Throughout her time on the throne, Queen Elizabeth I faced a number of different threats to her
reign and life.
There were a number of plots that involved her cousin Mary Queen of Scots, and replacing
Elizabeth with the catholic queen of Scotland.
Each of these plots carried a brutal element, with the execution or assassination of Henry
VIII.
But Mary Queen of Scots was later executed as Elizabeth would sign her death warrant
for the fact she consented to be part of the Babington Plot, which resulted in the hanging,
drawing and quartering of Anthony Babington, the man who the plan was named after.
But who was Babington, and what was the story of his execution?
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Anthony Babington was born into a gentry family, and his father was Sir Henry Babington who
was a well thought of member of the higher classes.
But his father died in 1571 when Anthony was just 9, and his mother remarried.
With this Anthony lived with his mother’s second husband, and he was a boy who was protestant
in public but behind closed doors his family were catholic.
But Babington then became a page boy in the household of the Earl of Shrewsbury’s household,
and at the time the Earl was a jailor of Mary Queen of Scots, who had been imprisoned by
Elizabeth I after the former Queen of Scotland was forced to abdicate and left her nation
for the safety of England.
But Babignton then became a supporter of Mary, and he believed that she should become the
Queen of England,
Babington began to champion Mary, and he in around 1580 began to meet with other conspirators
who would plot to oust Elizabeth and instate Mary as the rightful Queen of England.
He met with Thomas Morgan and then was asked to carry letters to Mary whilst she was held
by his master the Earl of Shrewsbury.
He had access to Mary and for this was seen as the ideal person to do this.
He also helped to hide Catholic priests inside of different places in the Midlands, and this
was punishable by death and was linked to treason and heresy.However after a few years,
Mary was moved from the Earl of Shrewbury’s household, and she was moved to Tutbury Castle
where things were much more difficult for her and her imprisonment was very harsh.
But he could not now communicate with Mary, and Babington’s role as a courier came to
an end.
But he continued to receive letters to be passed to Mary, and he thought about leaving
England along with a friend.
But then he debated heading to France after speaking with Robert Poley however Poley was
actually a secret agent working for Francis Walsingham, the spy master of Elizabeth I.
However Babington placed his trust in the wrong person.
But there was a great fear at the Time of Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I herself
was worried about being overthrown in favour of her.
It was a time of huge religious tension, and Elizabeth was concerned about an uprising
of Catholics in England.
But she employed a group of spies and agents to sniff out potential issues, and one of
these men who worked to do this was Gilbert Gifford who was arrested and was interrogated.
He then agreed to work as a double agent, and he spoke with the French Embassy in London
and agreed to help smuggle letters to Mary Queen of Scots.
The plan to do this was using beer barrels and ciphered letters, and Mary would be given
a cipher to then learn what the messages said.
On the 6th July 1586, Anthony Babington wrote to Mary Queen of Scots, and he told her that
a group of friends of his were planning to break her out of prison, and also assassinate
Elizabeth I. He then said that Mary would become the next Queen of England, and Babington
said that he believed Elizabeth was a tyrant who deserved death.
He then wrote to her to ask her permission to put the plan in place, and Mary then replied
shockingly, and she said that if this was going to work there needed to be helped from
countries abroad who were favourable, and Mary then consented to the plot, meaning she
could also be implicated.
But then, Babington who was now heavily involved in the plot was reported to Walsingham, and
Walsingham allowed to let things play out a little bit to see if he could snare Mary
in the plot rather than to just shut it down quickly.
The spymaster obtained the letters and had them copied and encryptors worked out the
letters, and their contents and when Walsignham believed he had enough evidence to bring down
Mary also, he rounded up Babington and the other co-conspirators.
Anthony Babington was arrested and was then taken to the Tower of London.
He house was searched and little was found, however it was clear that he was guilty and
that for many years he had been carrying messages to the former Scottish Queen.
Mary had also implicated herself, and she would later be tried for treason inside of
Fotheringhay Castle and she was found guilty, but it’s believed that she never thought
her execution would ever come as she did not think Elizabeth had the metal to sign her
death warrant, and to some extent she was correct as Elizabeth debated this for a number
of years.
However she would not show any hesitancy towards Babignton and the other conspirators.
Anthony Babington had been housing with his companions in St John’s Wood but was caught
in the house of the Jerome Bellamy family in Harrow.
When the news of his arrest reached government, the city began to ring out bells and make
bonfires and they celebrated that another plan had been foiled to kill the English Queen.
But then Babington inside the Tower of London was not tortured, but he confessed to the
fact Mary had written a letter to him supporting the plot, and he was then placed on trial.
He and 12 of his friends were sentenced to death for treason, and were ordered to be
hanged, drawn and quartered, It was said that regarding the sentence, ‘The horrors of
semi-strangulation and of being split open alive for the heart and intestines to be wrenched
out were regarded, like those of being burned to death, as awful but in the accepted order
of things.’
However the gallows in St Giles In The Field were then prepared for the mass hanging, drawing
and quartering of the plotters.
He had offered money to be pardoned, but then the first group of executions including Babaington’s
took place on the 20th September 1586.
Babington and the other condemned men were taken from their cells in the Tower of London
and were then strapped to sledges which were pulled by horses throughout the streets of
London.
They then got to the specially made scaffold near to Holborn.
Babington’s final words were ‘Spare me Lord Jesus,’ and another conspirator on
the scaffold blamed Babington for getting him involved.
The executioners were nasty and brutal, and it was said that the men ‘"were hanged only
for a short time, cut down while they were still alive, and then castrated and disembowelled"
The following day the other men were brought to the same scaffold and were given the same
death, however Babington had been quartered and his remains were sent to different parts
of London to be displayed in front of the city’s inhabitants.
But Anthony Babignton’s plot had a bigger impact in history, as on the 8th February
1587 at the age of 44, Mary went into the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle.
She had been sentenced to death for her involvement in the Babington Plot, and the scaffold had
been draped in Black ready for her beheading.
On the scaffold she met the executioner, and it took two swings of the axe to take Mary
Queen of Scots’ head off.
But it was for the plot that carried the name of Anthony Babington that Mary lost her head,
and one of the greatest foes of Elizabeth I’s life lost her life.
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