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:
“It is time to provide a smashing answer for those cynical men who say that a democracy cannot be honest, cannot be efficient.... We have in the darkest moments of our national trials retained our faith in our own ability to master our own destiny.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Old age is not a disease—it is strength and survivorship, triumph over all kinds of vicissitudes and disappointments, trials and illnesses.”
—Maggie Kuhn (b. 1905)
“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)