Conspiracy Culture in Stuart England: The Mysterious Death of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey

285 Pages·2022·4.906 MB·English

by  Dr. Andrea McKenzie

STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN CULTURAL,
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY
Volume 48
CONSPIRACY CULTURE IN STUART ENGLAND
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Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History
ISSN: 1476-9107
Series editors
Tim Harris – Brown University
Stephen Taylor – Durham University
Andy Wood – Durham University
Previously published titles in the series are listed at the back of this volume

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CONSPIRACY CULTURE IN
STUART ENGLAND
THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF
SIR EDMUND BERRY GODFREY
Andrea McKenzie
THE BOYDELL PRESS
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© Andrea McKenzie 2022
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Andrea McKenzie to be identified as
the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2022
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 978-1-78327-762-9 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-80010-826-4 (ePDF)
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620-2731, USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of
URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and
does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate
or appropriate
Front cover: image from John Gadbury, A True Narrative of the Horrid Hellish
Popish-Plot, to the tune of Packingtons Pound, the first Part (1682), Huntington Library,
San Marino, California.
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For Simon

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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements x
Abbreviations xii
Chronology of Events xv
Dramatis Personae xxii
Introduction. The Bottomless Pit: Conspiracy Theories and the Death of
a Westminster Magistrate 1
1. The Usual Suspects: The Case against the Catholics 16
The English anti-Catholic conspiracist tradition 21
Rumours, hearsay and the corpus delicti 26
Accusers and accused 33
2 An Inside Job? The Earl of Danby and Other Court Suspects 51
A constitutional and conspiratorial crisis 54
Thomas Osborne, earl of Danby 59
An Anglican plot? Israel Tonge’s ‘very honourable friends’ 66
Plots and counterplots: Danby in the Tower 76
3 ‘The Devil in his Clothes’: Suicide Theories, Then and Now 87
Early suicide theories 89
Roger L’Estrange’s crime scene investigation 98
‘Master of a dangerous secret’: Godfrey’s mental state 105
Spectral sightings: tracking Godfrey’s last movements 115
Ockham’s razor? 120
4 ‘Managery … behind the Curtain’? Oppositional Plots and Whig Lords 123
True crime, false leads and tall tales 128
Shaftesbury and subornation 138
Whig suspects and oppositional secrets 147
5. ‘Horrible Secrets … not for his Majesty’s Service’: The Evidence of
William Lloyd’s Shorthand 159
The correspondence of Roger L’Estrange and William Lloyd 162
Royal suspects and secrets 174
‘Died Abner as a fool dieth?’ What William Lloyd believed 188
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CONTENTS
Conclusion. A Bipartisan Martyr? In Search of the Real Sir Edmund
Berry Godfrey 195
‘Keeping faire with boeth sides’: Godfrey as critic, courtier,
mediator and sleuth 196
A plausible suspect: the secrets of ‘a certain great man’ 208
A possible murder scenario 221
Select Bibliography 229
Index 241
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Illustrations
1 Portrait of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, by Frederick Hendrik
van Hove, published by Joseph Nutting, © National Portrait
Gallery, London, UK 18
2 and 3 Images from John Gadbury, A True Narrative of the Horrid Hellish
Popish-Plot, to the tune of Packingtons Pound, the first Part (1682),
Huntington Library, San Marino, California 47
4 Godfrey’s last known movements, Saturday 12 October 1678,
superimposed on a detail from William Morgan’s London &c.
actually surveyed in 1682, Library of Congress, Geography and
Map Division 118
5 Detail of Lloyd’s shorthand response to L’Estrange’s letter of 13
April 1686 (Lloyd Papers, No. 76), Gloucestershire Archives 168
6 Detail of Lloyd’s shorthand response to L’Estrange’s letter of 13
April 1686 (Lloyd Letters, No. 76), Gloucestershire Archives 171
7 Detail of Lloyd’s undated shorthand response to L’Estrange’s
letter of 20 April 1686 (Lloyd Letters, No. 78), Gloucestershire
Archives 173
8 Detail of text quoted from Lloyd’s undated shorthand response
to L’Estrange’s letter of 20 April 1686 (Lloyd Letters, No. 78),
Gloucestershire Archives 173
9 Detail of conclusion of Lloyd’s shorthand response to
L’Estrange’s letter of 13 April 1686 (Lloyd Letters, No. 76),
Gloucestershire Archives 173
The author and publisher are grateful to all the institutions and individuals
listed for permission to reproduce the materials in which they hold copyright.
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders; apologies are offered
for any omission, and the publisher will be pleased to add any necessary
acknowledgement in subsequent editions.
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