aBurntShip

        And the Invasion Landing at Ferring that Never  Quite Happened                                      This topic does not quite meet the  usual 17th century remit of this blog, but the 1583 Throckmorton Plot, is a much neglected treason conspiracy, overshadowed by both the Babington Plot of 1586  and the notorious Gunpowder Plot of 1605.  Sir Francis Throckmorton (1554-1584)  came from a Catholic gentry family. based at Coughton Court, Warwickshire.His father Sir John Throckmorton was a diplomat, and his uncle , Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was the English Ambassador to France and then Scotland. It is not clear whether Francis was raised as a Catholic or converted later. By 1579, he was one of a group of young wealthy gentry dedicated  to 'the commons support of Catholics' along with his brother Edward. Also connected to this group were Sir ...

                              Power Treason and Plot in Tudor England  The first non-fiction book from Tony Morgan who lives just outside York. Mr Morgan has already had three novels published. Two concern alternative history outcomes to the Gunpowder Treason, another 'Pearl of York', is a fictionalised life of Margaret Clitherow, which also features a youthful Guy Fawkes.   Margaret Clitherow is most known for her refusal to plead either guilty or not guilty to a charge of harbouring  Jesuit priests in York in 1586. Her sentence was to undergo a punishment known as Peine forte et dure  . This entailed being stripped naked, a stone placed behind her back, a door laid across her, then weights were added to it. Was all carried out on 25th March 1586 at Toll Booth, Ouse Bridge, in York.  Margaret Clitherow was declared a saint in 1970. It must be said that this was an exceptional punishment...