Suspicious Aftermath

The case of William Parker, Lord Monteagle, is particularly suspicious.There are conflicting reports about the sincerity of his Catholicism. He was not only related to key members of the conspiracy, he had been deeply involved with several of them in earlier plots and Catholic campaigns in the preceding years. He was mentioned in confessions taken in the Tower, but in various places these passages were left out of copies of the original documents. In one instance a piece of paper covered his name (rather like correction tape), and in another case Cecil's handwritten note warns that the particular document mentioning Monteagle cannot be used in evidence. Clearly he was "protected".⁵

Once the plot was resolved, Monteagle was declared the savior of England (see illustration on the title page) and awarded an annual pension of £500 for life and land that was worth another £200 a year. He used his newfound wealth to invest in companies such as the Virginia Company, the Northwest Passage Company and the East India Company (source). Was all this because he took an anonymous letter, whose meaning he claimed to be unable to discern, to Cecil? Or was it a payoff for a more complex role in a double-cross, betraying his friends and relatives in their plot to entrap more innocent Catholics?