1696 Jacobite assassination plot

George Barclay led an unsuccessful attempt to ambush and kill William III and II of England, Scotland and Ireland in early 1696.

In 1694 he was put in command of forces raised in the London area by Parker, for a potential Jacobite rising against William III and Mary II.

Mary's death at the end of 1694 revived their interest in direct action in England, and finance from France arrived by April 1695.

Barclay assessed the plan as hopeless, shunned Fenwick, and went back to the original idea of "kidnapping" William, certainly a euphemism for an assassination.

[7] There was no shortage of rumour, with the information from Thomas Prendergast proving decisive: he had been approached by George Porter on 13 February 1696, and then went to William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland, to reveal the conspiracy.

[16] The 1695 Treason Act made the date of arrest crucial in determining whether the accused were entitled to defense counsel; this was denied to Friend, Parkyns and Charnock when Sir John Holt enforced the letter of the law.

[19][20] Constantijn Huygens, William's personal secretary, records in his Diary; 'I was in doubt whether to watch the execution of Friend and Parkyns, but being on my way from Kensington, I saw the spectators walking away and so returned home.

[24] In political terms, the unmasked plot strengthened the hand of the Whig Junto in dealing with the Country Party, and in asking parliament to vote money.

[25] The House of Commons agreed to the swearing of an "association", in effect a loyalty oath to the king; and it was argued that William's preservation was divine providence, undermining the view that he had only been entitled to the English throne in the lifetime of Queen Mary.