Gunpowder Plot

Nugae Antiquitae Volume 1 Page 371. [6th January 1606]. Lord Harington (age 66) to Sir John Harington, at Bathe.

Much respected Cosin,

Our great care and honourable charge, entrusted to us by the Kings Majesty, hath been matter of so much concern, that it almost effaced the attention to kyn or friend. With Gods assistance we hope to do our Lady Elizabeth (age 9)¹ such service as is due to her princely endowments and natural abilities; both which appear the sweet dawning of future comfort to her royal father. The late divilish conspiracy² did much disturb this part. The King hath got at much truth from the mouths of the crew themselves; for guilt hath no peace, nor can there be guilt like theirs. One hath confessed that he had many meetings at Bathe about this hellish design; you will do his Majesty unspeakable kindness, to watch in your neighbourhood, and give such intelligence as may furnish inquiry. We know of some evil-minded catholics in the west, whom the prince of darkness hath in alliance; God ward them from such evil, or seeking it to others. Ancient history doth shew the heart of man in divers forms: we read of states overthrown by craft and subtilty; of Princes slain in field and closet; of strange machinations devised by the natural bent of evil hearts; but no page can tell such a horrid tale as this. Well doth the wise man say, that "the wicked imagineth mischeif in secret." What, dear cosin, coud be more secret or more wicked? A wise King and wise council of a nation at one blow destroyed in such wise as was now intended, is not matchable. It shameth Caligula, Erostratus, Nero, and Domitian, who were but each of them fly-killers to these wretches. Can it be said that religion did suggest these designs; did the spirit of truth work in these mens hearts? How much ia their guilt encreasd by such protesting! I cannot but mark the just appointment of Heaven in the punishing of these desperate men, who fled to our neighbourhood; you hear they sufferd themselves by the very means they had contrived for others. A barrel of gunpowder was set on fire during the time that the house was besieged, and killed two or three on the spot; so just is the vengeance of God! I have seen some of the chief [Robert Catesby and Thomas Percy], and think they bear an evil mark in their foreheads, for more terrible countenances never were looked upon. His Majesty did sometime desire to see these men, but said he felt himself sorely appaird at the thought, and so forbare. I am not yet recoverd from the fever occasioned by these disturbances. I went with Sir Fulk Grevile (age 51)³ to alarm the neighbourhood, and surprize the villains, who came to Holbach; was out five days in peril of death, in fear for the great charge I left at home. Wynter⁴ hath confessed their design to surprize the Princess at my house, if their wickedness had taken place at London. Some of them say, she woud have been proclaimed Queen. Her Highness doth often say, "What a Queen shoud I have been by this means? I had rather have been with my royal father in the Parliament-house, than wear his crown on such condition." This poor lady hath not yet recoverd the surprize, and is very ili and troubled.

Note 1. Daughter of James I (age 39), afterward Queen of Bohemia.

Note 2. The gunpowder-plot.

Note 3. Afterward Lord Brooke, who was "stabbed to death with a knife by his servant, Sept. 1, 1628." Smith's Obituary in Bibl. Sloan.

Note 4. There were two Winters concerned ip this conspiracy, Thomas and Robert (age 38).

State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason. The Trials of ROBERT WINTER, THOMAS WINTER, GUY FAWKES, JOHN GRANT, AMBROSE ROOKWOOD, ROB. KEY ES, THOMAS BATES, and Sir EVERARD DIGBY, at Westminster, for High Treason, being Conspirators in the Gunpowder-Plot: 3 Jac. I. 27th Jan. A. D. 1606.

On 27th January 1606 the trial of the conspirators took place at Westminster Hall [Map].

The Commissioners were: Earl of Nottingham (age 70), Suffolk (age 44), Worcester (age 56), Devonshire (age 43), Northampton (age 65), Salisbury (age 42), John Popham (age 75), the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Thomas Fleming (age 61), Peter Warburton (age 66), knight, one of the Justices of the Common Pleas.

The Effect of the Indictment.

THAT whereas our Sovereign Lord the King (age 39) had, by the Advice and Assent of his Council, for divers weighty and urgent Occasions concerning, his Majesty, the State, and Defence of the Church and Kingdom of England, appointed a Parliament to be holden at his City of Westminster; That Henry Garnet (age 50), Superior of the Jesuits within the Realm of England, (called also by the several names of Wally, Darcy, Roberts, Farmer, and Henry Philips), Oswald Tesmond Jesuit (age 43), otherwise called Oswald Greenwell, John Gerrard Jesuit (age 41), (called also by the several names of Lee and Brooke), Robert Winter (age 38), Thomas Winter (age 35), Gentlemen, Guy Fawkes (age 35) Gent. otherwise called Guy Johnson, Robert Keyes (age 41) Gent. and Thomas Bates Yeoman, late Servant to Robert Catesby Esquire; together with the said Robert Catesby and Thomas Percy Esquires, John Wright and Christopher Wright Gentlemen, in open Rebellion and Insurrection against his Majesty, lately slain, and Francis Tresham Esq; lately dead; as false Traitors against our said Sovereign Lord the King, did traitorously meet and assemble themselves together; and being so met, the said Henry Garnet, Oswald Tesmond, John Gerrard, and other Jesuits, did maliciously, falsly, and traitorously move and persuade as well the said Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, Robert Keyes, and Thomas Bates, as the said Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy, John Wright, Christopher Wright, and Francis Tresham, That our said Sovereign Lord the King, the Nobility, Clergy, and whole Commonalty of the Realm of England, (Papists excepted) were Hereticks; and that all Hereticks were accursed and excommunicate; and that none Heretick could be a King; but that it was lawful and meritorious to kill our said Sovereign Lord the King, and all other Hereticks within this Realm of England, for the Advancing and Enlargement of the pretended and usurped Authority and Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, and for the restoring of the superstitious Romish Religion within this Realm of England.

State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason. Note. All eight Conspirators were to be hanged, drawn and quartered. The narrative provides the rationale for why this particlar punishment was applied.

The Conclusion shall be from the admirable Clemency and Moderation of the King, in that howsoever these Traitors have exceeded all others their Predecessors in Mischief, and so Crescente Malitia crescere debuit et Pæna; yet neither will the King exceed the usual Punishment of Law, nor invent any new Torture or Torment for them; but is graciously pleased to afford them as well an ordinary Course of Trial, as an ordinary Punishment, much inferior to their Offence.

And surely worthy of Observation is the Punishment by Law provided and appointed for High-Treason, which we call Crimen læsæ Majestatis.

For first, after a Traitor hath had his just Trial, and is convicted and attainted, he shall have his Judgement to be drawn to the place of Execution from his Prison, as being not worthy any more to tread upon the Face of the Earth whereof he was made:

Also for that he hath been retrograde to Nature, therefore is he drawn backward at a Horse-Tail. And whereas God hath made the Head of Man the highest and most supreme Part, as being his chief Grace and Ornament, Pronaque cum spectent Animalia cætera terram, Os homini sublime dedit; he must be drawn with his Head declining downward, and lying so near the Ground as may be, being thought unfit to take benefit of the common Air.

For which Cause also he shall be strangled, being hanged up by the Neck between Heaven and Earth, as deemed unworthy of both, or either; as likewise, that the Eyes of Men may behold, and their Hearts contemn him.

Then he is to be cut down alive, and to have his Privy Parts cut off and burnt before his Face, as being unworthily begotten, and unfit to leave any Generation after him. His Bowels and inlay'd Parts taken out and burnt, who inwardly had conceived and harboured in his heart such horrible Treason. After, to have his Head cut off, which had imagined the Mischief. And lastly, his Body to be quartered, and the Quarters set up in some high and eminent Place, to the View and Detestation of Men, and to become a Prey for the Fowls of the Air.

And this is a Reward due to Traitors, whose Hearts be hardened: For that it is Physic of State and Government, to let out corrupt Blood from the Heart. But, Pænitentia vera numquam, sera sed pænitentia sera raro vera: True Repentance is indeed never too late; but late Repentance is seldom found true: Which yet I pray the merciful Lord to grant unto them, that having a Sense of their Offences, they may make a true and sincere ConFession both for their Souls Health, and for the Good and Safety of the King and this State. And for the rest that are not yet apprehended, my Prayer to God is, Ut aut convertantur ne pereant, aut confundantur ne noceant; that either they may be converted, to the End they perish not, or else confounded, that they hurt not.

After this by the Direction of Master Attorney-General, were their several Examinations (subscribed by themselves) shewed particularly unto them, and acknowledged by them to be their own, and true, wherein every one had confessed the Treason. Then did Master Attorney desire, That albeit that which had been already done and confessed at the Bar, might be all-sufficient for the Declaration and Justification of the Course of Justice then held, especially seeing we have Reos confitentes, the Traitors own voluntary ConFessions at the Bar; yet for further Satisfaction to so great a Presence and Audience, and their better Memory of the Carriage of these Treasons, the voluntary and free ConFessions of all the said several Traitors in writing subscribed with their own proper Hands, and acknowledged at the Bar, by themselves to be true, were openly and distinctly read; By which, amongst other things, it appeared that Bates was absolved for what he undertook concerning the Powder-Treason, and being therein warranted by the Jesuits. Also it appeared, that Hammond the Jesuit, after that he knew the Powder-Treason was discovered, and that these Traitors had been in actual Rebellion, confessed them, and gave them Absolution: And this was on Thursday the 7th of November.

Here also was Mention made by Master Attorney of the Confessions of Watson and Clarke, Seminary Priests, upon their Apprehension; who affirmed, that there was some Treason intended by the Jesuits, and then in Hand; as might appear.

Note 1 By their continual negotiating at that Time with Spain, which they assured themselves tended to nothing but a preparation for a foreign Commotion.

Note 2 By their collecting and gathering together such great Sums of Money, as then they had done, therewith to levy an Army when Time should serve.

Note 3 For that sundry of the Jesuits had been tampering with Catholicks, as well to dissuade them from Acceptance of the King at his first coming, saying, That they ought rather to Die, than to admit of any Heretick (as they continually termed his Majesty) to the Crown; and that they might not, under pain of Excommunication, accept of any but a Catholick for their Sovereign; as also to dissuade Catholicks from their Loyalty after the State was settled.

Lastly, In that they had both bought up store of great Horses throughout the Country, and conveyed Powder and Shot, and Artillery secretly to their Friends; wishing them not stir, but keep themselves quiet until they heard from them.

After the reading of their several Examinations, ConFessions, and voluntary Declaration as well of themselves, as of some of their dead Confederates, they were all by the Verdict of the Jury found guilty of the Treasons contained in their Indictment.