Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- PART ONE THE RESTORATION CRISIS
- PART TWO THE SHADOW OF THE PAST
- PART THREE THE OLD CAUSE
- 10 Discourses (1) First principles
- 11 Discourses (2) Rebellion, tumult and war
- 12 The self-defence of protestants
- 13 The Tower
- 14 The reckoning
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History
13 - The Tower
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- PART ONE THE RESTORATION CRISIS
- PART TWO THE SHADOW OF THE PAST
- PART THREE THE OLD CAUSE
- 10 Discourses (1) First principles
- 11 Discourses (2) Rebellion, tumult and war
- 12 The self-defence of protestants
- 13 The Tower
- 14 The reckoning
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History
Summary
I cannot have an assurance of my own constancy … but I hope God will not abandon me. If he be with me, I shall not feare the face of man, and I doe from my hart desire and pray that I may be able so far to resigne my self unto his will, as not to retaine so much as an inclination of choosing [my fate] for myself. This for me is the highest end I can observe. [I]f I can attaine unto it, I shall be at rest, in Life, as in death. I wish the same for you, and desire that they whoe pray for us, may direct their prayers unto this end.
(Sidney to Hampden, 6 Oct. 1683)DISCOVERY
‘The Plot was discovered’ in the second half of June, but the government had been closely monitoring the situation, and the potential for arrests, well before that. Sidney later said that ‘In April last I was told by a person of eminent quality … that I should infallibly be made a prisoner … [that] somme [pretence] or other would be found; and that if I was once taken, it mattered not for what cause: it being impossible to avoide condemnation, before such judges and juryes as I should be tried by.’
The ‘person of eminent quality’ may have been Gilbert Hollis, the Earl of Clare, a good friend of Sidney's at this time who was to be a defence witness at his trial.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Algernon Sidney and the Restoration Crisis, 1677–1683 , pp. 292 - 316Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991