Titus Oates and his 'Popish Plot'

In Our Time: History

BBC

History

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2016

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time for more details about In Our Time
0:04.0	and for our terms of use, please go to bbc.co.uk slash radio for.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:10.9	Hello, in 1678 Titus Oats claimed he'd discovered a Catholic conspiracy to shoot King Charles
0:18.2	II.
0:19.3	He knew all the details, he'd invented everyone of them himself.
0:23.0	It's one of the great works of historical fiction.
0:26.0	For three years his fabricated purpose plot inflamed fears that there were secret Catholics
0:30.8	in power, conspiring to returning and to Catholicism under the King's brother James Duke of York.
0:36.9	Soon Charles banned Catholics from London, crowds peraded burning effigies of the Pope
0:41.9	through the city, vigilantes hunted for signs of supposed sympathizers, throwing them
0:46.4	in prison, there were executions of innocent priests, lords, even archbishop's.
0:51.4	Titus Oats basked in the adulation of a grateful public, though he has eventually caught
0:55.8	out the fear of plots and of the mob left a deep mark on politics and religious tolerance
1:00.8	for decades.
1:01.8	With me to discuss Titus Oats in his published plot are, Clad Jackson, senior tutor and director
1:07.2	of studies in history at Trinity Hall University of Cambridge, Mark Knight's Professor of History
1:12.7	at University of Warwick, and Peter Heinz, Associate Professor in English at Plymouth University.
1:18.2	Clad Jackson, what was the problem about being a Catholic in 1670s England?
1:24.8	Well I think we need to draw a distinction perhaps between day to day realities and popular
1:29.0	perceptions.
1:30.0	It's probably a theme we're going to come back to this morning about what actually happened
	...

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