Titus Oates (and the Fake Popish Plot) Titus Oates is one of those people for whom any re-evaluation of his history only serves to enhance his reputation as one of the most morally repugnant characters in all English history. Born in Oakham Rutland, on 15 September, 1649, the son of an Anabaptist preacher, he was short, lame, foul-mouthed, and extraordinarily ugly. His active homosexuality was to find him in constant trouble with the authorities. He was ejected from both his Cambridge Colleges and then perjured himself when he accused a school- master of sodomy. Oates only escaped prison by fleeing to London and, using his father's connections, getting himself appointed as Chaplain aboard the Royal Navy vessel, Adventurer. His appointment did not last long as he was very quickly accused of sodomy himself and was only spared punishment because of his status as a clergyman. Perennially poor and desperate for status he contacted a friend of his father's, Dr Israel Tonge for help. Tonge was an educated man but not a rational one, and he had a paranoid obsession with the notion of a Popish plot. Together he and Oates co-authored a series of anti-Catholic pamphlets. Oates's behaviour was now erratic to say the least, for in April, 1677, he converted to Catholicism and travelled abroad to join the Jesuit Seminary at Valladolid in Spain and then the seminary at St Omer in France. Again he was ejected from both because of his active homosexuality. Returning to London he renewed his friendship with Israel Tonge, telling him that he had only joined the seminaries to discover their secrets. One of these secrets, he told Tonge, was a plot to assassinate King Charles II and replace him with his Catholic brother, James, Duke of York. Summoning up the old demon of heretical Jesuits and homicidal Catholic conspirators in deeply paranoid Protestant England was no difficult task. Together Oates and Tonge now produced a pamphlet accusing the Jesuits of planning a Catholic coup d’état. Brought to the attention of Charles II he was initially dismissive but even so handed it over to his Chief Minister Lord Danby, to investigate further. The idea of a Catholic plot soon took hold. On 28 September, 1678, Oates was interrogated by the King's Council. The whole story seemed so improbable and many of the discrepancies so glaring that many of those who listened to them were shaking with laughter rather than trepidation. Even so, Oates named names. He openly accused the Queen's physician, Sir George Wakeman, Mary of Modena's (James's wife) secretary, Sir Edward Coleman, Lord Belayse the Archbishop of Dublin, and even Samuel Pepys. The Council was incredulous and dismissive, but events now played their part. Earlier on 6 September, Oates and Tonge had approached the Magistrate Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey to take their official deposition. On 12 October, 1678, Sir Edmund was found murdered on Primrose Hill, strangled and run-through with a sword. Now the Popish plot had a momentum all of its own and Oates and Tonge milked it for all it was worth. The Jesuits, they claimed, were responsible for the murder and that many more were sure to follow. The incident gave credence to what was a maliciously paranoid tissue of lies; but many of those who had previously been sceptical now came reluctantly on board. Suspects were arrested and numerous innocents executed including Edward Coleman. On 24 November, Oates claimed that the Queen, Catherine of Braganza, along with her physician were trying to poison the King. Charles was furious at the suggestion, or as furious as the languid old lecher could be, and now interrogated Oates personally. He found Oates to be duplicitous and unreliable. His careful questioning caught Oates out in a series of inaccuracies and obvious fabrications. He ordered his immediate arrest. But London was by now, gripped with frenzied anti-Catholicism, and any number of cutthroats and fraudsters now came forward to support Oates in his increasingly outlandish claims. The House of Commons declared it a "damnable and hellish plot". Parliament released Oates and awarded him an apartment in Whitehall and an annual allowance of £1200. Oates had never
been so popular. He was an English hero, the man who had saved sturdy Protestant England from the evil machinations of the bloodthirsty Jesuitical-ridden Papacy. But then Oates's plot was now being used by those in Parliament who wanted to exclude the Catholic James from the line of succession in favour of Charles's eldest illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth. The Exclusionists and their leader Lord Shaftesbury, were brilliantly outmanoeuvred by the King, however. With the end of any possibility of exclusion support for Oates began to dissipate. On 1 July, 1681, Oliver Plunkett, the Archbishop of Armagh, went to the scaffold on evidence provided by Oates. This was the high water mark of the Popish plot. In all more than 30 innocent men had been executed as a result of Oates's accusations. But Justices now began to find against him. Sir George Wakeham the Queen's physician was cleared of all charges by Lord Justice Scroggs, and many more were to follow. It soon became clear that for all the smoke and sound of thunder no actual evidence of a Popish plot had been produced. In August, 1681, Oates was forced to relinquish his apartment and his allowance was withdrawn. His response was to make even more hysterical accusations. He was soon denouncing everyone who was anyone in Stuart England. Already under arrest for homosexual importuning he was tried for sedition, found guilty, and fined £100,000. On 6 February, 1685, Charles II died, after apologising for taking such an unconscionable time in doing so. He was succeeded by his openly Catholic brother James, Duke of York, who had a score to settle with Oates. He had him re-tried by the notorious Judge Jeffries who declared Oates "a shame to mankind". He increased his prison sentence to life and ordered that he be regularly pilloried, and to be stripped, tied to a cart, and dragged through the streets of London to be whipped in the full public glare. Oates, in fact, only spent 3 years in prison. In 1688, James was deposed as King of England by William of Orange. Seen as a victim of the despotic Catholic King James, William released Oates and awarded him a pension of £5 a week. Oates took the money but could not keep his mouth shut. He still continued to plot with others, but by now he was yesterday’s man. In 1693, he married but continued to cruise. He died on 13 July, 1705, a Baptist Minister.