Cassell's History of England, Vol. 2 (of 8) / From the Wars of the Roses to the Great Rebellion

by Anonymous

The conspirators proposed to meet during the darkness of night at Greenwich; but the reflection that there were three hundred armed gentlemen within the Palace, made that appear too hazardous; they, therefore, altered their plan, and concluded to seize James as he was hunting at Hanworth, and where he was accustomed to call for refreshment at a gentleman's house. The plan, as communicated by Watson to the conspirators, was to assemble in a numerous body under pretence of presenting a petition to James as he went out hunting, seize the king, and convey him to a place of safety, where they were to extort from him a declaration of liberty of conscience. With the king in their hands, they would then wreak their vengeance on Cecil and Sir George Howe; and it was afterwards charged against them in the indictment, that they meant to make Watson lord chancellor, Brooke, the brother of Cobham—who was a most unprincipled man, and has been suspected of being Cecil's spy and tool on the occasion—lord treasurer, Markham secretary, and Grey earl marshal. Probably this was the scheme devised for them by the accusers, for it appears too wild for belief; but be that as it may, the 24th of June was the day named for the attempt, when the refusal of Lord Grey caused it to be abandoned, and the party separated with much mutual recrimination.

But Watson had already proceeded to a length which led to the revelation of the plot to Cecil. He had endeavoured to engage in it the Society of the Jesuits, and had communicated his plans to a Jesuit of the name of Gerard. The Society not only refused to sanction the conspiracy, but the archpriest went at once and revealed it to Cecil. The crafty minister kept his information close, and resolved to let the conspirators go on till the very day for the execution of their design, so that he might the more summarily convict them; but the failure of their plan left him no further reason for delay, and Anthony Copley, one of the "Bye," was arrested, as a man well known to be of a timid character and likely in his terror to betray his associates. Cecil had probably plenty of intelligence of both the plan and its agitators from others as well as from Gerard, and most probably from Brooke. But with great judgment he neglected no means of making the conspirators furnish evidence against each other, and thus he kept his own sources of knowledge secret. On the heels of Copley's arrest, followed, as a natural consequence, the arrest of Griffin, Markham, the priests Watson and Clarke, and the rest of Copley's associates. Cecil said that the mere fact of Brooke being in the conspiracy made him feel certain that Cobham, Raleigh, and Northumberland were in it. They were therefore apprehended separately; and, by playing on the fears of the fallen Cobham, Cecil speedily made him incriminate Raleigh.

ST. THOMAS'S TOWER AND TRAITORS' GATE, TOWER OF LONDON.

The coronation of the king, which took place on the 25th of July, being his saint's day, the festival of St. James, and the violence of the plague, which caused the king to flee into the country, postponed the trials of the conspirators. The Court, followed by the judges and their suitors, fled from place to place for several months, pursued by the plague; and it was not till November that the trials took place in the castle at Winchester. Another cause had, perhaps still more than the plague, deferred them. Aremberg was deeply implicated, but his intrigues could not be opened up whilst he was in the country, nor could an order be issued directing him to leave, without embarrassing the public relations with Spain. But in October he left, and on the 15th of November the trials of the conspirators commenced. The accomplices of the "Bye"—Brooke, Brookesby, Markham, Copley, Watson, and Clarke, with others—were all condemned on their own confessions, for they had been so managed that they not only accused each other, but made the most ample confessions of their own guilt, as if each thought he should obtain pardon by discovering most. These confessions, which had been carefully compiled, were put in as evidence against them. Sir Edward Parham only was acquitted, for he pleaded that he joined solely to rescue the king from the hands of those who held him in captivity; Cecil threw in his word in his favour, suggesting that the king's dignity consisted as much in freeing the innocent as condemning the guilty. This conduct gave an air of impartiality—of which no one could estimate the effect more fully than the astute Cecil—to the proceedings.

Sir Walter Raleigh was next put upon his trial. His extraordinary ability, and his knowledge of Court secrets, made it too dangerous an attempt to connect him with the "Bye," and arraign him along with the unhappy and weak members of that part of the conspiracy. He was not placed at the bar even along with Cobham, for the only evidence against him which the Court dared to bring forward, was that of Cobham; and they knew too well that in Raleigh's presence, the wavering Cobham would be worse than useless. Already repenting of his accusation of Raleigh in the surprise of his resentment, Cobham had retracted his accusations; and when pressed and cross-questioned by the Council, had so contradicted himself, that to bring him into public would be to render his evidence worthless. True, the Council had the intercepted letters, which had passed between Aremberg and the Spanish authorities, which were sufficiently criminatory of Raleigh and Cobham; but these could not be produced without an exposure of the fact that the correspondence of ambassadors and their principals was not safe in England. Indeed, Coke, who was of course duly instructed in the particulars of this correspondence, having made some too intelligible reference to Aremberg, Cecil compelled him to apologise to the ambassador, and hastened to assure the other ambassadors of foreign courts that Aremberg had no notion of the purpose for which Cobham and Raleigh had solicited money from Spain.

Coke's device was to mix the two plots. He went into the case at length, and what he lacked in proof he endeavoured to supply by abuse. He described in inflated language the intentions of the agitators of the "Bye," and declared that amongst other things, they meant to make proclamation against monopolies, as if that were absolute treason. Raleigh calmly reminded him that he was not charged with the "Bye." "You are not," replied Coke; "but it will be seen that all these treasons, though they consisted of several parts, closed in together like Samson's foxes, which were joined in their tails, though their heads were separated." Raleigh still insisted that the "Bye" was the treason of the priests, and said, "What is the treason of the priest to me?" "I will then come close to you," said Coke. "I will prove you to be the most notorious traitor that ever came to the bar; you are, indeed, upon the 'Main,' but you have followed them upon the 'Bye' in imitation."

Raleigh in reply demanded that his accuser should be brought face to face with him. He demanded it on the authority of the statute law and the law of God, both of which required that this should be done to prove an offence. But Lord Chief Justice Popham told him that the Statutes of Edward VI. to which he appealed, were cancelled by Philip and Mary; that he must take his trial by the common law, as settled by Edward III., under which a trial by jury and written evidence was as valid as a trial by jury and witnesses; and that at most one witness was sufficient. But Raleigh replied that his case was peculiar, and that there was not a single witness against him; for even the man who had borne testimony against him had retracted his assertions. He, therefore, reiterated his demand for the production of Cobham; declaring that if Cobham dared in his presence to reaffirm a single charge, he would submit to his doom, and would not add another word. When this challenge was passed over without any notice, he produced a letter which Cobham had written to him about a fortnight before, in which he said:—"To free myself from the cry of blood, I protest, upon my soul and before God and His angels, I never had conference with you in any treason, nor was ever moved by you to the things I heretofore accused you of; and, for anything I know, you are as innocent and as clear from any treasons against the king as is subject living. And God so deal with me and have mercy on my soul, as this is true."

This appeared a strong avowal, but Cecil was prepared for this, having, no doubt, already seen this letter on its passage; and Coke produced in defeat of it another letter written by Cobham to the Council but the day before. In this letter Cobham stated that Raleigh had twice sent letters to him in the Tower, which had been thrown into his window-sash in an apple, and that in these letters he entreated him to do him right by denying what he had said as to his wishing him to come from the Continent by Jersey, and in other particulars. Cobham replied that he retracted the assertion about Jersey, but went on to state that Raleigh had been the original cause of his ruin, for that he had no dealings with Aremberg but at Sir Walter's instigation. He added that at Aremberg's coming Raleigh was to receive a pension of fifteen hundred pounds a year, for which he was to keep the king of Spain informed of all designs against the Indies, the Netherlands, or Spain; that he (Cobham) also counselled him (Raleigh) not to be overtaken by preachers as Essex was, and that the king would better allow of a constant denial than of the accusation of any one.

During the reading of this letter Raleigh could not conceal his astonishment and confusion. When it was finished, he admitted that there had been some talk of a pension, but mere talk and nothing more. But the fact made a deep impression on the minds of the jury, and the prisoner probably being conscious of it, repeated his demand for the production of Cobham himself. "My lords," he exclaimed, "let Cobham be sent for; I know he is in this very house! I beseech you let him be confronted with me! Let him be here openly charged—upon his soul—upon his allegiance to the king—and if he will then maintain his accusations to my face, I will confess myself guilty!" But no notice was taken of this appeal: Coke still strove to bear him down by the coarsest brow-beating, shouting fiercely, "I will have the last word for the king!" "Nay," retorted Raleigh, "I will have the last word for my life!" "Go to," said the insolent lawyer; "I will lay thee upon thy back for the confidentest traitor that ever came to the bar." Cecil here interposed, telling Coke that he was too impatient and severe; but Coke cried, "I am the king's sworn servant, and must speak. You discourage the king's counsel, my lord, and encourage traitors."