Anthony Babington

Anthony Babington (24 October 1561 – 20 September 1586) was an English gentleman convicted of plotting the assassination of Elizabeth I of England and conspiring with the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, for which he was hanged, drawn and quartered.

Anthony was under the guardianship of his mother, her second husband, Henry Foljambe, and Philip Draycot of Paynsley Hall, Cresswell, Staffordshire, his future father-in-law.

[4] In about 1580, while travelling on the continent, he had met the arch-conspirator Thomas Morgan, who persuaded him to courier letters to Mary while she was still being held by his former master, the Earl of Shrewsbury.

He also assisted the movement of priests in the Catholic Midlands, but by 1586, with Mary removed to the harsher regime of Tutbury and the consequent closing down of communications with her, Babington's role as a courier came to an end.

The Queen's security forces, led by Sir Francis Walsingham with its ruthless and cunning spies like Poley were more than effective at their job.

On 6 July 1586, Babington wrote to Mary Stuart, telling her that he and a group of friends were planning to assassinate Elizabeth, whom she (the Queen of Scots) would succeed.

[8] Babington's final letter to his friend and betrayer, Poley ("farewell sweet Robyn...") is one of the more strikingly poignant documents in the case.

[5] A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley is set at Thackers, the fictional name for the Babington Manor House, actually at Dethick, in Derbyshire.

In 2008, BBC Radio 4 broadcast an Afternoon Play by Michael Butt entitled The Babington Plot, directed by Sasha Yevtushenko with Stephen Greif as "The Presenter", done in documentary-style and told from the perspectives of some of the conspirators – some genuine, some government spies that had infiltrated the group - and several people who were in various ways involved in the events.