Assassination Attempts, Plots, and Rebellions

Abstract

Though Elizabeth was a well-beloved queen, there were also throughout her reign many plots to assassinate her. While there were plots against the queen from the beginning of her reign, they became far more frequent and dangerous in 1568 once Mary Stuart fled to England after being forced to abdicate her throne in Scotland, such as the 1571 Ridolfi Plot and finally the 1586 Babington Plot. Mary’s arrival in England also led to the Northern Rebellion of 1569. Some of the plotters, such as John Somerville or William Hacket, acted so bizarrely that officials wondered if they were mentally ill. Even after Mary’s execution in 1587, there were still some remarks by her subjects that they wished to see the queen dead, and some foreign plots against the queen. The charges against Elizabeth’s physician, Roderigo Lopez, in 1594 led to a strong anti-Jewish feeling in the capital, when Lopez was executed, on problematic evidence, for planning to poison the queen. The last serious plot against Elizabeth was the rebellion led by Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, in 1601.