Titus Oates - Aftermath

Aftermath

On 31 August 1681, Oates was told to leave his apartments in Whitehall, but remained undeterred and even denounced the King, the Duke of York, and just about anyone he regarded as an opponent. He was arrested for sedition, sentenced to a fine of £100,000 and thrown into prison.

When James II acceded to the throne in 1685, he had Oates retried and sentenced for perjury to be stripped of clerical dress, imprisoned for life and to be "whipped through the streets of London five days a year for the remainder of his life." Oates was taken out of his cell wearing a hat with the text "Titus Oates, convicted upon full evidence of two horrid perjuries" and put into the pillory at the gate of Westminster Hall (now New Palace Yard) where passers-by pelted him with eggs. The next day he was pilloried in London and the third day was stripped, tied to a cart, and whipped from Aldgate to Newgate. The next day, the whipping resumed. The judge was Judge Jeffreys who stated that Oates was a "shame to mankind".

Oates spent the next three years in prison. In 1689, upon the accession of William of Orange and Mary, he was pardoned and granted a pension of £260 a year, but his reputation did not recover. The pension was later suspended, but in 1698 was restored and increased to £300 a year. Oates died on 12 or 13 July 1705.