On This Day (20 Sep) in 1586, Anthony Babington and 6 of his co-conspirators were executed, following their convictions for high treason.
Born into a Catholic gentry family in 1561, Babington was a long-time supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots claim to the English throne.
Mary had been under house arrest in England following her forced abdication from Scotland in 1567; since Dec 1585, she had been held at Chartley Manor, the Staffordshire residence belonging to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and rising star within the Elizabethan court.
It was during her imprisonment at Chartley that Babington corresponded with Mary, advising of his intent to assassinate Elizabeth I and place Mary on the throne, to which Mary gave her support. These letters were encrypted, using a cypher, and were moved in and out of Chartley in beer barrels.
Elizabeth's security forces, led by Sir Francis Walsingham, were made aware of this conspiracy, and infiltrated the conveyance of the letters, therefore providing evidence against both Babington (and his co-conspirators), as well as Mary.
On 20 Sep 1586, Babington and his co-conspirators were taken from the Tower of London, and paraded through the streets of London to St Giles' Field, where a scaffold had been erected. There, the men were hung, drawn and quartered, with their body parts later distributed across London as warnings to others.
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