Fateful Flight To France
Knowing that the Babington Plot would fail, Gifford departed for France without Walsingham's permission. In a letter dated 2 August 1586, Walsingham wrote: "Sorry I am that Gilbert Gifford is absent. I marvel greatly how this humour of estranging himself cometh upon him." He was ordained as a priest in Rheims in March 1587. At least nominally a Catholic, Gifford opposed both the Jesuits and the proposed Spanish invasion.
In late 1587 in Paris, he was arrested in a brothel, being found in bed with a woman and a male servant of the Earl of Essex. Initially placed in the Bishop's prison, his captors considered sending him back to Walsingham. Eventually he was transferred to the Bastille to await trial. A record of his interrogation show that he tried to implicate Morgan and Paget in double dealings. In August 1589 he was brought before the court and sentenced to twenty year’s imprisonment for acting against the interests of the Catholic Church. At that time Paris was in the control of the Catholic League, which had risen against the French King. While in prison his health deteriorated. At the Battle of Ivry in March 1590 the army of the League was annihilated, and the King marched towards Paris, determined to starve the capital into submission. The siege lasted until August and caused a famine. Gifford died a few months later, in November 1590.
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