Synopses & Reviews
Robert Walpole foiled the Atterbury Plot by preventive arrests and holding those he suspected illegally without bail or trial. When Parliament met and the
Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, he used show trials, decided by votes along party lines and depending on forged evidence, to curb the Tory party, to reunite the Whig party, and to consolidate his hold on power. Rich in new material, this book unravels for the first time the scale and international dimension of a plot which posed the most serious challenge to the Hanoverian regime before the '45 rebellion.
Review
"[A]n important and exciting book." —Alan Hobson, Open University
Synopsis
In The Atterbury Plot Eveline Cruickshanks and Howard Erskine-Hill elucidate the different stages of the attempt to restore the Stuarts from 1720 to 1723 directed by Bishop Atterbury, and look at the reasons why a High Anglican such as Atterbury saw the restoration of the Catholic Stuarts as the means of saving Britain.
The burst of the South Sea Bubble in 1720 resulted in widespread public discontent and the hope of a constitutional restoration of the Stuarts. The Tories, who were proscribed from office, were led by Bishop Atterbury, James III's representative in England and Walpole's most feared opponent in Parliament. Together they worked alongside for a restoration brought about through a general rising. Faced with George I's standing army and his Dutch mercenary allies, the Tories looked for support from the Jacobite regiments in French and Spanish service, volunteers raised from the British army and navy, and popular support from several other bodies.
Walpole foiled the plot by the preventive arrest of leading conspirators, who
were held in prison contrary to common law. Christopher Layer, one of the
conspirators, had enough evidence against him to condemn him to death, but
Walpole did not have legal proofs to convict Bishop Atterbury, his secretary George Kelly or John Plunkett Layer's associate. By bills of pains and penalties passed in Parliament in divisions along party lines, Atterbury was forced into exile, while Kelly and Plunkett were sentenced to life imprisonment. As a result, Walpole was able to render the Tory party powerless for several years to come.
Rich in new material, this book unravels for the first time the scale and international dimension of a plot which posed the most serious challenge to the Hanoverian regime before the '45 rebellion.
About the Author
Eveline Cruikshanks has published
Political Untouchables: The Tories and the '45 (1979) and edited
Ideology and Conspiracy: Aspects of Jacobitism 1689-1759 (1982),
The Jacobite Challenge, with Jeremy Black (1988),
By Force or by Default? The Revolution of 1688-89 (1989),
The Stuart Court in Exile and the Jacobites, with Edward Corp (1995). Her most recent publications are
The Stuart Courts (2000) ed., and for Palgrave Macmillan
The Glorious Revolution 1678-1714 (2000). She is a major contributor to the
History of Parliament volumes 1660-1754, and has edited most of
The House of Commons 1690-1715, published in 2002.
Howard Erskine-Hill is Professor of Literary History, Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge. His publications include Poetry and the Realm of Politics: Shakespeare to Dryden, Poetry of Opposition and Revolution: Dryden to Wordsworth and as editor, Alexander Pope: Selected Letters.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Continuous Conspiracy * John Law and the First Phase of the Atterbury Plot * A Jacobite Opportunity: The South Sea Crisis and the Possibility of a Constitutional Restoration * A Call to Arms * Walpole and the 'Horrid Conspiracy' * The Military and Naval Resources of the Jacobites * The Arrests * The Case of Christopher Layer * The Trials of John Plunkett and George Kelly * The Trial of Bishop Atterbury * The Aftermath * Conclusion