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| Lord Monteagle played a pivotal part in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 – an event that was to dominate the early years of the reign of James I and Stuart England. On October 26th 1605, Lord Monteagle was sitting in his Hoxton home having dinner when there was a knock at his door. This by itself would have been unusual as few people ventured out at night because of the dangers this involved.
The stranger gave a letter to a man in the employment of Monteagle called Ward who, after shutting the door, moved to hand it to his master. Monteagle then asked Ward to read a letter the contents of which, one would suppose, he knew nothing about. It is known that Ward was a friend of Thomas Winter, one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot.
Two theories have been forwarded for this seemingly curious action. The first is that he knew what was in the letter as he wrote it but needed a witness to read it out if only to make Monteagle himself seem an innocent party in the whole affair. The other theory is reasonably simple – that he wanted to finish his dinner uninterrupted and got an employee to read out the letter while Monteagle continued eating.
Lord Monteagle was a Catholic member of the House of Lords. He was also married to the sister of one of the plotters, Francis Tresham. It is thought that Tresham sent the letter but his curious death while under arrest in the Tower of London means that this will never be known for sure.
The most important part of the famous letter is:
“Therefore, I would advise you as you value your life, to find some excuse not to attend this Parliament. For though there is no sign of any trouble, yet I say, they shall receive a terrible blow at this Parliament, yet they shall not see who hurts them.”
This was a clear hint, not even a coded one, that Parliament was threatened. Monteagle showed the letter to Robert Cecil who informed James I. The king ordered a search of the cellars at the Palace of Westminster. The plot was discovered and Monteagle became the hero who saved Parliament. He was rewarded to the sum of £700 a year - £500 in cash and £200 in the value of land donated to him. He invested the money in business ventures in Virginia.
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