Plots and plotters in the reign of Elizabeth I

Francis Edwards SJ

A rare historical continuum in Anglo-Irish history ran from 1558 until 1612, years dominated by William and Robert Cecil, father and son. Among the significant events of these years were a number of plots and political contrivances. This book deals with eleven controversial incidents which fell out between the years 1571 and 1601. The names begin with Ridolfi and continue through John Somerville, William Parry, Anthony Babington, Richard Hesketh, Polwhele and associates, Lopez, Edmund Yorke and Richard Williams, and Edward Squeir until Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, in 1601.

A close study of these plots helps to illustrate much that happened later in the reign of the incoming James VI of Scotland. New material, or material not so far closely investigated by scholars, is offered for consideration in a work which takes into account what has been done by authorities, recent and traditional.

Francis Edwards was archivist of the English Jesuit Province 1959-1986, and later director of the central archives of the society. He is the author of books on Elizabethan and Jacobean topics, and of a history of the Jesuits in England.