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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Babington Plot
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(1586) An incompetent conspiracy to assassinate Elizabeth I, which led instead to the death of *Mary Queen of Scots. Anthony Babington (1561–86), a member of a Roman Catholic family, had been devoted to Mary since boyhood, when he had served as a page to her jailer, Lord Shrewsbury. He and other aristocratic Catholic friends together with a priest, John Ballard, conspired in 1586 to put Mary on the throne and so make England a Catholic country again. Babington's letter to Mary, outlining these plans, was intercepted by *Walsingham, as was Mary's reply. Babington and five others were executed before Mary herself went on trial.
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