Edmund Berry Godfrey: Difference between revisions
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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*[http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/bookslit/shortstories/TheValetsTragedyandOtherStories/chap6.html Andrew Lang - The Mystery of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey] |
*[http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/bookslit/shortstories/TheValetsTragedyandOtherStories/chap6.html{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Andrew Lang - The Mystery of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey] |
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*[http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Sir_Edmund_Berry_Godfrey Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 about Godfrey] |
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080103052953/http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Sir_Edmund_Berry_Godfrey Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 about Godfrey] |
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*[http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9037168/Sir-Edmund-Berry-Godfrey Britannica Concise] |
*[http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9037168/Sir-Edmund-Berry-Godfrey{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Britannica Concise] |
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*[https://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp01802 National Portrait Gallery] |
*[https://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp01802 National Portrait Gallery] |
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Revision as of 16:56, 20 December 2017
Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey (23 December 1621 – 12 October 1678) was an
Early life
Edmund Berry Godfrey was born in Sellindge,[1] Kent, between Hythe and Ashford, the eleventh son of eighteen children born to Thomas Godfrey (1586–1664), a member of an old Kentish family and his second wife Sarah, née Isles. His father had been MP for New Romney in the Short Parliament and owned Hodiford Farm. He studied at
He was in business with his brother-in-law, James Harrison. Originally their premises was in Greene's Lane (beneath present-day
Peyton Gang
In a letter to the Secretary of State, Sir Joseph Williamson, the Lieutenant of the Tower of London named Godfrey as a member of the so-called "Peyton Gang".[3] Sir Robert Peyton was MP for Middlesex and a prominent member of the Green Ribbon Club. This had been founded by Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury after he had become aware of the Secret Treaty of Dover in which Charles II agreed to convert himself and England to Roman Catholicism in return for money paid by the French King Louis XIV. The Club, unable to confront the king directly, stirred up popular ill feeling against the Roman Catholic Church. Peyton hand-picked twelve men (including himself and Godfrey) who plotted to replace the King with a republic, nominally led by Richard Cromwell. The founding meeting of the Green Ribbon Club was in the
Mystery
In 1678 Godfrey became involved with the schemes of
When Oates's accusations became known, the public became concerned. Godfrey had supposedly been concerned that he might be one of the victims of the scare but he made no extra security precautions, although his conversation became increasingly strange, with references to martyrdom and to being "knocked on the head" (the contemporary phrase for assassination). It was this odd behaviour which led his household to conclude that he had committed suicide, despite the medical evidence to the contrary.
On 12 October 1678 he left his house in the morning but did not return home . He was found dead in a ditch on Primrose Hill on 17 October. Godfrey was lying face down and had been impaled with his own sword.[4]: 88
Two committees unsuccessfully investigated the murder. They received conflicting statements about Godfrey's whereabouts before the murder. There was no evidence of struggle on the spot where the body had been found and Godfrey still had his money and rings. On the other hand, curious people had already trampled the ground when investigators arrived. The body was covered with bruises and a circular mark around Godfrey's neck revealed that he had been
Oates exploited the situation and encouraged the public perception that the murder was the work of Catholic plotters. There was a commemorative dagger and medal, sermons and pamphlets. These months were long remembered as "Godfrey's Autumn".
Later "Captain" William Bedloe, who claimed to be a "reformed" Catholic plotter, claimed that he had been taken to Somerset House on the night of 14 October to see the body of Godfrey (although on the previous day he had claimed just the opposite). He said he had seen two men, including Samuel Atkins, secretary to Samuel Pepys. Atkins was arrested but was able to prove that he had been on a yacht at Greenwich at that time, and the Court directed an acquittal. Bedloe claimed that Catholic plotters had killed Godfrey in order to steal his papers about the depositions (note that the witnesses whose words had been recorded were still alive). He changed his story several times afterwards but the House of Lords retained him as a witness. Perhaps in response to prompting he named John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse, as the mastermind behind the murder. The King, who was increasingly sceptical about the reality of the Plot, burst out laughing at the notion, pointing out that Belasyse was so afflicted with gout that he could hardly stand up.[4]: 304
Miles Prance
On 21 December,
On 23 – 24 December, Prance announced that he had had a part in the murder but that the main instigators were three Catholic priests: Thomas Godden, head of the secular English clergy, and two Irish priests, Kelly and Fitzgerald. These priests witnessed the murder in the courtyard of Somerset House where Godfrey had been lured. Godfrey had been strangled and his body taken to Hampstead. Prance named as the actual killers three working men, Robert Green, Henry Berry and Lawrence Hill, who were arrested. Godden fled the country, while the two Irish priests simply vanished from sight. As with most solutions to the murder, the main weakness was the absence of a plausible motive. Prance could only say, vaguely, that Godfrey had been harassing the two priests in some way, which seems unlikely as he was noted for tolerance in religious matters.[4]: 304
Prance later recanted his confession before the king and the council and was thrown back to prison: he was threatened with torture, and nearly froze to death.[4]: 153 As a result, he recanted his recantation and recanted two more times, ending up verifying his original story. At the trial he was a highly credible witness, although Hill's wife rightly prophesied "we shall see him recant after, when it is too late".[4]: 166 The three men were sentenced to death 5 February 1679 and hanged at Primrose Hill. For a time this was known as "Greenberry Hill", because of the hangings of Green, Berry and Hill.
Prance's story was later discredited and he pleaded guilty to perjury. Because the three men were executed on false evidence, and historians accept their complete innocence, the murder remains officially unsolved.
Solutions
There have been many theories of what really happened to Godfrey and who killed him. "To the minds of
Mystery writer John Dickson Carr wrote that suicide by hanging was impossible as the marks on his neck showed that he had had his neck broken with his cravat, which was too short to effect a breakage by "drop". An investigation by pathologist Keith Simpson (appendix in John Dickson Carr's Death of Edmund Godfrey) concluded that had the body been in suspension, the marks would have been higher up. The circumstances of his death were established and documented by two doctors, Zachariah Skillard and Cambridge[who?] for an inquest held at the White House tavern in Primrose Hill.[citation needed]
It has also been surmised[
Modern analysis
American
British
Popular culture
Godfrey was played by the actor David Bradley in the TV mini-series Charles II: The Power and the Passion.
British author Mark Francis has published a series of five novels concerning fictional accounts of Godfrey's earlier life. The books are entitled Edmund Godfrey & The Fanatiques' Creed, The Terror of Terrors, The Monkey Duchess, The Devil's Trumpet and "A Plague of Shadows".[6] https://www.feedaread.com/profiles/531/http://kianifrancis.wixsite.com/godfreypapers
References
- ^ "Sir Edmund Godfrey". Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ Diary of Samuel Pepys, Wednesday 26 May 1669.
- ^ The Killing of Justice Godfrey by Stephen Knight
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Kenyon, J.P. (2000). The Popish Plot. Phoenix Press reissue.
- Duckworth and Co.p. 83.
- ^ "Isle of Wight author writes about the mean streets of the 1600s". On the Wight, 18 September 2015 By Sally Perry
External links
- [permanent dead link] Andrew Lang - The Mystery of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey
- Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 about Godfrey
- [permanent dead link] Britannica Concise
- National Portrait Gallery