Caught Coding a Letter to Mary, a Go-Between Confessed and Was Executed
Caught encoding a letter to the captive queen, Francis Throckmorton held out under torture, then named his backers.
The Rest Is History · Francis Drake Stole Spain’s Gold. Elizabeth I Chose to Keep ItOn November 7, the men of Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I's spy chief, burst in on Francis Throckmorton as he sat encoding a letter to Mary Stuart, the former queen of Scots held under house arrest in Yorkshire. He was arrested on the spot and taken to the Tower of London.
Throckmorton was well born and well connected. An uncle had worked for Elizabeth as a diplomat in Scotland and France. But his father, a lawyer and royal official, had died in 1580 under a cloud of alleged corruption and a heavy fine, leaving the son short of money. His mother had also raised him secretly as a Catholic in a Protestant country, which made him the kind of man liable to serve a Catholic plot for both belief and pay.
This is the story of how that young man became the go-between in a foreign plot to invade England, and how his capture exposed the plot and produced the confessions that named those behind it. Throckmorton linked Mary in Yorkshire, Catholic conspirators in London, and plotters in Paris grouped around the Duke of Guise, a powerful French nobleman who had moved to Normandy to prepare a crossing of the English Channel. The scheme would later carry Throckmorton's name.
In the Tower, Throckmorton was put to the rack, a frame that stretched the body until joints gave way. At first he held out. Walsingham noted his show of what he called a Roman resolution, a willingness to die rather than speak. After three days to recover, guards led Throckmorton back to the empty rack. The sight of it broke him. He fell to his knees and confessed.
He named Guise, the French ambassador Michel de Castelnau, the Spanish ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza, and, most explosively, Mary herself. That last admission pained him most. Throckmorton cried out, "Now I have betrayed her who was dearest to me in this world."
He later said the confession had been forced by pain and withdrew it. It did not save him. Convicted of treason in May 1584, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn in London on July 10, the gruesome execution reserved for traitors. By custom, the condemned asked the queen's forgiveness to protect family and heirs. Throckmorton refused.
Questions people ask
What was the rack?
The rack was a torture frame in the Tower of London that slowly stretched a prisoner's arms and legs with rollers and ropes. It caused dislocated joints, torn muscle, and excruciating pain, and was used to force confessions in treason cases.
What does hanged, drawn and quartered mean?
It was the punishment for treason in England. The condemned was hanged almost to death, cut down, had his entrails removed, and was then beheaded and cut into four parts. The severity was meant to deter plots against the monarch.
Why was Mary Queen of Scots under house arrest?
Mary Stuart was the former queen of Scotland and a Catholic with a claim to the English throne. After fleeing to England in 1568, Elizabeth kept her under guard for nearly 19 years because Mary became the focus of Catholic plots to depose Elizabeth.