Spanish blanks plot
 | This article or section is in a state of significant expansion or restructuring. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well. If this article or section has not been edited in several days, please remove this template. If you are the editor who added this template and you are actively editing, please be sure to replace this template with {{in use}} during the active editing session. Click on the link for template parameters to use.
This article was last edited by Charles Matthews (talk | contribs) 13 years ago. (Update timer) |
The Spanish blanks plot was an alleged pro-Spanish Catholic conspiracy in Scotland, discovered in late 1592.
Background
The Spanish Armada had failed in its attempt to conquer England in 1588. The undeclared Anglo-Spanish War continued, however. The Kingdom of Scotland under James VI was divided over religion, despite the formal ascendancy of the Church of Scotland at this time in a presbyterian form. The Scottish nobility were turbulent, while the king was working to assert administrative and political control of the country against factional and religious strife. A Jesuit mission concerned with Scotland included William Crichton and Robert Abercromby; it looked to help from Spain to further the aims of the Counter-reformation in the British Isles.
Discovery
Andrew Knox came across George Kerr,[1] son of Mark Kerr. Kerr was about to sail from the west coast of Scotland, and carried incriminating correspondence; he was arrested on the Isle of Cumbrae.[2] The "Spanish blanks" were documents signed by members of the Catholic nobility of Scotland, and otherwise left to be filled in. Damagingly for James VI, Kerr was also carrying a copy of a position paper by the king on the possible advantages to him in accepting Spanish help.[3] Under torture, Kerr said that the blanks were to be filled in by Crichton, to forward a Spanish invasion.[4]
Accused of involvement
Three prominent Earls were directly implicated:
- William Douglas, 10th Earl of Angus[5]
- Francis Hay, 9th Earl of Erroll[6]
- George Gordon, 6th Earl of Huntly[7]
The fourth signature on the papers discovered was that of Sir Patrick Gordon of Auchindoun.[8] Erroll and Huntly were given a date of 5 February to appear and explain themselves: they did not do so, and went to ground in the north. The king was confronted by them on 24 October, on the road from Soutra to Fifa, south-east of Edinburgh; they explained that the blanks related to their support for the Jesuits in Scotland.[4]
Others involved were:
- Alexander, Lord Home[4]
- Sir James Chisholm of Cromlix[9]
- David Graham, Laird of Fintry.[4] A Catholic, he was executed on 15 February 1593.[10]
- Hew Barclay of Ladyland[11]
- John Ogilvy[12]
Aftermath
An official account of the plot appeared in February 1593; it is assumed it was edited by John Davidson. It by no means included all the intercepted letters; but it printed a number concerned with William Sempill in 1589; the connection was that when Sempill's servant Pringle was found in England carrying letters to the Duke of Parma, they had included some from Huntly and Erroll.[13][14]
Perceptions of James VI shifted after the discoveries: some assumed the affair showed the king had at least tacitly approved dealings with Spain, and many more put it down to slackness in anti-Catholic measures.[15]
References
- ^ Kirk, James. "Knox, Andrew". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15780. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Thomas M. McCoog; Campion Hall (University of Oxford) (1996). The Reckoned Expense: Edmund Campion and the Early English Jesuits : Essays in Celebration of the First Centenary of Campion Hall, Oxford (1896-1996). Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 216. ISBN 978-0-85115-590-6. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
- ^ Marion A. Taylor (1 June 1975). Bottom, Thou Art Translated: Political Allegory in a Midsummer Night's Dream and Related Literature. Rodopi. pp. 180–1. ISBN 978-90-6203-038-5. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
- ^ a b c d Thomas M. McCoog (1 January 2012). The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland, and England, 1589-1597: Building the Faith Saint Peter Upon the King of Spain's Monarchy. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 81–4. ISBN 978-1-4094-3772-7. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
- ^ White, Allan. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7931.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) - ^ Saenz, Concepcion. "Hay, Francis". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12715. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Sizer, J. R. M. "Gordon, George". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/11036. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ W. B. Patterson (14 September 2000). King James VI and I and the Reunion of Christendom. Cambridge University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-521-79385-8. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
- ^ Molland, George. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19758.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) - ^ P. G. Maxwell-Stuart (2001). Satan's Conspiracy: Magic and Witchcraft in Sixteenth-Century Scotland. Dundurn Press Ltd. p. 158. ISBN 978-1-86232-136-6. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
- ^ Helena Mennie Shire (26 August 2010). Song, Dance and Poetry of the Court of Scotland Under King James VI. Cambridge University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-521-14829-0. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
- ^ Loomie, A. J. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20600.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) - ^ John Rawson Elder, Spanish Influences in Scottish History (1920), p. 188; archive.org.
- ^ . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- ^ Crawford Gribben; David George Mullan (2009). Literature and the Scottish Reformation. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-7546-6715-5. Retrieved 24 May 2012.