COLEGIO DE BACHILLERES PLANTEL ECATEPEC 19
... COLEGIO DE BACHILLERES PLANTEL ECATEPEC 19 SEMESTER 2nd Student's name: ______________________________ Group: ______ ...
... COLEGIO DE BACHILLERES PLANTEL ECATEPEC 19 SEMESTER 2nd Student's name: ______________________________ Group: ______ ...
Babington Plot
The Babington Plot was a plot in 1586 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, a Protestant, and put the rescued Mary, Queen of Scots, her Roman Catholic cousin, on the English throne. It led to the execution of Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland as a direct result of a letter sent by Queen Mary (who had been imprisoned for 18 years since 1568 in England at the behest of Queen Elizabeth) in which she consented directly to the assassination of Elizabeth.The long-term goal of the plot was the invasion of England by the Spanish forces of King Philip II and the Catholic League in France, leading to the restoration of the old religion. The plot was discovered by Elisabeth's ""spymaster"" Sir Francis Walsingham and used to entrap Queen Mary for the purpose of removing her as a claimant to the English throne.The chief conspirators were Sir Anthony Babington, a young recusant nobleman targeted by Ballard; John Ballard, a Jesuit priest who desired to rescue the Scottish Queen; Robert Poley; Gilbert Gifford, and Thomas Phelippes, a Walsingham spy agent and cryptanalyst. The turbulent Catholic deacon Gifford had been in Walsingham's service since the end of 1585 or the beginning of 1586. Gifford obtained a letter of introduction to Queen Mary from a confidant and spy for her, Thomas Morgan. Walsingham then placed double agent Gifford and spy decipherer Phelippes inside Chartley Castle, where Queen Mary was imprisoned. Gifford organised the Walsingham plan to place Babington's and Queen Mary's encrypted communications into a beer barrel cork which were then intercepted by Phelippes, decoded and sent to Walsingham.Ballard was attempting to recruit Babington in an undeveloped scheme to rescue Queen Mary and place her on the throne of England by killing Queen Elizabeth. Babington sent a coded letter to the imprisoned Queen Mary, which gave his name to the complicated multiple-sided plot.On 7 July 1586, the only Babington letter that was sent to Queen Mary was decoded by the spy Phelippes. Queen Mary responded in code on 17 July ordering the would-be rescuers to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. The response letter also included deciphered phrases indicating her desire to be rescued: ""The affairs being thus prepared"" and ""I may suddenly be transported out of this place"". At the Fotheringay trial in October 1586, Queen Elizabeth's Secretary of State William Cecil and Walsingham used the letter against Queen Mary who refused to admit that she was guilty. But she was betrayed by her secretaries Nau and Curle who confessed under pressure that the letter was mainly truthful, a fact not denied by Antonia Fraser, the most important modern biographer of Mary. (Fraser is in general a big defender of Mary Stuart but not in this case.) To understand Mary's decision to accept the murder of Elizabeth, a few facts should be taken into account. First there was a conflict of 20 years between the two women, a conflict that was both political, religious and personal. It was not the first time that Mary had conspired against Elizabeth who in return treated Mary in a very harsh way. Second, Mary was the queen of France and Scotland, had had a court of more than 1000 servants, was considered the most beautiful woman in Europe and was the darling of the Renaissance Period, all of which she lost because of her English captivity. In 1586, Mary was a prisoner for 20 years who had lost her freedom, her son, her kingdom and her social life. She was a sick invalid, a very large overweight woman with a double chin who was unable to move without help; she was cut from any contact with her son who had betrayed her; her social life was mainly confined to her bed and room, where she spent almost all her time because of her health problems, under heavy guard with no outside contact; finally, if she was taken to another prison, it was in a closed litter under heavy guard to cut her from any interaction with the people of England. To understand Mary's frame of mind, we must consider, as Antonia Fraser put it, that a woman who lost everything saw a chance not only to escape her intolerant captivity, which could have continued for another 20 years, but also to achieve her ideal of a Catholic Restoration in England. Such a restoration was Mary's main aim in life, at least in her captive years.