A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/narrativeofgunpoOOjard A NARRATIVE GUNPOWDER PLOT. NARRATIVE GUNPOWDER PLOT. BY DAVID JARDINE, Esq. OF TIIE MIDDLE TEUPLE, BAEEISTEH-AT-I/AW. *i hZs^l LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1857. The right of Translation is reserved. T34- PREFACE. The substance of the following pages was published many years ago in the " Library of Entertaining Know- ledge," and formed the introduction to the trials of the several persons implicated in the Gunpowder Treason. The obvious objection to the course adopted with respect to the " Criminal Trials," was, that the introduction exceeded its office as an illustration of the judicial proceedings, and became a prominent part of the work, instead of being merely accessary to the main design. Another objection was, that a work, which professed some degree of research and a critical examination of the evidence and effect of disputed facts, was inconsistent with the object of the series to which it belonged, and with the character and capaci- ties of the readers for whose use that series was intended. Notwithstanding these objections, reprints vi PREFACE. of the Criminal Trials have been frequent during twenty-one years, and the consequence is that the stereotype plates, having become completely worn out, have been destroyed, and the work is out of print. Under these circumstances it is now proposed to arrange the materials in the form of a continuous narrative of the facts of the Gunpowder Plot, with such enlargements and corrections as subsequent inquiry and research have suggested. Upon the subject of the Gunpowder Plot original autnorities and contemporary narrations of facts exist in great abundance, although dispersed in various depo- sitories, both public and private. The source from which by far the greater part of the following pages has been drawn is the collection of original documents upon this subject at the State-Paper Office, arranged and indexed some years ago by Mr. Lemon. The extent of this collection is a memorial of the diligence with which, at the time, the facts of the conspiracy were investigated. For nearly six months the examina- tion of the numerous prisoners and witnesses occupied the attention of the Commissioners appointed to that service by the King, during which time their labours were aided by Chief Justice Popham, Sir Edward Coke, Sir Francis Bacon, and several others of the most acute and experienced lawyers of the day. More than five hundred depositions and examinations PREFACE. vii were taken, a large proportion of which, together with numerous contemporary letters and papers relating to the transaction, are still to be found at the State-Paper Office. Although it is quite clear from the existence of this mass of documents that the Privy Council of James I. were fully acquainted with all the details of the con- spiracy, it was not to be expected that a fair or full statement should be officially published. The object of the government was to turn the transaction to the best political account, and nothing could be further from their intention than to publish truth merely for the information of the people. The practice of those days was to hold the people in leading-strings on political subjects, and so much light only was given respecting occurrences of state as the Privy Council thought con- venient and useful for the attainment of their objects. Where the whole truth would not produce the intended effect, a part only was published ; and where the part would not exactly suit the purpose, no scruple was made of garbling and altering it. And this practice was well illustrated in the official account of the Gun- powder Plot published immediately after its occurrence. Before the trials of the conspirators, an anonymous narrative, entitled " A Discourse of the manner of the Discovery of the Gunpowder Plot," was printed by the King's printer, and published by authority of the viii PREFACE. Government. This publication, which was industri- ously ascribed to the pen of the King, and was called the " King's Book," was not only dispersed profusely in England, but was sent, together with the King's speech on opening the Parliament, to the ambassadors at foreign courts, translated into several languages, and circulated with the utmost diligence in every part of Europe. A careful comparison of this relation with Bacon's ac- knowledged narratives of the Treasons of Lopez and of the Earl of Essex, in Queen Elizabeth's time, produces a strong impression that all of them were composed by the same hand. The resemblance is not confined to the similarity of the style and language ; the whole scheme of the " Discourse" is the same as that of the " Declaration of the Earl of Essex's Treasons," viz., to surround fictions by undoubted truths with such apparent simplicity and carelessness, but in fact with such consummate art and depth of design, that the reader is beguiled into an unsuspecting belief of the whole narration. The fidelity of the story is in both cases vouched by the introduction of depositions and documents which give an air of candour and authority, but which might be garbled at the discretion of the writer, without fear of detection, as the originals were in the power of those who employed him. At all events, whether this conjecture be well or ill founded, and whether the "Discourse of the manner of the PREFACE. ix Discovery of the Gunpowder Plot" was written by Bacon or by some other courtier, or by the King him- self, there is no doubt that it is a narrative of no historical authority ; it is merely the Court version of the transaction, given to the world for the express purpose of leading the public mind in a particular direction. Of several hundreds of examinations which had been taken, two only were published in this narra- tive, namely, a Declaration of Guy Fawkes, and a Confession of Thomas Winter. That both of these were carefully settled and prepared for the purpose of publication is not only highly probable from a compari- son of them with the other statements of the same individuals, which are still extant ; but is demonstrated as a fact by the interlineations and alterations observ- able upon the originals. Besides those documents which have remained in the State-Paper Office, as their proper place of custody, ever since the time of the first Earl of Salisbury, many papers appear to have been added at a later period. When Sir Edward Coke was discharged by James I. from his judicial station in 1618, his papers were seized by order of the Privy Council, and deposited in the State-Paper Office ; and it appears from an inventory of the articles so deposited, in the hand-writing of Sir Thomas Wilson, who shortly afterwards became Keeper of the State papers, that, among many other documents X PREFACE. of a public and private nature, there was "a black buckram bag containing papers about the Powder Plot." As many of the most valuable documents in the collec- tion, consist of Sir Edward Coke's original Notes, or copies of depositions bearing either his indorsement 01 some quaint remark or quotation in his hand-writing, it is probable they formed a part of the contents of that " buckram bag." Although partial extracts from the documents in the State-Paper Office relating to the Gunpowder Plot have been published in the course of the numerous contro- versies which, have taken place respecting this transac- tion, they have never been carefully digested and laid before the public in the form of a connected narrative. It appears from some papers among the Tanner Manu- scripts in the Bodleian Library that a work of this kind was at one time contemplated by Archbishop Sancroft. The circumstance is not mentioned by any of his biographers, and it is unknown at what period of his life he commenced the undertaking ; though it may be conjectured that his attention was directed to the subject by the discussions between the Roman Catholics and Protestants at the time of the Popish Plot. At all events, he did not proceed further than a partial collec- tion of materials, and it is quite uncertain whether he intended to write a controversial or a purely historical work. Several documents, the originals of which are PREFACE. xi probably not in existence, have been referred to in this volume through the medium of the copies in Sancroft's hand-writing. Although the documents upon the subject of the Gunpowder Plot preserved at the State-Paper Office are numerous, the collection is not by any means com- plete. Many important papers, which were particu- larly mentioned and described by Bishop Andrews, Dr. Abbott, Casaubon and other contemporary writers, and some of which were copied by Archbishop San- croft from the originals so lately as the close of the 17th century, are not now to be found. It is remarkable, that precisely those papers which constitute the most important evidence against Garnet and the other Jesuits are missing ; so that if the merits of the con- troversy respecting their criminal implication in the Plot depended upon the fair effect of the original docu- ments now to be found in the State-Paper Office, impartial readers might probably hesitate to form a decided opinion upon the subject. The missing papers of particular importance are the minutes of an overheard conversation between Garnet and Hall in the Tower, dated, the 25th February, 1605—6, an intercepted letter from Garnet addressed to " the Fathers and Brethren of the Society of Jesus," dated on Palm Sunday, a few days after his trial, and an intercepted letter to Greenway, dated April 4, 1605—6.