Throckmorton Plot

The alleged objective was to facilitate a Spanish invasion of England, assassinate Elizabeth, and put Mary on the English throne.

[2] This would be achieved by a Spanish-backed invasion of England, led by the French Duke of Guise, supported by a simultaneous revolt of English Roman Catholics.

An agent within the French embassy at Salisbury Court near Fleet Street, known as "Henry Fagot", notified Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's Secretary of State.

In June 1583, she asked the French ambassador Michel de Castelnau to apologise to Throckmorton for not writing to him in her own hand, and observed the potential for "great danger".

A few months later, as the conspiracy unravelled, she offered money from her French dowry income to the Guises to maintain their interest in her cause after the fall of the Gowrie Regime in Scotland.

[18] Walsingham and Lord Burghley drew up the Bond of Association, obliging all signatories to execute anyone who attempted to usurp the throne or to assassinate the Queen.

He confessed to writing a letter in cipher for Mary to send to the French ambassador Castelnau asking him to negotiate a pardon for Francis Throckmorton.

A ballad celebrating the discovery of the plot compared Elizabeth's escape to the survival of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace.