Ambrose Rookwood
Ambrose Rookwood | |
|---|---|
High treason | |
| Criminal penalty | Hanged, drawn and quartered |
| Role | Uprising |
Date apprehended | 8 November 1605 |
Ambrose Rookwood (c. 1578 – 31 January 1606) was a member of the failed 1605
He was enlisted into the plot in September 1605 by
The explosion was planned to coincide with the
Rookwood and the survivors were
Early life
Born sometime about 1578, Ambrose Rookwood was the second of four sons born to Robert Rookwood and his second wife, Dorothy Drury, the daughter of Sir William Drury and Elizabeth Sothill. During his first marriage to Bridget Kemp, Robert had sired four sons, but all predeceased their father.[1]
The Rookwood family had lived at
Ambrose and two of his brothers, Robert and Christopher, were educated by
Marriage, inheritance, and first treason
In or shortly before 1599 he married Elizabeth, daughter of William Tyrwhitt, of Kettleby in Lincolnshire,[9] and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Peter Frescheville, of Staveley in Derbyshire. The Tyrwhitts were another prominent Roman Catholic family and his wife was possibly a first cousin to his future fellow conspirator Robert Keyes.[10] The couple had two sons, Robert and Henry.[9]
On his father's death in 1600, he inherited
Enlisted
In August 1605 Rookwood joined the Jesuits
Although unverifiable, his wife's relationship to
Toward the end of October he joined Keyes at his lodgings in London.[20] A few days before the planned explosion he changed his mind about the sword he had ordered John Craddock to make, and had the cutler replace the grip with a gold one. The modified sword, which in total probably cost Rookwood more than £20, was delivered on 4 November.[4][21]
Discovery
The existence of the plot had been revealed in an anonymous letter delivered ten days earlier to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, warning him to keep away from Parliament. On the evening of 4 November the authorities made a search of the House of Lords, where they discovered one of the plotters, Guy Fawkes, guarding a hoard of explosives. He was immediately arrested.[22]
Fawkes had posed as a servant of fellow plotter
While Fawkes was being tortured, on 6 November the government began to round up anyone they thought might be involved. Rookwood's servants, still in the house their master had so hastily departed, were questioned on the same day. His belongings at Clopton—including several incriminating Catholic symbols—were also taken, and by the time the plotters had reached Catesby's family home at Ashby St Ledgers, Rookwood's name was among the list of suspects drawn up by the Lord Chief Justice. The fugitives continued on to Dunchurch, where they met the recently recruited conspirator Everard Digby, with his hunting party.[24] The next day the group stole horses from Warwick Castle, although with his fine cortège, Rookwood avoided the town. They then collected stored weapons from Norbrook, and continued on to Huddington. The party tried in vain to expand their number, but were shunned; no one was prepared to risk being labelled a traitor. Father Garnet, contacted at Coughton Court by Bates, wrote Catesby a letter in which he implored the group to stop their "wicked actions", before himself fleeing.[25]
Fugitive
I doe acknowledge that uppon thursday morninge beeing the 7th of November 1605 my selfe and all the other gentlemen (as I doe remember) did confesse o' sinnes to one Mr. Hamonde Preeste, at Mr. Robert Wintour his house, and amonges other my sinnes I did acknowledge my error in concealing theire intended enterprise of pouder agaynste his Ma and the State, having a scruple in conscience, the facte seeminge to mee to bee too bluddye, hee for all in generall gave me absolution without any other circumnstances beeing hastned by the multitude that were to come to him.
— Declaration of Ambrose Rookwood, 21 January 1606[26]
Rookwood was proclaimed a wanted man on 7 November. He went to confession and with the rest of the group took the sacrament—in Fraser's opinion, a sign that none of them thought they had long to live. Through pouring rain they rode to
Several of the conspirators disappeared into the night, but Rookwood, Catesby, the Wright brothers, Percy and Grant stayed on.[27] By 11:00 am the next day the house was surrounded by 200 of the Sheriff of Worcester's men. In the ensuing battle, Wintour was shot in the shoulder. John and Christopher Wright were killed. Catesby and Percy were reportedly both killed by a single musket ball. Rookwood was also shot, but survived and was quickly captured.[27] His belongings should by right have been seized by the government, but his elaborate sword apparently proved to be too great a temptation for the Sheriff's men, and disappeared without trace.[28] Rookwood and the others were taken first to Worcester, and then to the Tower of London.[29] Those conspirators still at large were rounded up shortly after.
Trial and execution
Then did he acknowledge his offence to be so heinous, that he justly deserved the indignation of the King, and of the Lords, and the hatred of the whole Common-wealth, yet could he not despair of Mercy at the hand of a Prince, so abounding in Grace and Mercy : And the rather, because his offence, though it were incapable of any excuse, yet not altogether incapable of some extenuation, in that he had been neither Author nor Actor, but onely perswaded and drawn in by Catesby, whom he loved above any worldly man : and that he had concealed it, not for any malice to the Person of the King, or of the State, or for any ambitious respect of his own, but onely drawn with the tender respect, and the faithful and dear affection he bore to Mr. Catesby his Friend, whom he esteemed more dear than any thing else in the world. And this mercy he desired not for any fear of the image of death, but for grief that so shameful a Death should leave so perpetual a blemish and blot unto all Ages upon his Name and Blood. But howsoever that this was his first Offence, yet he humbly submitted himself to the Mercy of the King, and prayed, that the King would herein imitate God, who sometimes doth punish corporaliter, non-mortaliter ; corporally, yet not mortally.
The gunpowder-treason: with a discourse of the manner of its discovery (1679)[30]
Watched in secret by the king and his family, the surviving conspirators were arraigned in Westminster Hall on 27 January 1606. Some of the prisoners hung their heads "as if their hearts were full of doggedness", while others were nonchalant. All except Digby pleaded "Not Guilty".[31] Defending himself, Rookwood claimed that he had been enlisted into the plot through his friendship with Catesby, "whom he loved above any worldly man". He admitted that he could not expect mercy, but asked for it anyway, so as not to leave a "blemish and blot unto all ages".[32]
His pleas were in vain. The jury convicted him, and he was sentenced to death.[33] Three days later, Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant and Thomas Bates were hanged, drawn and quartered at the western end of St Paul's churchyard. The following day, Rookwood, Thomas Wintour, Robert Keyes and Guy Fawkes were tied to wattled hurdles and dragged by horse from the Tower, to the Old Palace Yard at Westminster—a longer route than had been suffered by their fellow conspirators. Rookwood had asked to be informed when he passed by his lodgings in the Strand, so that he could open his eyes and see his wife, waiting at the window. He shouted "Pray for me, pray for me!" According to Father Gerard (who was not then present), Elizabeth answered, "I will, and be of good courage. Offer theyself wholly to God. I, for my part, do as freely restore thee to God as He gave thee unto me." For the rest of the journey he kept his eyes closed, in prayer. Thomas Wintour was the first that day to be hanged and then killed. Rookwood was next, and made a short speech to the assembled audience. He was repentant, asking God to bless the king, queen, and their "royal progeny", but "spoil[ed] all the pottage with one filthy weed" by beseeching God to make the king a Catholic. He seems to have been left to hang for longer than the others, before suffering the remainder of his sentence.[34]
References
Footnotes
- ^ Haynes cites the quote to Piece reference SP 14/16 (link) at the Public Record Office.
- ^ This college later relocated to England, and is now known as Stonyhurst.[5]
Notes
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24066. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.). The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource: . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. (subscription required)
- ^ Bengsten 2005, p. 49
- ^ a b c d Fraser 2005, p. 172
- ^ a b Haynes 2005, p. 160
- ^ The History, stonyhurst.ac.uk, archived from the original on 10 October 2010, retrieved 12 August 2010
- ^ a b Haynes 2005, p. 76
- ^ Nicholls 1991, p. 12
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 173
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/24066. Retrieved 18 November 2017. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b Fraser 2005, p. 131
- ^ Bengsten 2005, p. 25
- ^ Questier 2006, p. 96
- ^ a b Marshall & Scott 2009, p. 113
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 41–42
- ^ Haynes, Alan (5 November 2009), The Enduring Memory of the Gunpowder Plot, bbc.co.uk
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 140
- ^ a b Bengsten 2005, pp. 49–50
- ^ Questier 2006, p. 95
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 131, 172–173
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 189
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 201
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 179–180, 202–203
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 203–204
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 211, 205
- ^ a b Fraser 2005, pp. 218–222
- ^ Spink 2009, p. 133
- ^ a b Fraser 2005, pp. 222–225
- ^ Haynes 2005, p. 161
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 235
- ^ Anon 1679, p. 125
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 263–265
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 270
- ^ Anon 1679, p. 141
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 277–282
Bibliography
- Anon (1679), The gunpowder-treason: With a Discourse of the Manner of its Discovery, Bishops head in St. Pauls churchyard: Tho. Newcomb and H. Hills
- Bengsten, Fiona (2005), Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, and the Gunpowder Plot (illustrated ed.), Victoria, Canada; Oxford, England: Trafford Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4120-5541-3
- ISBN 978-0-7538-1401-7
- Haynes, Alan (2005) [1994], The Gunpowder Plot: Faith in Rebellion, Sparkford, England: Hayes and Sutton, ISBN 978-0-7509-4215-7
- Marshall, Peter; Scott, Geoffrey (2009), Catholic Gentry in English Society: Throckmortons of Coughton from Reformation to Emancipation, Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, ISBN 978-0-7546-6432-1
- Nicholls, Mark (1991), Investigating Gunpowder plot, Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-7190-3225-7
- Questier, Michael C (2006), Catholicism and Community in Early Modern England: Politics, Aristocratic Patronage and Religion, c. 1550–1640, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-86008-6
- Spink, Henry Hawkes (2009) [1901], The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter, Read Books, ISBN 978-1-4446-3007-7
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