The Tryal of William Viscount Stafford for High Treason, in Conspiring the Death of the King.

Parliament, William Howard Stafford,

The Tryal of William Viscount Stafford for High Treason, in Conspiring the Death of the King.

London: Printed by the assigns of John Bill, Thomas Newcomb, and Henry Hills, printers to the Kings most excellent Majesty, 1680/1.

Lord Stafford fails to successfully defend himself against Titus Oates, and is condemned to death by his own peers. Complete in all respects with the scarce blanks.

$550.00

Lord Stafford fails to successfully defend himself against Titus Oates, and is condemned to death by his own peers. Complete in all respects with the scarce blanks.

Lord Stafford fails to successfully defend himself against Titus Oates, and is condemned to death by his own peers. Complete in all respects with the scarce blanks.

The volume(s) measure about 30 cm. by 19 cm. by 2.7 cm.

Each leaf measures about 293 mm. by 185 mm.

The full title reads:

The Tryal of William Viscount Stafford for High Treason, in Conspiring the Death of the King, the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion, the Subversion of the Government, and Introduction of Popery into this realm , upon an impeachment by the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled, in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England: begun in Westminster-Hall the 30th day of November 1680, and continued until the 7th of December following, on which day judgment of high treason was given upon him. With the manner of his execution on the 29th of the same month. London: Printed by the assigns of John Bill, Thomas Newcomb, and Henry Hills, printers to the Kings most excellent Majesty, 1680/1.

The volume is paginated as follows: [4], 218, [2] p. First leaf and last leaf are blank.

The volume collates as follows: [A]2 B-3K2.

ESTC: R3413 Wing T2238

Bound in recent quarter calf over marbled boards with the spine divided into six compartments by five double gilt ruled raised bands, with a red-letter label in the second compartment from the top. Hand-sewn headbands. Boards with minor scuffing but like new. Internally the leaves are generally clean with ample margins but with some browning to edges, stains, marks, and some worm tracks in the bottom margin not affecting text.

Stab marks present as well as the first and last blanks which would have served as a cover when published. Scarce with the blanks present.

Please Take the Time Necessary to Review the Photographs on Our Website in Order to Gain the Fullest Possible Understanding Of The Content And Condition Of This Volume.

Per Wikipedia

In 1678, Stafford was implicated in Titus Oates’s later discredited “Popish Plot”, and sent to the Tower of London on 31 October 1678, along with four other Catholic peers. They were due to be put on trial in early 1679, but Charles prorogued Parliament and it was delayed. The King initially seems to have had some suspicions about Stafford’s loyalty, especially after hearing the seemingly plausible evidence of the informer Stephen Dugdale, and went so far as to offer Stafford a royal pardon if he would confess; but he later altered his opinion. Scepticism about the plot grew and it was thought that the imprisoned peers might be released, but anti-Catholic feelings revived in 1680 and Stafford was put on trial in November for treason. As a peer he claimed the privilege of peerage to be tried before the House of Lords, presided over by the Lord High Steward. As events would show, however, a peer could not take the sympathy of his fellow peers, even those peers who were his blood relations, for granted.

Trial

The main evidence against Stafford came from Titus Oates, who said he had seen a document from the Pope naming Stafford as a conspirator; and from Stephen Dugdale, who testified that Stafford had tried to persuade him to kill the King when Stafford was visiting Dugdale’s employers, the Astons, at their country house, Tixall, Staffordshire. A third and particularly dangerous witness, Edward Turberville (a professional soldier, and thus a plausible choice as an assassin) said that he had visited Stafford in Paris in 1676, where Stafford had tried to bribe him to kill Charles II. There were several inconsistencies in his story, especially concerning the relevant dates, but Stafford, lacking expert legal assistance, failed to exploit them properly.

Stafford, like all those who were charged with treason until the passage of the Treason Act 1695, was denied defence counsel and forced to conduct his own defence, bringing forward witnesses to counter the evidence against him. One such witness would have been Richard Gerard of Hilderstone, who had come to London to testify on Stafford’s behalf but was imprisoned on the word of Stephen Dugdale; Gerard died in jail before the trial. Although the Lord High Steward, Heneage Finch, conducted the trial with exemplary fairness, this was not enough to secure Stafford’s acquittal: while Stafford maintained his innocence with vigour, John Evelyn, a spectator, thought his speeches “very confused and without method”. He failed, where a good defence counsel might have succeeded, in exposing the inconsistencies in the evidence of Turberville, or to discredit the unsavoury Oates, whose public standing had declined notably over the preceding year. As Evelyn also noted Stafford was “not a man beloved by his own family”, and seven out of eight peers of the Howard dynasty who sat on the Court voted him Guilty.

Stafford was convicted by a majority of 55 votes of Guilty to 31 of Not Guilty and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, the punishment of traitors, which was commuted by the King to beheading. The King, even though he is not thought to have had much personal regard for the unpopular Stafford, later said that he had signed the death warrant “with tears in his eyes”, but in the current state of public opinion a reprieve was impossible. Charles added that Stafford’s accusers had his blood on their hands, just as he later told the Earl of Essex that the blood of Oliver Plunkett was on his head.

Execution

Stafford was executed on Tower Hill on 29 December 1680. Gilbert Burnet wrote that he was quickly forgotten, but others thought that the publication of a version of his final words, addressed to his daughter Delphina (who was a nun at Leuven), in which he spoke eloquently of his innocence – “My good child, I pray God bless you. …Your poor old father hath this comfort, that he is totally innocent” – helped to turn public opinion against the Plot. The early deaths of Dugdale and Turberville, the principal informers against him, were seen by some as proof of the innocence of Stafford and other victims of the plot: Stafford himself was said to have prophesied (correctly) that Turberville would follow him to the grave within the year. To the surprise of many, Turberville to the very last maintained the truth of his charges against Stafford: Gilbert Burnet thought Stafford’s innocence or guilt a mystery beyond solution.

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