| Chapter 1: | The Traditional Story, the Revisionist Story, and the Story |
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the Hesketh Plot had the backing of King Philip of Spain and the pope. (Sir William Stanley was a beloved relative of the fourth and fifth Derby earls, Henry and Ferdinando, respectively, who at this time were in fact standing as guardians to the famous traitor’s two young sons, both of whom lived with the earls.)
I say Hesketh was sent to “sound out” Henry because the Catholics had a problem with the then-sitting Derby earl: they were not sure that he was Catholic. They were also worried about how long he—Henry Stanley—would live himself, as he was getting on in years and was rumored to be sickly. If he succeeded Elizabeth and then died on the throne, his eldest son, Ferdinando, as the fifth earl, would succeed him as the king. And therein lay another problem: the Catholics were even less sure of Ferdinando’s religion than they were of his father’s. Sounding Henry out thus meant getting an answer to two questions: First, would he accept the Catholics’ offer to put him on the throne if they assassinated Elizabeth and, using their army combined with the earl’s own, took over the country? Second, if he was not a Catholic, would he swear his oath before they took this action that he would become one before assuming the throne, that he would immediately return the English “realm spiritual” to the pope, and that he understood that they would dethrone him by any means necessary if he betrayed this oath?
Hesketh, again according to the standard story, landed in England in September of 1593. Upon arriving, he met a fellow wayfarer named Richard Baylie, who had served as a trumpeter under the Earl of Essex in the low countries, and quickly engaged Baylie to serve as his man on his trip up to Lancashire. Hesketh is reported (by one known spy and another apparent spy) to have been stout, middle-aged, yellow-haired,2 and dressed in yellow fustian (cotton) “in the English manner.”3 The two men rode north, reached their destination, and knocked on the door of the earl’s great house at New Park. They were met by the earl’s brother, Sir Edward Stanley, who told them that the earl had just died earlier that day. Sir Edward, acting in the late earl’s stead, took the papers Hesketh then presented to him. These included the formal letter from the leading