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Melvyn Bragg

Clare Jackson

Mark Knights

Peter Hinds

Simon Tillotson

In Our Time: Titus Oates and his 'Popish Plot'

Titus Oates and his 'Popish Plot'

12/05/2016

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Titus Oates and his 'Popish Plot'

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Titus Oates and his fictitious Popish Plot.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Titus Oates and his role in starting and spreading rumours of a 'Popish Plot' against Charles II.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Titus Oates (1649-1705) who, with Israel Tonge, spread rumours of a Catholic plot to assassinate Charles II. From 1678, they went to great lengths to support their scheme, forging evidence and identifying the supposed conspirators. Fearing a second Gunpowder Plot, Oates' supposed revelations caused uproar in London and across the British Isles, with many Catholics, particularly Jesuit priests, wrongly implicated by Oates and then executed. Anyone who doubted him had to keep quiet, to avoid being suspected a sympathiser and thrown in prison. Oates was eventually exposed, put on trial under James II and sentenced by Judge Jeffreys to public whipping through the streets of London, but the question remained: why was this rogue, who had faced perjury charges before, ever believed?

With

Clare Jackson
Senior Tutor and Director of Studies in History at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge

Mark Knights
Professor of History at the University of Warwick

And

Peter Hinds
Associate Professor of English at Plymouth University


Producer: Simon Tillotson.

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