Trials
Several capital sentences were carried out. William, Lord Russell was convicted and executed. Algernon Sidney was convicted on weaker evidence by Judge Sir George Jeffreys, who was brought in as Lord Chief Justice in September 1683; also executed was Sir Thomas Armstrong, a Member of Parliament. The Earl of Essex committed suicide in the Tower of London, whilst Ford Grey, 3rd Baron Grey of Werke escaped from the Tower and The Earl of Macclesfield was sentenced to death, but was later pardoned.
The final trial on the Rye House charges was that of Charles Bateman, in 1685. Witnesses against him were the conspirators Keeling, who had nothing specific to say, Thomas Lee, and Richard Goodenough. He was hanged, drawn and quartered.
A popular account of the plot was published in 1685 by Thomas Sprat, A True Account and Declaration of the Horrid Conspiracy against the Late King.
Read more about this topic: Rye House Plot
Famous quotes containing the word trials:
“... all the cares and anxieties, the trials and disappointments of my whole life, are light, when balanced with my sufferings in childhood and youth from the theological dogmas which I sincerely believed, and the gloom connected with everything associated with the name of religion, the church, the parsonage, the graveyard, and the solemn, tolling bell.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“All middle-class novels are about the trials of three, all upper-class novels about mass fornication, all revolutionary novels about a bad man turned good by a tractor.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)
“Without trials and tribulations, no one can become a Buddha.”
—Chinese proverb.