for obstinacy.

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Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , May 1993 , pp. 305 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

1 Nicholls, Mark, Investigating Gunpowder Plot, Manchester/NY 1991, p. 214 Google Scholar. Hereafter I.G.P.

2 I.G.P, p. 202.

3 Edwards, Francis, S. J., Guy Fawkes: the real story of the Gunpowder Plot?, London 1969. Illustration facing p. 144 Google Scholar. Hereafter The RS?

4 I.G.P., p. 214.

5 P.R.O., Prob. 10/238; 11/107, ff. 74v–76. Cf. I.G.P., p. 216.

6 I.G.P., p. 102. For T. Percy’s relationship with the 9th earl, see [Robert Davies], The Fawkes of York in the 16th century… Westminster 1850, p. 34.

7 Quoted I.G.P., p. 169.

8 I.G.P. passim, especially pp. 85–102, 145–53.

9 The R.S. ?, pp. 103–4. Goldsmid, Edmund, The secret correspondence of Sir Robert Cecil with James VI…, vol. II, Edinburgh 1887, p. 32 Google Scholar. See also, Nicholls, M., ‘Politics and Percies’, Cambridge Ph.D. thesis 1985, especially pp. 103, 105, 113–16, 231, 258.Google Scholar

10 See Croft, Pauline, ‘Serving the Archdukes: Robert Cecil’s management of the parliamentary session of 1606;, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, London, vol. 64, No. 155 (Oct. 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Hereafter B.I.H.R.

11 Calendar Salisbury MSS, XVIII, p. 82.

12 P.R.O., S.P.14, vol. 216, passim. Hereafter G.P.B.

13 Gardiner, S. R., What gunpowder plot was, London 1897, p. 41 Google Scholar. Hereafter S.R.G.

14 I.G.P., pp. 139–40.

15 Quoted I.G.P., p. 102. Cf. p. 141.

16 See Handover, P. M., The Second Cecil…, London 1959 Google Scholar, chapter XXIX, ‘I love not to yield to any toleration’.

17 See Rev. Williams, M. E., The Venerable English College, Rome: a History, 1579–1979, London 1979 Google Scholar; St. Alban’s College, Valladolid, London/N.Y.

18 Aphorisms or certain selected points of the doctrine of the Jesuits with a treatise concerning their secret practices and close studies. All taken out of the writings, sayings and public acts of the Jesuits and other popish doctors; no indication of author, printed in London 1609?, pp. 13–14. The place of printing has been cut out of the copy used here (B.L. T.785[2]), but the author closes on p. 14, ‘At Ausborough [Augsburg ?] 21 of March 1608’.

19 Edwards, F., S.J., ‘The strange case of the poisoned pommel: Richard Walpole, S J, and the Squire plot 1587–1598’, Archivum Historicum SJ, vol. LVI (1987), pp. 1–82.Google Scholar

20 Edwards, F., S.J., The Elizabethan Jesuits, London 1981, p. 279.Google Scholar

21 The R.S. ?, pp. 58–60.

22 Cf. ibidem, p. 46.

23 I.G.P., p. 216.

24 Goodman, Godfrey, The Court of King James the First, Brewer edition, London 1839, pp. 102–3 Google Scholar. Hereafter G.G.

25 The R.S. ?, pp. 73–4.

26 G.G., p. 104.

27 Ibidem, p. 102.

28 The Gentlemen’s Magazine, January 1788, pp. 42–3. Quoted in The R.S. ?, pp. 18–19.

29 Cf. Jardine, David, A narrative of the gunpowder plot, London 1857, pp. 18–19 Google Scholar. Hereafter D.J. A narrative.

30 Bodleian Library, Oxford, M.S. Bodleian CCC, 297, f. 34.

31 H.M.C. Varia III (1904), p. 147.

32 P.R.O., SP14/16, Nos. 94–95.

33 See The R.S. ? p. 160.

34 I.G.P., p. 216. See also Jardine, David, Criminal Trials, II, London 1835, p. 104 Google Scholar; H.R.W., pp. 196–8.

35 The R.S. ?, chapter 20. Note especially the photographs 2–4 printed between pp. 144–5. These should be sufficiently clear to check the points made here. See also, Jardine, , Criminal Trials, II, p. 104 Google Scholar and Williamson, H. R., The gunpowder plot, London 1951, pp. 196–8 Google Scholar. Hereafter H.R.W.

36 William Vavasour, younger brother of George and son of Thomas, was employed by Francis Tresham as a clerk or secretary. Thomas had been Sir Thomas Tresham’s bailiff or collector who handled especially his cattle and corn transactions. George was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1596. See George Blacker Morgan, The Great English Treason for Religion known as Gunpowder Plot … Oxford (privately printed) 1931, 2 vols. Hereafter G.B.M. See vol. 1, pp. 6, 40, 41, 253.

37 P.R.O., G.P.B. No. 207. See photo 2 in The R.S. ?, at p. 144.

38 Sir William Lane was a Northamptonshire J.P. who with Waad privately examined William Vavasour in the Tower. Lane was given Ashby St. Leger’s (G.B.M. II, P- 136). This, of course, strongly suggests a quid pro quo. Evidently, a determined effort was made to keep the name of Anne Tresham out of the story. That William Vavasour was made to say that he wrote Francis Tresham’s ‘dying’ note provided the organisers with a hand skilled enough in forgery or altered hands to have written the MonteagIe letter. Vavasour insisted that Anne Tresham wrote the ‘dying’ letter (G.P.B./207). ‘Salisbury, although he saw every witness of any importance himself, yet would not see [William] Vavasour nor Mistress Tresham’ (G.B.M., II, P. 136). Anne was a Tufton, but the Tufton MSS. as they have survived relate only to properties scattered through four counties. ‘[E]ndorsements on the deeds suggest that there was a careful sorting of all the documents, possibly in the 17th century, but in 1917 Mrs. D. O. Shelton and Dr. G. C. Williamson prepared a detailed schedule of the whole’ (N.R.A. 4391, The Tufton MSS, Kent R.O.).

39 British Library, Stowe MS. 168, f. 261r. Did this letter have anything to do with Carleton’s recall and house-arrest after his return to England? Certainly, as Carleton was Northumberland’s secretary, Salisbury had a sufficient reason for his arrest as a man who might know too much. Carleton wrote to Salisbury on December 25, 1605, begging enlargement: ‘innocency is a bold solicitor’. Cal. Sal. MSS, XVII, p. 560.

40 The gunpowder plot: the narrative of Oswald Tesimond alias Greenaway, translated from the Italian of the Stonyhurst MS [MS A.IV.4]… by Francis Edwards, S.J., The Folio Society, London 1973, pp. 250–3. Facsimile letters aid comparison.

41 P.R.O., Docquet Book of the Signet Office, Index 6802, unfoliated, entries in chronological order.

42 The R.S. ?, p. 208.

43 Matthew Bruninge to ?, 30.ix.1608, Salisbury MS, C.P. 196/61.

44 Bruninge’s claim to be busy could be true. Further items in Tresham’s hand of documents presumably copied for Cornwallis are SP94/13/1, ff. 62r–63v; 85r–86v. A most interesting item at Hatfield is the copy of a letter by an unknown member of parliament appealing to a Scottish lord who had saved the king in Scotland from ‘the hands of a wicked and treacherous traitor, to save them likewise from the rapacity of the ministers of state’ he had appointed in England; Hatfield MS CP/140, f. 121r/v.

45 G.P.B., No. 210, a.l.s. See The R.S. ? facing p. 144.

46 G.P.B., No. 211. Cf. The R.S. ?, ibidem.

47 G.P.B., No. 205, a.l.s. with title and date supplied by E. Coke.

48 Carswell, Donald (Ed.),The trial of Guy Fawkes…, London 1934, pp. 185–6 Google Scholar. Hereafter Carswell

49 Ibidem.

50 Ibidem, p. 187.

51 Ibidem, p. 154.

52 G.P.B., No. 207 and 210. Cf. The R.S. ?, photos 2 and 3 at p. 144.

53 See The R.S. ?, photo 3, extract 3, at p. 144. The MS. is in the Northampton R.O., Bru.K.xiv.8. Published by Joan Wake as ‘The death of Francis Tresham’, Northamptonshire Past and Present, II (1954), pp. 36–41.

54 J. Wake, op.cit., p. 36.

55 Ibidem, p. 37.

56 D.J., A narrative…, p. 9.

57 J. Wake, op.cit., p. 38.

58 Ibidem.

59 Pauline Croft: see n. 10 above.

60 Presumably The first book of the Christian Exercize appertayning to Resolution… or The Second Part of the Booke of the Christian Exercize appertayning to Resolution. Or a Christian Directorie guiding all men into their salvation. This was a popular work running into many editions and plagiarised by the protestants. See British Library Catalogue 1963, vol. 181, cols. 154–6.

61 J. Wake, op.cit., p. 39.

62 Ibidem, p. 40.

63 Ibidem.

64 Quoted H.R.W., p. 198.

65 Brit. Lib., Add. MS 11402, summary of the Privy Council Register, 1550–1610, f. 109. Cecil’s original letter replying to Waad’s of 23.xii.1605 is missing.

66 S.P. 14/17, No. 62.

67 G.B.M., II, p. 129. G.B.M. also cites Stow’s Chronicle, p. 880.

68 Ibidem.

69 The R.S. ?, p. 129.

70 T. Wintour’s authentic handwriting and signatures are given in facsimile in Very Rev. Gerard, John, S.J., Thomas Winter’s [sic] Confession and the Gunpowder Plot, London 1898, pp. 13–23.Google Scholar

71 Jardine, Trials, vol. 2, p. 4.

72 Salisbury M.S.S., vol. 112, No. 149.

73 G.P.B./163, signed by Fawkes, Popham, Coke, Waad.

74 P.R.O., SP77/8, part 2, ff. 221v–222r.

75 P.R.O., SP14/19, f. 222r/v. Undated. Cecil’s hand.

76 PR.O. G.P.B., No. 169.

77 P.R.O., G.P.B., No. 166.

78 I.G.P., p. 221, n. 7.

79 Tesimond narrative, appendix 2, pp. 247–9.

80 Winwood’s Memorials, II, p. 171. Cf The RS ?, p. 188.

81 P.R.O., SP14/19, f. 222r.

82 Ibidem.

83 I.G.P., p. 217.

84 G.P.B., Nos. 241–6; printed in Foley’s, Records of the English Province SJ, IV, pp. 106–10.Google Scholar

85 P.R.O., SP14/24, No. 38, original. According to Miss Penelope Renold, ‘though the hand is not like that in No. 37, s. to s., n.d., the signature is the same. However, as the man owns to being a counterfeiter of hands, and the matter of his letter seems to preclude his having used another man to write it, it seems probable that it is one version of his own hand. Spelling modernised’.

86 Arch. Rom. S.J., Anglia.38.II, ff. 177–9 (Grene ms).

87 Barlow, Thomas (ed.), The gunpowder treason, with a discourse of the manner of its discovery… London 1679 Google Scholar. Sir Everard Digby’s letters and papers, allegedly discovered in 1675, are on pp. 229–63.

88 ‘Confession of Thomas Harisone concerning the conspiracy against Mary’, Calendar of Scottish Papers, IX, No. 429.

89 Ibidem.

90 I.G.P., p. 51.

91 I.G.P., pp. 63–73.

92 I.G.P., p. 72.

93 In 1903, Canon Dasbach, a German secular priest and friend of the S.J., offered a prize of 2,000 florins to anyone who could find a defence of the doctrine in any Jesuit publication. Count von Hoensbroech, an ex-Jesuit, accepted the challenge but failed to meet it; cf. T. J. Campbell, S. J., The Jesuits: 1534–1921, Milford House, Inc., reprint, Boston 1971, p. 287–289.

94 Tytler, P. F., History of Scotland, Edinburgh 1841, VII, pp. 311 Google Scholar et seq.; VIII, p. 329; Leader, J. D., Mary Queen of Scots in Captivity, 1880, p. 556.Google Scholar

95 Letters of P. Claudio Aquaviva, unfoliated, include 2 copies of the decree against discussing the doctrine of tyrannicide of 1 .viii. 1614; A.R.S.J., Fo. Gesuitico, 703/2A.

96 Cf. Henri Fouqueray, Histoire de la C.ie de Jesus en France, tom.II, Ch.VI, especially p. 384 and tom.III, pp. 239–40.

97 R. Persons’s clearest disapproval of tyrannicide or assassination as a practical expedient, as against John Hus and John Knox, comes in The warn-word to Sir Francis Hastinges wastword: conteyning the issue of three former treateses… [Antwerp] 1602, part II, 19–20. Nothing in what survives of R.P.’s correspondence deals with this issue.

98 H. Fouqueray, op.cit., tom.III, p. 688.

99 A. Loomie, S.J., Guy Fawkes in Spain… B.I.H.R., Supplement 9, November 1971.

100 Ibidem, p. 45.

101 P.R.O., SP14/21, No. 6: L. Monck’s account of the plot with corrections in Cecil’s hand, 8 pages.

102 Loomie, G.F. in Spain, p. 1. The act of attainder was printed in London in 1606: S.T.C. 9502.

103 Loomie, ibidem, p. 45.

104 Archivo de Stato, Simancas, E.2512, 96–8; quoted Loomie, ibidem, p. 26.

105 English College Archives, Valladolid, Series II, Legajo 2; quoted Loomie, ibidem.

106 Garnet burnt the breves of 1600 as soon as James’s accession was peacefully proclaimed. Elizabeth died about 3 a.m. on March 24,1603. James was proclaimed at Cheapside by R. Cecil at 10 a.m. the same day. Cf. P.R.O., SP14/19/ No. 44 and G.B.M., I, p. 117.

107 Cf. Loomie, ibidem, p. 21.

108 Claud Aquaviva to H. Garnet, 25.vi.1605, contemporary copy, Latin: Arch,Rom.S.J., Fondo Gesuitico 651/624.

109 John Gerard, S.J., to Lennox, 23.i.1605/6, English; P.R.O., SP14/18, No. 35. Endorsed in Cecil’s hand, ‘Gerard the Jesuit to the Duke of Lennox’.

110 Cf. Tesimond narrative, p. 159, n.*

111 Carswell, Trial of G.F., p. 66.

112 Ibidem, p. 68.

113 Ibidem, p. 72.

114 P.R.O., SP14/20, No. 12, n.d.; quoted J. H. Pollen, p. 44.

115 Published in Morris, John, S.J., The condition of catholics under James I, vol. 2, London 1872.Google Scholar

116 Tesimond/Greenway narrative; see n. 36.

117 T/G narrative, p. 137.

118 Cornwallis to Salisbury, xi(?). 1606. Quoted Loomie, G.F, in Spain, p. 47.

119 Ibidem, pp. 192, 230 and notes.

120 P.R.O., W.O. 49/31. Dr. Rodger gave a more detailed account of his find in ‘Ordnance records and the gunpowder plot’, B.I.H.R., LIII(1980), pp. 124–5.

121 P.R.O., W.O. 49/31, f. 93.

122 Smith, J. T., Antiquities of Westminster, London 1807 Google Scholar gives detailed drawings of the Old Palace which were in process of redevelopment even before the fire of 1838. See also S.R.G., chapter 4, ‘Structural difficulties’ and John Gerard, S.J., What was G.P.?, chapter 4. Further illustrations in The RS ?, photos 2–4 between pp. 80–81.

123 Charles Knight, ed., London, E. Walford’s revised edition, vol. VI, London n.d., p. 122.

124 A serious explosion took place on a Dublin Quay in March. 1597, involving six lasts of powder. ‘The ruin of the town was exceeding great’; P.R.O. S.P. 63 (Ireland)/198, No. 21; cf. The R.S. ?, pp. 143–4.

125 P.R.O., SP14/16, No. 69. Quoted The RS ?, p. 188.

126 P.R.O., W.O., 49/31, f. 100r.

127 The R.S. ? p. 125; G.P.B./136, ‘The examination of Ambrose Rookwood, Esq., December 2,1605’, signed by Rookwood, countersigned by Popham, Coke and Waad; endd, in Waad’s hand.

128 G.P.B. No. 136.

129 Cf. G.P.B. 6 and J. Gerard, What was GP ?, pp. 272–3. There is more work to do on the Lambeth house. The various editions of John Stow’s The Survey of London, including J. Strype’s, provide no clues. According to Walford, Edward, Old and New London, vol. vi, London 1885, p. 425 Google Scholar, ‘Guy Fawkes, too, it is said, had a house in Lambeth where he and his fellows in the “Gunpowder Plot” stored their ammunition. If this really was ever the case, its site is forgotten’. However, on p. 391, the fourth of four etched illustrations shows the ‘Conspirators’ house’, a substantial building which could have been Northumberland’s. But there is no mention of a property of his in Lambeth by either Stow or Walford. Apart from G.P.P., there seems to be no association of Lambeth with a conspiracy of this kind.

130 The R.S. ?, pp. 206, 208. The ‘confession’ of 5 November is G.P.B./6. ‘John Jude’ also seems to have copied G.P.B./38 from G.P.B./37. Apart from the overall resemblance of the hands, ‘Jude’ had a very idiosyncratic lower-case ‘d’. the upright stroke is quite straight and joins the round almost like a tangent to a circle. ‘Jude’ remains to be identified.

131 John Johnson’s examination of 6.xi. is G.P.B./16A. The examination of Roger James is G.P.B./40.

132 G.P.B./20, a.l.s., 2 pages.

133 Cf. J. Gerard, What was G.P. ?, p. 272.

134 Carswell, 112.

135 Quoted H.R.W., p. 167. This corresponds more or less with Cecil’s information for Sir Thomas Parry in Paris; S.P.78/52, f. 340r.

136 Winwood, Memorials. …, II, p. 172; cf.BL, Cotton M.S.S. Vespasian C.IX, ff. 240r–6v; Stonyhurst M.S. C.II.7, pp. 39–42.

137 G.P.B./37, John Johnson’s answers to James Fs interrogatories. These are in G.P.B. 17 and 18.

138 G.P.B./37. In the hand of a clerk, all in the 3rd person. G.P.B./38 is a copy in the hand of ‘John Jude’. See n. 111 above. Twenty-one answers to interrogatories. Each begins, ‘he confesseth…’ ‘Jude’ varies the spelling in his copy but the meaning is substantially the same in both.

139 W. Waad to Salisbury, 8.xi.1605; G.P.B./488, a.l.s.

140 S. to s., 9.XI, 1605, from the Tower; G.P.B./53, a.l.s.

141 G.P.B./49.

142 G.P.B./50, ff. 85r–6v.

143 G.P.B./101: formerly in the P.R.O. Museum, Wallcase IV.4, now reinserted in the G.P.B. Fr. W. K. L. Webb noticed that the endorsement ‘as first added read “Nov. 17 1605”, At some time later “17” was scored through and replaced by “8”… In the Tanner MSS. at the Bodleian are a number of gunpowder plot transcripts made by Archbishop Sancroft. One of them is the first few lines of SP14/216, No. 101, after which Sancroft broke off with the remark, “This is the same as that of the 8th which was published”. He was wrong, for the Fawkes confession published in December 1605 in the “King’s Book” was that made by Munck with the date 17 November; typescript note addition to G.P.B., f. 84r.

144 G.P.B./100.

145 Forset, Edward, A comparative discourse of the bodies natural and politique, London 1606, p. 53 Google Scholar. Forset enjoyed, or came to enjoy, considerable trust. Waad had permission under the Signet given at Westminster (18.vii.An.7, Jac.I) to absent himself from the Tower for not more than a month or 40 days in the year. In his absence, Sir Roger Dallison, Sir John Kay and Edward Forset, or any two of them, were to be in charge; BL Add.M.S. 14,044, f. 3r.

146 G.P.B./54, f. 90r/v. Formerly in the P.R.O. Museum, Wallcase IV.4. Now restored to the G.P.B.

147 Ibidem.

148 Ibidem.

149 Ibidem. The R.S. ? took the view that Fawkes and Thomas Wintour both went along with the other agents provocateurs but this is only an interpretation of inadequate evidence and far from certain.

150 J. Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton, 2.vii.l612; SP14/70, No. 1. Cf.Cal.S.P.Dom., 1611–1618, p. 136.

151 Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, vol.XII, art. on the G.P.P., p. 729.

152 B.L., Add.M.S. 35, 839 (Hardwicke papers 491), f. 351r, from Florence, 28.ix.1773.

153 Ibidem, Letter of 12.x.1773, f. 351v.

154 Ibidem, f. 352r.

155 Ibidem, f. 353r.

156 Ibidem, f. 352v. As archivist in charge of the central archives of the S.J. in Rome from 1986 to 1989, I took some trouble to see if there was anything on the gunpowder plot of special interest so far undiscovered but found nothing of notable significance, and certainly not to affect this thesis one way or the other, apart from what has been given above.

157 Ibidem, f. 353v.

158 The Italian History Seminar of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, in conjunction with L’École Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sciences Religieuses), Paris, conducted a seminar from January 7 to 9, 1991, on ‘The expulsion and the suppression of the Jesuits in the 18th century as a European and colonial problem’. It is hoped that the papers, which cast much light on a number of questions, will be published.

159 G.P.B.,D. Jardine to Robert Lemon, 17.xi. 1857, from Bow Street, a.l.s. Inserted at the beginning of the G.P.B. Jardine was a police magistrate.

160 P. Croft, ‘Serving the archdukes…’ (See n. 10 above), p. 297.

161 Ibidem.

162 Cf. Ibidem, p. 301.

163 Cf. Ibidem, p. 302.

164 Loomie, A. J., The Spanish Elizabethans, Fordham 1963, p. 89 Google Scholar. See also pp. 87–90.

165 Edwards, F., ‘The attempt on Hugh Owen…’ Recusant History, XVII(1984–5), pp. 140–57.Google Scholar

166 A. J. Loomie, op.cit., pp. 91–2.

167 See The R.S. ?, chapter 8.

168 Sir Thomas Edmondes to Salisbury, 13.v.1607, from Brussels: B.L., Stowe M.S.S., 68, ff. 31v–32r, draft; P.R.O., SP/77, vol. 8, part II, ff. 291r–2v, original dispatch. See also Maurus Lunn, O.S.B., ‘Chaplains to the English regiment in Spanish Flanders 1605–1606’, Recusant History, vol. 11(1971), pp. 133–155.