Popish Plot - Other Accusations

Other Accusations

On 24 November, Oates claimed the Queen was working with the King's physician to poison him and enlisted the aid of "Captain" William Bedloe. The King personally interrogated Oates, caught him out in a number of inaccuracies and lies, and ordered his arrest. However, a few days later, with the threat of constitutional crisis, Parliament forced the release of Oates.

Hysteria continued. Noblewomen carried firearms if they had to venture outdoors at night. Houses were searched for hidden guns, mostly without any significant result. Some Catholic widows tried to ensure their safety by marrying Anglican widowers. The House of Commons was searched—without result—in the expectation of a second Gunpowder Plot being perpetrated.

Anyone even suspected of being Catholic was driven out of London and forbidden to be within ten miles of the city. Oates, for his part, received a state apartment in Whitehall and an annual allowance. He soon presented new allegations, claiming assassins intended to shoot the King with silver bullets so the wound would not heal. The public invented their own stories, including a tale that the sound of digging had been heard near the House of Commons and rumours of a French invasion in the Isle of Purbeck.

However, public opinion began to turn against Oates. Having had at least 15 innocent men executed, the last being Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh on 1 July 1681. The Chief Justice, William Scroggs began to declare people innocent and the King began to devise countermeasures.

On 31 August 1681, Oates was told to leave his apartments in Whitehall, but remained undeterred and even denounced the King and the Duke of York. 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 for perjury. The death penalty was not available for perjury and Oates was sentenced to be stripped of clerical dress, whipped through London twice (perhaps in the expectation that this would kill him), and imprisoned for life and pilloried every year. Oates survived the whipping and spent the next three years in prison. At the accession of William of Orange and Mary in 1689, he was pardoned and granted a pension of £260 a year but his reputation did not recover. The pension was suspended, but in 1698 was restored and increased to £300 a year. Oates died on 12 or 13 July 1705.