In April 1683, a great fire in the town of Newmarket meant that the planned horse races could not go ahead. As it turned out, this event saved the life of the reigning monarch, Charles II. But how and why? Let's learn about the foiled Rye House Plot: the failed assassination attempt on Charles II that enabled the King to eliminate nearly all of his major political opponents.
Fig. 1 An illustration of Rye House, the medieval mansion from which the assassination attempt on Charles II and James, Duke of York, was supposed to take place on 1 April 1683.
Rye House Plot 1683
Let's start by getting an overview of the Rye House Plot and why it happened.
Context
Picture the scene. You are a republican and a Protestant who held significant power during the time of the civil war and Oliver Cromwell's regime. But, in 1660, your Parliament invited the son of the executed king back to the throne. And not only has this step brought the monarchy back, but this restored king is sympathetic to Catholics. You are increasingly unhappy with the direction the country is going in. You want to ensure that your country remains Protestant at all costs.
Republican
Someone who believes that there should not be a monarchy.
This was the perspective of the Rye House Plotters, a group of wealthy men who gathered together in the early 1680s to discuss the 'problem' of Charles II. The crux of the issue lay in the tumultuous religious situation of the post-Civil War settlement. Charles was officially an Anglican Protestant, but he was known to have Catholic sympathies - for example, he had a Catholic wife.
Even more worryingly, from the hardline Protestants' perspective, Charles and his wife didn't have any children. Therefore, the line of succession would next pass to Charles' younger brother James, a confessing Catholic. Consequently, a group of Protestant nobles gathered in 1683 to decide how to rid the country of Charles II and James. With this strike, they believed they would be able to ensure a Protestant future for England.
The Plotters
There were far too many people involved in the plot to be able to give all their names here. This table provides an overview of some of the key characters and their involvements in the plot.
| Name | Background | Involvement |
| Robert West | A founding member of the Green Ribbon Club.He disliked the political conservatism of Charles II's reign. | West convened the group that would become the Rye House Plotters. |
| Richard Nelthorpe | Lawyer. | One of the six men in the Monmouth Cabal. He became loosely linked with the Rye House Plot. |
| Sir Thomas Armstrong | MP for Stafford. | One of the key plotters. |
| James Holloway | Merchant from Bristol. | Holloway planned to seize control of Bristol in a rebellion just after the Rye House Plot. He gathered munitions and men for the purpose. |
| Lord William Russell | Son of an Earl. | Russel participated in a meeting with Protestant nobles and Richard Rumbold to discuss how to bring down the king's government. |
| Arthur Capell, Earl of Essex | Capell initially supported Charles II but became extremely anxious about the idea of a Catholic on the throne if James II were to succeed Charles. | Capell became the leader of the Monmouth Cabal. |
| Richard Rumbold | Republican who had fought for Oliver Cromwell. | Rumbold owned Rye House and offered it as the location of the ambush for the Rye Plot conspirators. |
Green Ribbon Club
A radical political group that believed in electoral reform, popular sovereignty, and that all adult males should be able to vote.
The Monmouth Cabal
The Monmouth Cabal was a group of Protestants who wanted James Scott, the 1st Duke of Monmouth, to become king.
The Duke of Monmouth was the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II (who had no legitimate heirs through his marriage). He was a Protestant who fled abroad to the Dutch Republic because he became too popular in England, where many disliked his pro-Catholic father. He was identified as a conspirator in the Rye House Plot. A couple of years later, in 1685, he led the Monmouth Rebellion to try and take the throne from his uncle, James II. The rebellion failed, and he was captured and executed.
The Plan
The plotters knew that Charles II and his brother, James the Duke of York, would be travelling together from the horse races at Newmarket to a royal residence in London on 1 April 1683.
Fig. 2 Map showing Charles II and James' expected route to London from Newmarket on 1 April 1683, as well as the location of Rye House on this route.
The plan revolved around an ambush from a small force of men with guns, who would attack Charles and James on this journey back to London. They planned to stage the attack at Rye House, a mansion en route that belonged to Richard Rumbold, a republican who had fought for Oliver Cromwell during the Civil War.
What actually happened
The Rye House Plot was the plot that never happened. As it turned out, there was a significant fire in Newmarket, where the horse races were taking place, so Charles and James returned to London several days earlier than planned. This meant that the plan to ambush them never took place.
However, a couple of months after the event, one of the plotters alerted the King to the foiled plan. Thus, in June 1683, news of the plot leaked to the court. The informant, Josiah Keeling, received a pardon for his decision, as did Robert West, who provided information after his arrest. However, the other conspirators were not so lucky - most were imprisoned after Josiah and Robert testified in the court trials against them.
Rye House Plot Trials
After the highly publicised trials, fourteen people were sentenced to death for their participation in the plot. Of these, twelve were executed, and two were later pardoned. Furthermore, ten were imprisoned for involvement in the Rye House Plot, and the Earl of Essex committed suicide while awaiting trial in the Tower of London.
Those who were lucky managed to flee abroad and escape punishment. Almost all of these fled to the Protestant and republican Dutch Republic, which provided them with a safe shelter while they waited for things to change in England.
Short-Term Consequences of the Rye House Plot
From one perspective, the Rye House Plot was a complete failure because its intended significant consequence, the assassination of Charles II and James, Duke of York, never happened.
However, the Rye House Plot did have several other consequences:
- Most of Charles II's primary political opponents were executed, imprisoned, or forced to flee abroad.
- The public outrage at the plot caused a sudden upswing in popularity for Charles II. Up to now, he had been a fairly unpopular king.
- The Whig Party (closely associated with many of the leaders of the plot) was severely weakened by losing many of its foremost leaders.
The short-term outcome of the Rye House Plot was thus a triumph for Charles II and James. It enabled them to take action against their primary opponents and led to a momentary upswing in popular opinion towards them.
Long-Term Impact of the Rye House Plot
However, historian Doreen Milne cautions us against seeing the outcome of the Rye House Plot as ultimately working in favour of Charles and James. She argues that Charles' severe measures against anyone accused, including some men's execution before a fair trial, meant that many moderates were turned against him. She writes:
The growth of this criticism and discontent was as real a result of the prosecution of the plot as were the deaths of Russell, Sidney and Essex; and it was this growth which helped to undermine respect and confidence in the monarchy and so to prepare the way for the revolution [of 1688].1
One vital piece of evidence supporting this view is a pamphlet published by Halifax, one of Charles' advisors. This publication was called 'The Character of a Trimmer'. It condemned Charles' harsh measures against anyone connected loosely to the Rye House Plot conspirators. The fact that one of Charles' own advisors thought he could publish such a critical piece of writing indicates that this opinion was already widespread by this time.2
Fig. 3 Portrait of King Charles II, against whom the Rye House Plot was planned.
Fig. 3 Portrait of King Charles II, against whom the Rye House Plot was planned.
Further evidence that demonstrates the prevalence of this view comes from the writings of the Bishop of Oxford. The Bishop was devoted to the Church of England and the uncovering of the Rye House Plot. However, he wrote that he was glad Lord Delamare was acquitted rather than found guilty in 1686. He stated that this was because insufficient evidence had been found against his involvement in the Rye House Plot.3
Rye House Plot: John Locke
You may have heard of John Locke, but who was he exactly, and how was he connected with the Rye House Plot? Let's take a look at this interesting slice of history.
Who was John Locke?
Fig. 4 Portrait of John Locke
John Locke was an English philosopher who laid many foundations for the intellectual and cultural movement known as the Enlightenment. He published many important papers on identity and selfhood, knowledge, political theories, economics, religion, and education. His works inspired other great thinkers, such as Voltaire and Rousseau.
Enlightenment
An intellectual movement in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries focused on reason, knowledge, and freedom.
How was John Locke involved in the Rye House Plot?
The truth is, we don't know to what extent John Locke was a participant in the Rye House Plot. We know that Locke's patron, the Earl of Shaftesbury, was one of Charles and James' foremost opponents as the leader of the Whig Party. Shaftesbury fled to the Dutch Republic in 1682 after the discovery of his plot of armed resistance against Charles and James. Therefore, Locke certainly was closely involved with people who actively worked against Charles II.
However, historian Philip Milton argues against the idea that Locke was involved in the Rye House Plot. He argues:
there is little to indicate that he was directly involved.4
The following table considers the critical evidence for and against Locke's involvement in the Rye House Plot.
| For | Against |
| He was closely involved with many of the plotters. | Locke's journal does not mention any of the important meetings that took place by the plotters. |
| He attended some of the meetings that the plotters set up. | Humphrey Prideaux, a student who was convinced that Locke was up to something, could find nothing suspicious to report during the crucial period when the Rye House plotters were meeting and outlining their plan. |
| Some of his letters may contain coded references to some of the planned aspects of the plot. | Locke was in Salisbury sorting matters for his patron's funeral at the time of the Rye House Plot itself. |
| He left London as soon as he realised the plotters had been betrayed and fled to the Dutch Republic. | He had already planned to depart London around that time anyway. He fled to the Dutch Republic for several reasons. He was afraid of being caught up in the mass round-up of conspirators as he was associated with many of them. |
Rye House Plot - Key takeaways
- The Rye House Plot was a conspiracy in 1683 to assassinate Charles II and his brother, James the Duke of York, who was the heir to the throne.
- The plot was hatched by republican, Protestant, and Whig individuals who disliked Charles' pro-Catholic leanings and wanted to prevent his Catholic brother from becoming king.
- The plot failed, and many of its leaders were executed or fled abroad. Some were imprisoned or forced to pay a fine.
- The short-term consequence of the plot was that Charles II's position was strengthened.
- However, the long-term consequence was the undermining of the Stuart monarchy. Charles' severe measures against all opponents were seen as overly harsh when many of them had only weak links to the plot itself.
References
- Doreen J. Milne, 'The Results of the Rye House Plot and their Influence upon the Revolution of 1688: The Alexander Prize Essay', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 1, (1951), pp.93-94.
- Doreen J. Milne, 'The Results of the Rye House Plot and their Influence upon the Revolution of 1688: The Alexander Prize Essay', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 1, (1951), p.94.
- Doreen J. Milne, 'The Results of the Rye House Plot and their Influence upon the Revolution of 1688: The Alexander Prize Essay', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 1, (1951), pp.100-101.
- Philip Milton, 'John Locke and the Rye House Plot', The Historical Journal 43, (2000), p.647.
- Fig.2 - Map showing the expected route of Charles II and James from Newmarket to London on 1 April 1683, (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RyeHouseLocationMap.svg), created by Jan Renzlow, (jlorenz1 de:jlorenz1@web.de), Licensed by CC BY 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/deed.en).
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