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Titus Oates was a graduate of Cambridge University who, after leaving, joined the church as a priest. He was sacked for being
drunk. Then he became chaplain for a Royal Navy ship called Adventurer but his adventure on board got him sacked from there too.
Luckily, he then became famous because he discovered a plot to kill the king. He told people he had managed to join a group of Catholics in London who
would kill Charles and put his brother James on the throne. He said thousands of Protestants would be killed.
Because there was still this fear in England about Catholics, not helped by both Charles’ wife and brother being Catholic, people believed Oates. People
in London had blamed the Catholics for everything, plague, fire, you name it, so to hear they were plotting against the King was believable.
Oates swore an oath saying what he had found out. He did this to a magistrate call Sir Edmund Geoffrey, who was then found murdered in London a while
after Oates had given his statement. This made things worse as people said the Catholics had taken revenge on a man who was only doing his job
Charles didn’t believe Oates but people said he wouldn’t would he as his brother was involved. Parliament took a different view and gave Oates a state
apartment in Whitehall and an annual allowance of £1,200.
Oates gave out many names of people who were involved and one of them was found to have been talking to the French government. The man was also
secretary to James. This, said Oates, proved he was telling the truth. Then he accused five leading Catholic Lords of treason. Charles then questioned Oates and
found loads of lies in his stories. Oates then said that Charles’ wife and his doctor were going to poison the king. Charles had had enough and ordered Oates
arrest but Parliament said no and Charles didn’t want to follow his father and argue with Parliament so Oates was left free.
Parliament then passed a new Test Act which required members of both houses of parliament to make an anti-Catholic declaration. Then Oates said the
King would be shot with silver bullets so he couldn’t be treated.
Then, in 1681, some judges began to look into what had gone on.
It turned out that Oates had made the whole thing up, an early example of fake news. People who had been arrested because of what Oates had said about them were
released and the judges even pardoned some who had been executed; bit late but a nice thought.
Oates was arrested and sent to prison for lying under oath, a crime called perjury. It seems from some engravings that he may well have been put in
the stocks first. In 1688 he was released and given a weekly income of £10 in today’s money, which all seems pretty generous to a man who told lies and innocent
people were killed.
Forward to 1685AD
