Hello and welcome back to the channel, if you are new here,
hi, you’re very welcome. This is Reading the Past and I’m Doctor Kat.
Before we get into today’s topic,
I want to say a big thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this video.
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thousands of classes from people willing to share their skills so you can develop yours.
There are so many classes to choose from, you are sure to find something to take your fancy.
Last time I talked about Skillshare I was learning from Justin Bridges
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to post a TikTok – Taylor’s course helpfully lays out how to use the app to shoot and edit a TikTok,
which until now was a mysterious form of wonder magic to me. In my defense,
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for which I am very grateful! She even offers insight into how the algorithm functions!
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As with the last time Skillshare sponsored a video on this channel,
we are once again going to look at a historical skill, that I would say, is fortunately,
now unnecessary – escaping from imprisonment in the dread fortress of the Tower of London.
Will the featured figure in today’s video make it out and stay out?
Before we hop into the imprisonment and escape attempt, I’m going to provide some
broader context. A lot of the videos on this channel are covering Tudor topics;
today we’re jumping forward in history by around a century.
Time for a whistle-stop (and highly simplified) tour of the route the crown took after the Tudors.
So, Elizabeth dies, and the crown passes to her first cousin twice removed James VI of Scots and
I of England (they remain two separate kingdoms until the Act of Union in 1707
even though they are governed by the same person); James is succeeded by his second son Charles I –
who will be executed for treason in 1649 (I’ve got some videos on that which will be linked).
Thus began the period known as the “interregnum” where Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector. He
was followed in this role by his son, Richard, who became known as “tumbledown
Dick” because was unable to hold power for even a year. The “republican” experiment concluded
when Charles I’s son, Charles II was invited to return from exile to reign.
Charles II had lots of children, none by his wife, so at his death he was succeeded by his brother
James II. The new king had had two surviving daughters by his first wife – Mary and Anne
who were raised in accordance with the Church of England – James, meanwhile
was drawn to Roman Catholicism; would convert secretly but would eventually practise openly.
This openly catholic brother to the king was widowed,
his second wife was a devout Roman Catholic from Italy,
Mary of Modena. A few years after he came to the throne, Mary gave him a son, also called James.
This Catholic King’s Protestant daughters were displaced in the succession – tensions flared.
Ultimately, in 1688 James’ daughter Mary and her cousin-husband William of Orange were invited
to take her father’s throne and force him into exile. It is known as the Glorious Revolution and
even the Bloodless Revolution, which it was… for England… there was lots of bloodshed in Ireland.
With James and his son in exile in France there would be a rival monarchy and faction
in the wings – named for the James’ they were seeking to return to the throne – the Jacobites.
With that, I think the stage is set for us to meet today’s protagonist – William Maxwell,
fifth earl of Nithsdale who was born in 1676, probably at Terregles Castle, near Dumfries.
William’s father, Robert, died while he was very young, around 6 or 7, so his
upbringing – or perhaps more appropriately his indoctrination – is credited to his mother, Lady
Lucie Douglas. Roman Catholicism and allegiance to the Stuart kings was the order of the day.
The title of earl had come to him at his father’s death, but confirmation of that title would not
come until 1696 – William was 20 and it 8 years after the so-called “Glorious Revolution”.
It is thought that the next year, 1697, the newly invested earl was sent to France
to spend time at James II’s court in exile, while there he met Lady Winifred Herbert, who
had travelled to the continent with her James II supporting parents following the events of 1688.
Winifred and William were married in Paris on 2nd March 1699.
Despite the couple’s allegiance to the exiled king and the Roman Catholic faith,
the earl and countess returned to Scotland and Terregles Castle.
While there were certainly Roman Catholics in both England and Scotland – both nations
were Protestant – Church of England in the former and Presbyterian in the latter.
The earl and countess of Nithsdale were the focus of suspicion from their religiously
conforming neighbours which would lead to surveillance, incursions and forced searches
of the Nithsdale property in the belief that Roman Catholic priests might be secreted within.
On one early occasion, on Christmas Eve night 1703, a band of 100 armed men breached the
castle’s defences to conduct a search of the kind just described. Although William would be
acquitted of providing accommodation to Roman Catholic agents by magistrates in Edinburgh
on 21st February 1704; his hereditary stewardship of Kirkcudbright was taken from him.
Of course, William’s faith was not the only cause of concern for the government
because his loyalty to the successive incumbent royal regimes
was also in question. In addition to maintaining surveillance over him in
this regard he was called upon to pay a bond of security against his continued good conduct.
William seems to have felt the pressure of his situation.
On 28th November 1712 he chose to hand his estate over to his eldest son – also called William.
Three years later, in 1715, William became embroiled in a Jacobite uprising.
James II had died in exile on 16th September 1701, but by 1715 his son by Mary of Modena,
was in his late twenties and ready to press his own claim, by force if necessary.
The political landscape in the nation James was looking to rule was vastly different in 1715
to that which his mother and father had fled with his infant self. His half-sister Mary
had died in 1694, her husband William had then ruled on until his own death
in 1702. As William and Mary had no surviving heirs, Mary’s sister Anne ascended to the throne,
she died without a surviving heir in 1714. The Act of Settlement of 1701 required her successor to be
a Protestant. Thirteen years after this, in 1714, that meant skipping over a large number of people
(50 is a number frequently banded about) all with a closer blood claim, to get to George,
the Elector of Hanover, who became George I, King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
William, earl of Nithsdale, ignored calls to come out for the government
and joined the uprising instead; he joined the fight to put “James III” on the throne.
For nearly a month William fought alongside his fellow Jacobites but
would ultimately surrender on 14th November 1715. William was taken as a prisoner to London,
he arrived in the English capital on 5th December and was confined to the Tower of London.
He was charged the next month, on 9th January 1716
and was tried, alongside other Jacobite lords, in Westminster Hall. William acknowledged his
traitorous guilt and begged for the King’s grace and mercy; it was not forthcoming.
On 9th February 1716 – one month after he had been charged – William was sentenced to suffer the
brutally full punishment for treason, he was to be hanged, drawn and quartered
on Tower Hill. He was returned to the Tower of London to await his fate.
But we’re here to talk about how to escape from the Tower of London! So far
William, earl of Nithsdale, has not shown himself to be the either an architect of
or participant in well-ending plans.
Enter the countess… Lady Nithsdale, Winifred, travelled from Scotland to London. As she
was travelling in the depths of winter, snow forced her to abandon the coach but,
undeterred she made the rest of the journey on horseback.
She sought out the great, good and favoured to plead her husband’s case.
It is reported that she was able to ingratiate herself successfully.
There were rumours that a reprieve or even a full pardon might be on its way for William.
Winifred also went in person to present a petition to George I. He refused to accept it,
she – in her desperation – grabbed hold of his robes. George did not stop, Winnifred was dragged
to the end of the room, where she was stopped by the guards. The event only bolstered her
position – George’s rudeness was highlighted which nurtured popular sympathy for her and her cause.
Eventually, Lady Nithsdale’s petition was read before the king but it seems that she had,
by this point, become convinced that any hope of clemency was forlorn – a new plan was required.
On 22nd February 1716, William’s execution was imminent, Winifred – as distressed widow to be
– came to the Tower of London to “bid her husband farewell”; she brought three ladies with her: a
Mrs Morgan, Mrs Mills and Winifred’s maid Cecilia Evans. The women were there for hours, talking,
praying, coming in and out of the room, weeping and wailing, generally making a confusing scene.
So, the story goes, William’s guards, who had been compensated to encourage their compliance with
this confusing visit, eventually lost count of the comings and goings of who was in and who was out
of the room. One by one the ladies left – Winifred remained alone in the room with her husband,
the guards could hear her comforting him but left them uninterrupted. Winifred now departed,
as she left, she told the guards that her husband was at his prayers and should not be disturbed.
I bet you can guess where this is going… Winifred and her gal pals had smuggled in an extra lady
cloak, one of the weeping ladies that had left the Tower after bidding farewell to William, was
William himself. Lady Nithsdale had been talking to herself to buy him the time to get out.
It was not long before his escape was discovered. At first William was in hiding in London protected
by sympathisers and was housed, for a time, by the Venetian embassy in London but he would
soon leave, with Venetian help, for safety on the continent. During this time Winifred was also in
London awaiting news of her husband’s successful flight abroad; at which point she returned to
Scotland to settle the family’s affairs before making her own way to continental exile.
Lord and Lady Nithsdale were welcomed at the court in exile.
William was a lord-in-waiting to the pretender who was still styling himself as King James III,
Winifred was lady-in-waiting to James’ consort, Maria Clementina Sobieska, and was also appointed
as governess to the couple’s younger son, Henry Benedict – who would, in later life,
become a Roman Catholic Cardinal, and be styled as Cardinal Duke of York.
Henry Benedict was also the last of the Jacobite claimants who would assert a claim to be the
rightful ruler of England, Scotland and Ireland but Henry IX – as Jacobite supporters referred
to him – made no attempt to make good on the claim and actually seize the throne.
As the French Revolution was getting under way in 1789, the Pope recognised George III
as King of Britain – the protests of the Cardinal Duke of York would not change his mind.
When his claim to the throne was being denied by the Pope, Henry Benedict was 64 years old.
I wonder how much he thought of, or even remembered,
the woman who had been his governess for a couple of years before he turned five.
Despite the romance of their escape together and their relative prominence at the Jacobite
court in exile at least for a time; life on the continent could be dull – Lord Nithsdale
certainly complained of boredom. The couple’s lifestyle was also, clearly, no longer within
their means – William was in perpetual debt, Winifred bemoaned how ragged her dress had become.
William died in Rome in 1744. Winifred, devoted until the end
to the Jacobite cause and the family of “James III”, died in 1749, also in Rome.
A souvenir from the escape that made this couple so famous still exists. The cloak used to smuggle
William from the Tower is said to be on display at Traquair House in Innerleithen, Scotland.
Would you be interested in making the trip to see that?
But what do you think?
Of William, Winifred and the tale of their escape?
As always, I’m looking forward to reading your conversations in the comments section underneath
this video, or you can find me on social media. I’ll leave links to the other places you can find
me on the internet in my description box, follow me there so we can continue this conversation.
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I hope you’re going to have a great day whatever you’re doing and I look forward
to speaking to you all in my next video. Take care of yourselves, bye-bye for now.