Giles Mompesson - Backlash, Trial, and Banishment

Backlash, Trial, and Banishment

The sentiment against Mompesson was very high in 1620, and Bacon warned Villiers to take away Mompesson's licensing of inns, in particular. Buckingham, however, continued to support him. Mompesson was re-elected MP for Great Bedwyn in 1621. In February 1621, the |House of Commons and House of Lords began investigating him on separate matters, with Commons investigating the inn licensures and Lords the gold thread. Among other damning evidence, there was one account of one of Mompesson's agents showing up at a tavern, claiming emergency, begging for a place to sleep, and then, the next morning, prosecuting the tavern keeper for running an unlicensed inn. Sir Edward Coke found that Mompesson had prosecuted over 3,320 inns and taverns on regulations dating back to Henry VIII. Lords found that Mompesson had been guilty of extortion.

Mompesson's response was to admit his guilt and plead for mercy. He then attempted to blame Bacon for finding the inn scheme legal in the first place. Commons preferred charges to Lords, waiting sentencing, and Mompesson was ordered to attend every day and to be guarded by the Sergeant-at-Arms. On 3 March 1621, Mompesson fled to France. The next week, the sentence came down. Mompesson was ordered to pay a £10,000 fine, lose his knighthood, and ride down the Strand facing backwards from his horse, and then be imprisoned for life. A few days later, they added banishment for life to the penalty. Further, he was decried as an eternally notorious criminal.

His wife, Katherine, stayed in England. She petitioned Charles I for relief, asking that her husband be allowed to return to dispense with his estate, since it was entangled. Commons ordered that all of Mompesson's gains be forfeit, except for the New River annuity, which would go to Katherine. The fine devolved to John St. John. In 1623, Charles gave Mompesson three months to be in England, a period which was later extended. The House of Commons ordered him out of the country on 8 February 1624, but he was back in the country soon after. He lived in Wiltshire in retirement for the rest of his life. During his later years, his name was not forgotten by Parliamentarian forces. He was a Royalist during the English Civil War and visited the king, though he did not take part. His own will was tested in court and proved on 3 August 1663, so he died some (probably short) time before that date.