Throughout the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Tudor Queen faced many threats to her
throne.
But her greatest rival was Mary Queen of Scots who would be backed by Catholics across the
country to oust Elizabeth who was a protestant.
Mary had for some time been imprisoned by Elizabeth following having to flee Scotland
after her abdication.
But the plots to assassinate Elizabeth in favour of Mary Queen of Scots eventually resulted
in the Queen of England ordering the execution of the former Queen of Scotland and her first
cousin.
Mary’s execution did not go well, and it was something that Elizabeth regretted for
some time and she believed that Mary’s execution would prevent her from getting into heaven,
and she even worried about this on her deathbed.
But one of the earliest plots involving Mary was the Ridolfi Plot, which was formulated
in 1571, and it was masterminded by Roberto Ridolfi, an international banker who managed
to cross many countries in Europe to gather supporter.
But what is the story of the Rudolfi Plot?
To begin with, the background to the Ridolfi Plot heavily featured Thomas Howard the 4th
Duke of Norfolk.
He was a cousin of Elizabeth I and was the wealthiest man across England.
But following her imprisonment in 1568, many were considering Thomas Howard as a suitor
for the Queen of Scotland, as at the time Norfolk despite having immense wealth wanted
further ambition and recognition in society, and by marrying a Queen he would have had
a significant amount of power.
Howard could easily have been a figure of revolt also, and he may have had one eye on
becoming the King of England.
If Mary would have ousted Elizabeth I, and also married Thomas Howard then many would
have backed Howard as an Englishman to become the King, as he was also incredibly powerful
and wealthy.
He agreed to support a revolt and a rebellion in the north which would rise up in favour
of Mary, but then he lost his bottle.
But after the plot was discovered, Howard was imprisoned inside of the Tower of London
for 9 months, and Elizabeth freed him after he begged for mercy and confessed, but he
was then kept under house arrest.
But around 1570, Pope Pius V had excommunicated the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I and he issued
an order to all Catholics to try and depose and even assassinate her.
The majority of English catholics ignored this, but Elizabeth then became much more
hardline towards Catholics.
But one man who formulated a plan inside of Europe was Roberto Ridolfi, a banker from
Florence who was an ardent Catholic.
He had been involved in the planning of the northern rebellion and was planning to overthrow
Elizabeth.
When the rebellion failed, he said that foreign help was needed to restore Catholicism in
England and to put Mary Queen of Scots onto the English throne.
He then roped in a number of conspirators to help, and he came up with a plan to have
the Duke of Alba invade from the Netherlands with a force of around 10,000 soldiers.
They then would back up a rebellion in the north made up of dissident Catholic nobles,
and then when they reached London they would murder Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots would
then marry Thomas Howard.
Ridolfi believed that half of English peers and MPs were Catholic, but this was an oversight.
When Thomas Howard found out about this, he assured Ridolfi that he himself was a Catholic,
despite the fact he had been raised Protestant.
But body Mary and Howard agreed to the plan, and with this could be implicated.
But Ridofli would then try to recruit other important parts to the plan.
There were more conspirators involved, including even King Philip II of Spain who welcomed
Ridolfi to court and discussed the plot, and he supported overthrowing Elizabeth and her
assassination.
But the plan involving the 3rd Duke of Alba was that he would lead a Spanish army based
in the Netherlands to land at Harwich or Portsmouth.
They would then head to London to put Mary on the throne, seizing and killing Elizabeth.
But the Pope would also make Ridolfi his agent to England, and he was not aware of the plot
but he gave approval for information to be discussed with other European catholic Kings.
Mary Queen of Scots thought had a strange role in the plot.
She knew Elizabeth I would not grant her the wish to restore her to the Scottish throne,
or to send her to France and she tried to get her freedom.
She wrote to Ridolfi soliciting Spanish help, but she said she had respect and friendship
with Elizabeth I.
But by consenting to the plot and to marry Thomas Howard she was guilty of treason, and
when the soldiers arrived in London they would free Mary and she would then be returned to
the Scottish throne and would then take the English throne with Elizabeth out of the way.
But Elizabeth I had built up a network of brilliant spies and spymasters, who formulated
an intelligence service centuries before its time.
They learned of the plot against her life, and the fact European dynasties were involved
in the plot against her.
She sent warnings across to Europe, and Charles Baillie the messenger of Ridolfi in England
was arrested for carrying messages and he was the tortured and he revealed the cipher
of the coded messages he was carrying.
But then on the 29th August 1571, two of Thomas Howard’s secretaries gave Thomas Brown a
draper a bag of silver coins to be sent to an official in the north.
This draper got suspicious and he found 600 pounds in gold from the French ambassador
sent to Scotland on Mary’s behalf along with ciphered letters.
He knew The Duke of Norfolk was under suspicion and he then reported this to William Cecil.
The letters were deciphered and letters were then found from Mary Queen of Scots also.
But further interrogation took place of Thomas Howard’s servants, and they were tortured
and a number illicited confessions to the authorities.
Thomas Howard denied any charges against him, and he was then taken back to the Tower of
London.
When he got there he admitted a significant amount of involvement regarding transferring
money to Mary’s supporters in Scotland.
But Thomas Howard was then brought to trial, and he was sentenced to death for his involvement
in the Ridolfi Plot, and at sunrise on the 2nd June 1572 he was led to a specially made
scaffold on Tower Hill.
He spoke to the crowd that had gathered, and he said he deserved to die but was also innocent
and but he said he had been ‘tried as honourably as any nobleman hath ever been in this land.’
He was told to finish his speech quickly as the hour of his death had passed, and he ended
his long speech saying that he was not catholic.
His attendants removed his doublet, and Thomas Howard then laid his head on the block.
The crowd fell silent, and with one single strike his head was taken clean off, and the
most wealthy man in England was considered a traitor.
A Spanish Ambassador after the discovery of the plot was also expelled from England, but
Ridolfi would never return to England.
He was a steady banker in Florence, but he managed to play politics in England and had
been the centre of a crazy plot to kill the English Queen that resulted in the execution
of the most senior nobleman across the country.
The pope paid a huge sum of money to bail Ridofli from jail in 1568, but he worked as
a spy for the Pope.
His banking connections allowed him to build relationships with the Duke of Norfolk, but
also with important Catholics, and he used banking as a way of travelling and delivering
information for the plot and conspiracy.
But the plot ultimately failed.
The Duke of Alba who was meant to lead an invasion of England believed Ridolfi had no
idea what he was doing, and that he was not a man who could lead such a plot.
Roberto Ridolfi would escape execution as he never returned to England, however many
historians in the centuries after have doubted whether the plot would ever have worked.
To begin with it was said that the number of Spanish soldiers with the invasion were
too insignificant and would never have caused the overthrow of the Queen.
Also Ridolfi had no idea where Harwich was where the troops were meant to lead, and there
was doubt that Thomas Howard was not even catholic, but instead was a man who was just
thirsty for more power.
Also he and Mary Queen of Scots at this point had both been married three times before the
proposed marriage, meaning the pair restoring catholicism would have been hypocritical,
and the Pope was even willing to grant Mary an annulment to allow this to happen.
But the Ridolfi Plot was a European plan to invade England and to bring the assassination
and overthrown of Elizabeth I the protestant Queen of England.
It was a plot which was wrapped in religion, but it would have seen much blood being shed
on English soil.
It did have its problems though and for this it’s probable that the English army would
have defeated the invasion before it got anywhere near the English capital.
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