Then it was discovered that
Charles had been receiving a pension from Louis XIV. of France, on
condition that this country did not go to war with the French, an
arrangement which was most humiliating to the English people. The nation
was thoroughly alarmed, and at the next meeting of Parliament the
Commons brought in a bill to exclude the Duke of York from ever coming
to the throne. Many of the leading Whigs, including Lord William
Russell, Algernon Sidney, and the Earl of Essex, formed a confederacy.
It has never been proved that they ever meant the country to rise
against the king, but unfortunately, just at the same time, some bolder
and fiercer spirits of the Whig party determined to kill both Charles
and James at the lonely Rye House belonging to Rumbolt. The plot failed
from the fact that the house which the king occupied at Newmarket
accidentally caught fire, and Charles was obliged to leave Newmarket a
week sooner than was expected. This conspiracy as well as the meetings
of the Whig party were betrayed to the king's ministers. Russell was
beheaded in 1683, and Sidney shared the same fate.
[Illustration: RYE HOUSE.
The scene of the famous Rye House Plot in 1683.]
HATFIELD HOUSE, HERTS
=How to get there.=--From King's Cross. Great Northern Railway.
=Nearest Station.=--Hatfield.
=Distance from London.=--17-3/4 miles.
=Average Time.=--35 minutes.
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=--Single 2s. 6d. .
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