A TRUE NARRATION Of that Horrible CONSPIRACY AGAINST King JAMES And the whole PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND Commonly called the Gun-Powder TREASON Written in Latine by Jacobus Augustus Thuanus Privy-Councillor to the King of France and President of the Supream Senate of that Kingdom Faithfully rendred into English LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew Bell by Flying-Horse Court in Fleet-street 1674. The History of the Powder-Plot Translated out of Thuanus lib. 135. MDCV. NOw shall we in a contiued Relation declare that Horrid and by all Parties justly * So detestable it seems it was to some of the Students of the English Colledge at Rome that being informed of the discovery of the Plot Sixteen of them abhorring such jugling and bloody Designs forsook the Colledge slipt into France some of them turning to the Church of England whither they came Foulis Hist of Popish Treasons li. 10. c. 2. p. 692. detested Conspiracy entred into a-against the King of Great Britain which being discovered about the end of this year 1605 was in the next year suppressed by the Death of the Conspirators To the Petition for Liberty of Conscience made by the Papists in the former Session of Parliament and rejected by the King there was a rumour there would be another preferred at the next Sessions which had been now often deferred which should be in no danger of being denyed as the former but should carry with it a necessity of being granted by the King whither he would or not Therefore those that managed the Affairs of the Kingdom under a generous and no wayes suspicious King fearing nothing worse did make it their business to avoid such Petitions and that necessity that did attend them But among the Conspirators it was consulted not how they might obtain the Kings savour which they now despaired of but how they might revenge that repulse though with the ruine of the Kingdom which the other never thought of The beginning of these Counsels are to be derived from the latter end of Q. Elizabeth For then as appeared afterwards by proofs and confessions Robert Winter to whom Oswald Tesmond alias Greenwell of the Society of the Jesuits joyned himself as his Companion was by the advice of Hen. Garnet Provincial or Superiour of the said Society in England Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham of the Gentry instigating privately sent into Spain in the name of the Catholicks with Letters Commendatory to Arthur Creswell of the same Society living in Spain Dec. 1601. Mandatis and with Commands to the King of which this was the summe That he should forthwith send an Army into England for which the Catholicks would be ready in Arms as soon as it came over In the mean while that he should assign yearly Pensions to some Catholick Gentlemen Furthermore that he should insinuate it to the King that there were some Gentlemen and Military persons that were aggrieved at the Present state of things whom he might easily draw to his Part by relieving their necessities And whereas the greatest difficulty after the Landing such an Army would be for supply of Horses they in England would take care to have Two thousand Horses ready provided upon all occasions This thing was secretly transacted by the Mediation of Creswell with Petrus Francesa Secretary to King Philip and Franciscus Sandovallius Duke of Lerma and he affirmed that the thing would be very acceptable to King Philip and that he had offered his utmost assistance that it was also agreed among them of the Place of Landing For if the forces were great then Kent and Essex would be most commodious for their Landing if less Milford in Wales and that King Philip had promised by Count Miranda toward that Expedition Ten hundred thousand Crowns Decies centena aureorum M. Stored with these promises Winter returns into England and acquaints Garnet Catesby and Tresham what he had done These things were transacted under Q Elizabeth who dying about this time Christopher Wright who was privy to these Matters is speedily sent into Spain Mar. 1603. who bringing the News of the Queens Death presseth the business of the Pensions and the Expedition Sir Will. Stanly With him was sent from Bruxells by William Stanly Hugh Owen and Balduinus one of the Society of the Jesuits Guido Fawkes 22 Jun. 1603. with Letters to Creswell that he should speed the business To him was given in Command that he should signifie to the King that the Condition of the Catholicks would be more hard under the new King then it had been under Q. Elizabeth and therefore that he should by no meant desist from so laudable an Enterprize That Milford lay open for an easie Landing to Spinola But the slate of things was changed by the death of the Queen and King Philip returned an Answer worthy of a King that he could no longer attend to their Petitions for that he had sent Ambassadors into England to treat of Peace with the new King Therefore despairing of their design as to King Philip the Conspirators fly to their last and desperate Counsels and in the first place they make it their business to satisfie their Consciences and that being done they confirm their resolutions to attempt some great Enterprize And thus their Divines discoursed To depose Kings to grant their Kingdome to others it in the power of the Supream Judge of the Church But all Hereticks being ipso jure separated from communion of the Faithful are every year on Holy Thursday Caena Domini excommunicated by the Pope And this holdeth not only in Professed Hereticks but in those that are covertly such because being reputed ipso Jure Excommunicate they do incur the same Penalties which are ipso facto deserved by professed Hereticks From thence it follows that Kings and other Christian Princes if they fall into Heresie may be deposed and their Subjects discharged of their Allegiance Nor can they recover their Right again no not though they should be reconciled to the Church When it is said that the Church the Common Mother of all doth shut her bosome against none that return to her this is to be understood with a distinction viz. provided it be not to the damage or danger of the Church For this is true as to the Soul but not as to the Kingdom Nor ought this punishment to be extended only to Princes that are thus infected but also to their Sons who for their Fathers Sin are excluded from Succession in the Kingdom For Heresie is a Leprosie and an Hereditary Disease and to speak more plainly he loseth his Kingdom that deserteth the Roman Religion he is to be accursed abdicated proscribed neither is he nor any of his Posterity to be restored to the Kingdom as to his Soul he may be absolved by the Pope only Thinking themselves abundantly secured within by these reasonings they begin to seek outward strengthenings to their Conspiracy and chiefly Secresie which
Forreign Princes to their assistance but being doubtful of their faith and secresie they thought fit not to send to them till they had accomplished their design for commonly such Actions are not commended but by their Event They passed their Judgments upon them sevceally the Spaniards seemed to be more opportune for them but too remote and too slow in raising Forces The French was near but fearful and suspected for the close league he held with the Dutch The most present help was from Flanders from whence they might most commodiously expect Supplies for which Stanly was designed the Captain or Commander Moreover that they might the more easily deceive the world and least by their passing to and fro to those places they should give some cause of Suspition they go their several wayes some into the Countrey some a great way out of the Island waiting for the time appointed for the Execution Fawks went into Flanders that he might acquaint Stanly and Owen with the whole Matter nor did he return into England till the latter end of August Catesby that he might not be idle in the mean time gets Francis Tresham and Everard Digby to his Party agreeing with them for Supply of Money and the former promisd Two thousand pounds of English Money the other Fifteen hundred Piercy that was prodigal at another mans charge promised whatsoever he could scrape together of the Revenues of the E. of Northumberland In the mean time Ten more Barrels of Gun powder are added to the former and four more greater than the rest upon suspition least by the moistness of the place the former should have been spoiled and again they are all covered over with a great heap of stones and wood And now the time of the Parliaments convening drew on which was again put off till the Nones of November 5 Nov. Therefore the Conspirators did again repeat their consultation and some were appointed who on the same day that the Enterprize was to be Executed should seize upon the Lady Elizabeth the Kings eldest Daughter who was brought up under the Lord Farrington in Warwick-shire under pretence of an Hunting Match which Everard Digby who was privy to the matter had appointed with great preparation at Dunchuroh Her they decreed publickly to Proclaim Queen They taking to themselves the Titles of the Assertors of liberty * They purposed when the blow was first given but the success thereof doubtful to father the fact on the Puritans Fuller v. Foulis p. 690. did nothing less at first than profess themselves the Authors of the Fact or make any mention of Religion to the People but purposed to hold that in suspense for some time and by a Proclamation published in the Queens name to redress great grievances for the present and feed them with hopes of more for the future till the Faction growing strong either by favour or severity of new Edicts they might draw the People to their Parts and Obedience and the odiousness of their fact so by degrees discovering it self would in time and together with their good success grow off Nor came it in so long time into the minds of any of them how many Innocents all about them how many Infants how many that agreed with them in Religion how many who perhaps had deserved well of them that vast ruine would over-whelm Now all things are ready and the last Scene was going to be Acted when as by the unsearchable Judgment of God one who desired to save another brought destruction both to himself and his Associates There were ten dayes to the Parliament when upon Saturday in the Evening a Letter was brought as from a Friend to the Lord Monteagle but by whom written is uncertain and by whom brought unknown By it he was warned to forbear meeting at the Parliament for the two first dayes of the Session forasmuch as some great and sudden and unsuspected mischief did threaten that Meeting The hand of him that wrote it was unknown and the writing it self purposely so ordered that it could hardly be read No date to the Letter no subscription no inscription put to it and the whole composure of words ambiguous The Lord Monteagle was doubtful what he should do therefore late in the night he goeth to Robert Cecil Earl of Salisbury and chief Secretary to the King and giving him the Letter freely declared to him how he came by it and how little he valued it Cecil did not make much more account of it and yet thought it was not altogether to be neglected and Therefore shewed it to the chief Councellors Charles Howard Chief Admiral of the Seas the Earl of Nottingham to the Earls of Worcester and Northampton The thing being considered of amongst them although at first sight the Letter seemed of no great moment yet they thought that not the slightest discovery ought to be despised especially where the safety of the King was endangered nor such great care to be blamed in them to whom the preservation of His Majesty did both by Office and Duty belong The King was then gone to Royston to Hunt It seemed good to them to determine nothing before they had consulted the King For they said that they had oftentimes experienced the quick apprehension and happy conjecture of the King in unriddleing things that were liable to greatest doubtfulness Upon the Calends of November 1 Nov. the King returned to the City and forth with Cecil taking him aside unfolds the matter and shews him the Letter which it seems worth while to insert here for the perpetual remembrance of it forasmuch as not without cause it afforded such matter of dispute between him and his Councellors The love which I bear to some of your Friends makes me careful for your safety Wherefore I advise you as you love your life that you would invent some excuse for your absence from the Parliament For God and Men as it were by agreement do hasten to punish the wickedness of this Age. Do not make light of this warning but depart as soon as you can into your own Countrey where you may securely expect the event For although no signs of troubles do appear yet I admonish you that that meeting shall receive a terrible blow and shall not see who smiteth them Do not despise this discovery it may be profitable to you it cannot hurt you For the danger is over as soon as you have burnt this Letter I hope by the grace of God you will make good use of this Counsell to whose protection I commend you The King having read the Letter though through the generousness of his mind he was no way prone to suspicion did conjecture that some strange thing did lye hid under it and that the notice given was by no means to be neglected On the other side Cecil said it was certainly written by some Mad man For no man well in his wits would speak at this rate of a danger which he doth
his breast were transparent to all that his People might behold the most secret recesses of his heart But when he judged it might conduce much to Example and Publick Security that he should severely punish the Authors of so horrid a Crime and because there was a suspition arising from Letters Confessions and Proofs made that Gerard alias Braek Hen. Garnet Oswald Tesmond alias Greenwell were either privy to or promoters of this Conspiracy therefore upon the XVIII of the Kalends of February 14 Jan. a Proclamation is published against them and a reward proposed to him that should discover and bring them to their Tryal as also a Penalty added against those who after the publishing of this Proclamation should entertain nourish conceal or be any way aiding the persons named in that Proclamation or should at all indeavour that those who are accused of this horrid Crime should not be found out and apprehended In order hereunto diligent search is made and strict enquiry after them who concealed themselves at length Hen. Garnet and Hall and Garnets Servant were taken in the house of Abington a Papist and sent to London and cast into the Tower The wretched Servant for fear least he should be forced by torments to accuse his Master or despairing upon some other account did lay violent hands upon himself in the Prison and with a blunt knife for he was not permitted to have a keen one by him he cut up his own Belly and drew out his Bowels and although his wound was bound up yet before he could be Examined he dyed Garnet was very gently used in his Imprisonment as he himself afterward confessed At first be denyed all things and when it did appear that nothing could be drawn from him voluntarily and the King that he might avoid calumny was unwilling to use torments upon him resolves by craft to illude his cautious pertinacy and to bring him to larger Confessions who would answer little or nothing whether he would or not He secretly imploys a man who by deep groans and frequent complaints against the King and his Counsellors and the deplorable condition of the Catholicks in England did in the end perswade Garnet that he was Popishly enclined and so crept into intimate familiarity with him This man he sends with a Letter to a Gentlewoman that was Imprisoned for her Religion who kept her family at Whitweb and other places and received with great hospitality those whom he commended to her In which Letter he wrote plainly and yet sparingly what things he had already confessed what he was not yet examined upon and by what means he would excuse those things which he had confessed and conceal these He wrote likewise to Rookwood the Priest who was Prisoner in another Prison and wrote his Letter with Ink in the middle about some familiar matters that any one might read but left broad Margents on both sides which he filled with his Secrets written with the juice of an Orange denying all whatsoever he had confessed before the Lords As to the Spanish Expedition he said he had obtained the Kings Pardon As to this last Conspiracy he should avoid Judgment because he knew they could make no sufficient proofs against him But however it went he added having too high an opinion of himself that which was spoken of the only Redeemer of the world It would be necessary that one man should die for the People The Letter was by the Kings Councellors who smelt out the cunning held to the fire and presently the writing appear'd and the fraud was discovered He being every day more and more confident of his instructed Keeper told him he did exceedingly desire to have some conference with Hall his Companion He promised to bring it about and brought both of them to a place where they might easily hear one another and where he himself to avoid all suspition might be seen by them both In the mean time he placed two men of known credit near the place who they knowing no such thing and minding only the return of their Keeper who was gone abroad might hear whatsoever passed between them There each of them freely discover'd what they had confessed what they had been Examined about what excuses and evasions for these were their words they had prepared for every particular and many other such things which being carefully taken were delivered to the Counsel in writing The next day the Prisoners suspecting no such thing Delegates from the King came to them and Examine Garnet and Hall a part and object to them that they had yesterday held private conference with one another Garnet thinking they spoke this only upon conjecture †Upon his Soul reiterating it with so many detestable execrations as wounded the Lords hearts to hear him Proceedings Y 3. stifly denyed it and forswore it upon the word of a Priest At last Hall having confessed the Fact and he finding that there was no avoiding it begged Pardon for his contrary asseveration which he sought to elevate by a forced Interpretation or Equivocation And professing that he would speak the truth ingenuously He answered that he had hitherto so constantly denyed it because he knew that no man living but one he meant Greenwell could accuse him as guilty of the late Fact But now that he saw himself encompassed with such a cloud of witnesses he would no longer dissemble but did confess that above V moneths agone he was acquainted by Greenwell with the whole matter That before that Catesby had in general told him that the Catholicks in England were attempting some great thing as to Religion and asked whether if good men should be involved in the danger this were to be made matter of Conscience But that he who had a contrary command from the Pope that he should not engage in any Conspiracy refused to hear any further of it That he did pour out Prayers for the good success of the great cause and amongst other things used the Hymn that was commonly Sung in the Church but intended nothing else when he did so but only prayed God that in the next Parliament no grievous Lawes might be made against the Recusants so they are called in England who keeping within their own houses have their liberty and refuse to Joyne in worship with the Protestants Garnet being twenty times Examined 12 Feb. and 26 Mar. between the Eids of Febr. and the VII of the Calends of April two dayes after he is arraigned at the Publick Tribunal in London * The reason whereof the Earl of Salisbury declared at his Tryal See the Proceedings Y Guild Hall Here the Crimes are layed to the charge of the Prisoner by Sir John Crook which are afterwards enlarged on in a long Speech by Sir Edward Cook the Kings Attorney General Then after Garnes had said something for himself and especially something concerning Equivocation he was Examined by Cecil and others that sate as Judges in that case And