1 00:00:02,279 --> 00:00:06,480 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Not long ago, we talked about Marino Faliero 2 00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:11,160 Speaker 1: and a plot to overthrow, slash murder the Venetian nobility 3 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:15,720 Speaker 1: in the fourteenth century. We mentioned that when Byron wrote 4 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:18,439 Speaker 1: a play about this incident centuries later, some of his 5 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:22,040 Speaker 1: contemporaries interpreted it as a response to the Cato Street 6 00:00:22,079 --> 00:00:27,160 Speaker 1: Conspiracy of eighteen twenty. These two incidents aren't totally similar, 7 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:30,440 Speaker 1: but there are some parallels that make that comparison makes sense. 8 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:33,879 Speaker 1: We did an episode on the Cato Street Conspiracy on 9 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:38,279 Speaker 1: May one, so we're bringing that out as today's Saturday Classic. 10 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:44,479 Speaker 1: Enjoy Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, a 11 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:55,000 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 12 00:00:55,240 --> 00:00:59,160 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. Guy Fox 13 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:02,600 Speaker 1: and the gun Outer plot, which our predecessors Sarah and 14 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:05,120 Speaker 1: Bablina talked about in a two part podcast back in 15 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:08,960 Speaker 1: have become part of the popular culture on both sides 16 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:12,080 Speaker 1: of the Atlantic, definitely more so in the UK, but 17 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:16,199 Speaker 1: here too, Like we have Guy Fox masks at protests 18 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:19,640 Speaker 1: and all of this other stuff. Uh, but that plot 19 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: to blow up Parliament was not history's only attempt to 20 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:27,240 Speaker 1: violently destroy the British government and spark a popular uprising. 21 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:29,959 Speaker 1: It's just become way more famous than the one we 22 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,280 Speaker 1: are going to talk about today. That incident that we're 23 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:36,320 Speaker 1: talking about today happened more than two hundred years later, 24 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:39,960 Speaker 1: but it's not nearly as well remembered or in some 25 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: ways popularized, and that is the Cato Street Conspiracy. And 26 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:46,800 Speaker 1: it's been a while, but we've talked a bit on 27 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:50,160 Speaker 1: past podcasts about the economic and cultural climate of Great 28 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:54,440 Speaker 1: Britain in the early nineteenth century, including in our episode 29 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,560 Speaker 1: on the Luddite Rebellion. In the first decades of the 30 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:01,080 Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, the Industrial Revolution was well underway, and while 31 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:04,360 Speaker 1: much of Britain was still quite rural and agrarian, parts 32 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 1: of the nation were also urbanizing really rapidly. People were 33 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:10,959 Speaker 1: moving to cities faster than the cities themselves could keep up, 34 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:16,120 Speaker 1: leading to overcrowding, unsanitary living conditions, poverty, crime, and the 35 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:20,000 Speaker 1: rapid spread of disease. Food production hadn't kept up with 36 00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 1: the shifts in economy and industrialization, leading to food shortages, inflation, 37 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 1: and laws meant to regulate the grain market, which tended 38 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:33,560 Speaker 1: to favor landowners over workers and consumers. As the nation 39 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:37,720 Speaker 1: was becoming more urbanized, work was also becoming more mechanized, 40 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:41,400 Speaker 1: and as a result, skilled craftspeople and agricultural workers were 41 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:44,919 Speaker 1: increasingly being pushed out of their jobs. At the same time, 42 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:49,640 Speaker 1: working conditions and the nation's newly opened factories were often very, 43 00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:53,000 Speaker 1: very poor. People worked long hours for low pay and 44 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:57,160 Speaker 1: conditions that ranged along a spectrum from unpleasant to unsafe. 45 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:01,880 Speaker 1: Disciplinary action for even minor infractions tended to be really severe, 46 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:07,120 Speaker 1: including everything from withholding people's pay to physical punishments. People 47 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:10,800 Speaker 1: who worked in these factories were prohibited from organizing themselves 48 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:14,760 Speaker 1: to advocate for better conditions, fairer treatment, or better pay. 49 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:18,400 Speaker 1: Parliament had passed what was known as the Combination Act 50 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:22,560 Speaker 1: in sevent which received royal assent on July twelve of 51 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:27,560 Speaker 1: that year. Combination here is a synonym for union. Any 52 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:30,639 Speaker 1: two men who combined or unionized to try to get 53 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:33,760 Speaker 1: better pay or reduced hours could be sentenced to two 54 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:36,240 Speaker 1: months of hard labor, and the same was true of 55 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:39,080 Speaker 1: anyone who tried to convince anyone else to leave work, 56 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:42,600 Speaker 1: in other words, to go on strike. Although the Combination 57 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: Act technically applied to organizations of employers as well, it 58 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:50,080 Speaker 1: was really only enforced for workers. So not only were 59 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 1: people working in unpleasant, difficult, and sometimes dangerous conditions, but 60 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: they were also prohibited from getting together to try to 61 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:01,760 Speaker 1: do anything about it. All of this contributed to things 62 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:04,400 Speaker 1: like the Luddite Rebellion that we mentioned a few moments ago, 63 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:07,520 Speaker 1: and a few years before today's subject took place, the 64 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 1: Luddites had been protesting against mechanization in the textile industry. 65 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:16,400 Speaker 1: In eighteen eleven, the Luddites famously smashed knitting machines, ultimately 66 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: leading to the deployment of a military force to stop 67 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:24,400 Speaker 1: those protests in eighteen twelve. Today's conspiracy took place just 68 00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: a little later than that, in eighteen twenty. The same 69 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:31,600 Speaker 1: trends of urbanization and mechanization, and all of the downsides 70 00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:34,279 Speaker 1: that they were bringing along with them, had continued in 71 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: the years since the Luddite Rebellion. By then, the Napoleonic 72 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:40,960 Speaker 1: Wars and the War of eighteen twelve had both also 73 00:04:41,279 --> 00:04:44,560 Speaker 1: ended both of them in eighteen fifteen. Many of the 74 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:47,960 Speaker 1: soldiers and sailors who had previously been away fighting in 75 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,320 Speaker 1: the British Empires military were now home again, and they 76 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:54,719 Speaker 1: were all competing for the same very scarce supply of jobs. 77 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:57,919 Speaker 1: Arthur Thistlewood was one of the many radical voices in 78 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:01,039 Speaker 1: Great Britain protesting against all of this us He was 79 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:04,880 Speaker 1: baptized on December four of seventeen seventy four and probably 80 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,440 Speaker 1: born that year to William Thistlewood and Anne Burnett, who 81 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 1: were unmarried. Arthur's father was a stock breeder and his 82 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:16,320 Speaker 1: mother was a shopkeeper's daughter. A lot of the details 83 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:18,920 Speaker 1: about his early life and his upbringing are very hazy 84 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:22,279 Speaker 1: or contradictory, and this continues into his adult life as well, 85 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:25,919 Speaker 1: since he seems to have invented a highly romanticized and 86 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:30,760 Speaker 1: embellished biography for himself. He definitely did serve in two 87 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 1: different militia, first as an ensign and then as a lieutenant. 88 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:37,440 Speaker 1: He may have been in Paris during the Reign of Terror, 89 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:40,839 Speaker 1: although that's a little harder to substantiate. He claimed to 90 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 1: have visited the Americas and the Caribbean, but that seems 91 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:47,840 Speaker 1: less likely. When Thistlewood was in his twenties, he had 92 00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:51,000 Speaker 1: a series of brushes with money, each of them ending 93 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:54,640 Speaker 1: abruptly and putting him back where he started financially. He's 94 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:58,320 Speaker 1: reported to have been married twice. One was a Miss 95 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:02,160 Speaker 1: Bruce around one or seventeen ninety two, and the other 96 00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:05,680 Speaker 1: was Jane Worsley in eighteen o four, Although it's possible 97 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: that that first report is erroneous. In both cases these 98 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:12,359 Speaker 1: women came from money, but that money reverted back to 99 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:15,159 Speaker 1: each of their families because each of those women died 100 00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: in childbirth. Yeah, there's there's some speculation that maybe that 101 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:26,000 Speaker 1: ninety two UH marriage was a mistaken identity or someone else, 102 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:29,440 Speaker 1: but it happened at least once in that pattern. And 103 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:32,600 Speaker 1: he did also have a surviving son named Julian who 104 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:35,680 Speaker 1: was born around eighteen o four that was either by 105 00:06:35,760 --> 00:06:38,680 Speaker 1: Jane Worsley or by another woman, but regardless. When he 106 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:41,200 Speaker 1: married again in eighteen o eight, this time to a 107 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:45,120 Speaker 1: woman named Susan Wilkinson, she accepted the young Julian as 108 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:49,080 Speaker 1: her own. Around the same time, Thistlewood came into an 109 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:52,960 Speaker 1: inheritance which he sold in exchange for an annuity, but 110 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:56,760 Speaker 1: his buyer almost immediately went bankrupt, leaving Thistlewood without his 111 00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:00,720 Speaker 1: property and his buyer without the money to pay him. 112 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:02,520 Speaker 1: So at this point he had come into money and 113 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: then lost it UH several times, at least two, possibly 114 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:09,320 Speaker 1: three times, and the cycle of coming into money and 115 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:11,880 Speaker 1: then losing it again seems to have made him both 116 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:14,760 Speaker 1: bitter and ready to fight back against a system that 117 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:18,040 Speaker 1: he thought was stacked against him and against the working class. 118 00:07:18,880 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 1: When Thistlewood made his way to London sometime before eighteen ten, 119 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:25,200 Speaker 1: he found a community of people who were ready to 120 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:29,360 Speaker 1: stoke both his bitterness and his sense of being economically wronged. 121 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:33,520 Speaker 1: Once there, he quickly made connections to some of London's 122 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:37,680 Speaker 1: most radical thinkers and activists, including members of the Jacobin 123 00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:40,120 Speaker 1: Club that formed in the wake of the French Revolution. 124 00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:44,520 Speaker 1: Another in thistle Wwood's newfound circle was Thomas Spence, who 125 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:46,800 Speaker 1: was the de facto leader of a loose collection of 126 00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:50,120 Speaker 1: radical organizations, all of them in one way or another 127 00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:55,440 Speaker 1: advocating for revolution. Spence was against the monarchy, state, religion, 128 00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:58,440 Speaker 1: and the aristocracy, and he was in favor of true 129 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:02,920 Speaker 1: universal suffrage, although many of his allies advocated universal male 130 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:07,720 Speaker 1: suffrage only. Spence had kept various bookstalls, and he opened 131 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:10,440 Speaker 1: a bookstore known as the Hive of Liberty, where he 132 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:14,000 Speaker 1: sold revolutionary tracks, including ones that he had written himself. 133 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:17,440 Speaker 1: He also published a magazine known as pigs Meat, in 134 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:20,240 Speaker 1: which he called for things like the forest nationalization and 135 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 1: equal redistribution of all the land in Britain. Fence thought 136 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:27,880 Speaker 1: that private property ownership was giving U the rich a 137 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 1: permanent domination over the poor, and the only answer was 138 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:33,599 Speaker 1: to take all of the land and then divide it 139 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:38,240 Speaker 1: up equally. At first, thistle Wood's activities within these circles 140 00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:41,360 Speaker 1: didn't really get a lot of attention from authorities, but 141 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:44,160 Speaker 1: shortly before the end of the Napoleonic Wars, he was 142 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:45,920 Speaker 1: part of a group that was trying to send an 143 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:50,400 Speaker 1: emissary to France to essentially invite Napoleon to invade Britain 144 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:55,040 Speaker 1: directly and overthrow the monarchy. This plan completely fizzled out 145 00:08:55,080 --> 00:08:58,200 Speaker 1: after Thistlewood's promised funding of it, which was supposed to 146 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:01,840 Speaker 1: come from a lawsuit, failed to materialize. But it was 147 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:05,680 Speaker 1: this plan to petition Napoleon that finally caught the government's eye, 148 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,760 Speaker 1: and from that point they were really keeping a pretty 149 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:12,839 Speaker 1: steady gaze on Thistlewood. We will get into what happened 150 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:16,360 Speaker 1: after Thistlewood was under the government's watchful eye after a 151 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:25,920 Speaker 1: quick sponsor break. Although Thomas Spence himself died in eighteen fourteen. 152 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:29,680 Speaker 1: His followers, who became known as the Spencying Philanthropists or 153 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:33,320 Speaker 1: just Spensions, were still active two years later in the 154 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:37,640 Speaker 1: midst of a movement for parliamentary reform, and Arthur Thistlewood 155 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:41,120 Speaker 1: had become one of their key organizers. One of their 156 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:44,880 Speaker 1: strategies was to piggyback their revolutionary efforts on more moderate 157 00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:47,680 Speaker 1: calls for reform, and this is what happened at the 158 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:52,000 Speaker 1: Spa Fields riot on December two, eighteen sixteen. The meeting 159 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:54,440 Speaker 1: scheduled at Spa Fields that day was supposed to be 160 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:59,000 Speaker 1: an update on a petition to reform Parliament. However, Thistlewood 161 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:01,679 Speaker 1: was on the planning comm and he and others were 162 00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:05,239 Speaker 1: working behind the scenes to use the meeting to foment rebellion. 163 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:09,080 Speaker 1: Ahead of that meeting, the organizers had visited taverns and 164 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:12,640 Speaker 1: barracks to sow the seeds of a revolutionary riot, and 165 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:16,000 Speaker 1: they strategically position their allies within the crowd to try 166 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:20,720 Speaker 1: to incite violence. This didn't entirely go as planned, Although 167 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:23,640 Speaker 1: some in the crowd did become violent and the riot 168 00:10:23,679 --> 00:10:27,320 Speaker 1: went on for hours, most of the attendees at this 169 00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:32,000 Speaker 1: meeting remained peaceful, Thistlewood's ambitious goals of taking the Tower 170 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:35,440 Speaker 1: of London and the Bank of England and stealing weapons 171 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:39,880 Speaker 1: liberating prisoners did not happen at all. They did march 172 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:42,880 Speaker 1: to the tower, with Thistlewood leading the way, but order 173 00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:47,640 Speaker 1: was restored by nightfall. Although there was sufficient evidence to 174 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:51,440 Speaker 1: arrest Thistlewood and his accomplices in the Spa Fields riot immediately, 175 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:54,840 Speaker 1: the government also had a network of spies placed within 176 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:58,400 Speaker 1: the spencions and arrests would have disrupted that intelligence that 177 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,679 Speaker 1: they were gathering. So it was May of the following year, 178 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:04,079 Speaker 1: when Thistlewood and his family were about to flee to 179 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:08,480 Speaker 1: the America's when he was finally arrested and tried. Sources 180 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:12,360 Speaker 1: actually contradict either he was acquitted or the charge was 181 00:11:12,400 --> 00:11:14,960 Speaker 1: withdrawn when the key witness turned out to be a 182 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: pimp and a perjurer. Yeah. Unfortunately, that trial does not 183 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:23,000 Speaker 1: seem to be in the online records at Old Bailey, 184 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:26,520 Speaker 1: so I'm not sure which is correct. But two different 185 00:11:26,559 --> 00:11:31,079 Speaker 1: sources said clearly different things. After this failed attempt to 186 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:34,079 Speaker 1: start a revolution at the Spa Fields riots, this would 187 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:37,520 Speaker 1: increasingly believe that only an armed coup would bring the 188 00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:41,320 Speaker 1: revolution that he thought England needed. He had yet another 189 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:43,920 Speaker 1: plot to take over the Bank of England during the St. 190 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:48,040 Speaker 1: Bartholomew's Fair on September six, eight seventeen, although that effort 191 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:51,720 Speaker 1: once again failed. At this point a lot of the 192 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:55,560 Speaker 1: remaining Spencians had grown wary of all the overt attempts 193 00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:58,760 Speaker 1: to start a violent rebellion. Many of them went back 194 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:02,280 Speaker 1: to advocating for worms from the taverns in small groups 195 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:05,880 Speaker 1: that were less easily tracked and apprehended. This will Would, 196 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:09,400 Speaker 1: on the other hand, doubled down. In eighteen eighteen, he 197 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 1: challenged Home Secretary Henry Addington, Lord Sidmuth, who had previously 198 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:17,520 Speaker 1: served as Prime Minister, to a duel for the first time. 199 00:12:17,559 --> 00:12:20,280 Speaker 1: This will Would wound up in prison, starting a year 200 00:12:20,320 --> 00:12:23,720 Speaker 1: long sentence for threatening a breach of peace in May 201 00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:28,480 Speaker 1: of eighteen eighteen. Not long after this Wood's released from prison, 202 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:33,360 Speaker 1: on August six, eighteen nineteen, the Manchester Yeomanry, armed with sabers, 203 00:12:33,679 --> 00:12:37,520 Speaker 1: violently broke up a protest for parliamentary reform and what 204 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:41,680 Speaker 1: came to be known as the Peterloo massacre. In addition 205 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:44,119 Speaker 1: to those who were killed by members of the Yeomanry, 206 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:47,839 Speaker 1: others were trampled in their efforts to escape. At least 207 00:12:47,840 --> 00:12:51,920 Speaker 1: ten people were killed and hundreds more were injured. The 208 00:12:51,960 --> 00:12:55,960 Speaker 1: immediate aftermath of the Peterloo massacre did spark outrage and 209 00:12:56,040 --> 00:12:58,640 Speaker 1: calls for the types of reforms that the protesters had 210 00:12:58,679 --> 00:13:01,959 Speaker 1: been demanding, but in the end, the government sanctioned the 211 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:05,720 Speaker 1: way the Yeomanry and magistrates had handled the protest, and 212 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:09,240 Speaker 1: in response to it, Parliament also passed the Six Acts. 213 00:13:09,760 --> 00:13:12,520 Speaker 1: This was a set of six separate acts that limited 214 00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:15,680 Speaker 1: the rights to do things like assemble and print political material, 215 00:13:16,080 --> 00:13:20,280 Speaker 1: while also implementing harsher punishments for printing materials deemed seditious 216 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:24,079 Speaker 1: or obscene. One of the acts, the Training Prevention Act, 217 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:27,400 Speaker 1: made it illegal to have military style training and drills 218 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:32,400 Speaker 1: outside of official organizations like municipal militias. One of their 219 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:35,640 Speaker 1: main proponents for these acts was the Home Secretary. That's 220 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:38,440 Speaker 1: a man that Thistlewood had gone to prison for challenging 221 00:13:38,440 --> 00:13:42,800 Speaker 1: to a duel. This was maybe the last straws a 222 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:45,480 Speaker 1: lot of theories about exactly what prompted this Alewood to 223 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:50,440 Speaker 1: go from like a radical revolutionary calling for you know, 224 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:53,240 Speaker 1: a total change in the British government to somebody who 225 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 1: was literally planning to assassinate the entire cabinet. But at 226 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:01,560 Speaker 1: some point after the Peter Loom massacre, this Wood did 227 00:14:01,559 --> 00:14:04,679 Speaker 1: indeed start planning to assassinate the entirety of the Prime 228 00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:07,479 Speaker 1: Minister's Cabinet and to replace them all with the provisional 229 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:10,079 Speaker 1: government that he thought would truly be both for and 230 00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:13,640 Speaker 1: by the people. The cabinet met for dinners on a 231 00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:16,120 Speaker 1: regular basis, and he planned to use one of these 232 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:19,360 Speaker 1: dinners to kill them all at once. He and his 233 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:22,960 Speaker 1: co conspirators rented rooms on Cato Street to plan and 234 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:25,840 Speaker 1: to assemble, and then to do things like make hand grenades. 235 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,600 Speaker 1: This Willwood considered figuring out a way to destroy the 236 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:32,640 Speaker 1: cabinet without the convenience of the state dinner after the 237 00:14:32,680 --> 00:14:37,760 Speaker 1: death of George the Third on January. Following the king's death, 238 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: the cabinet dinners were temporarily suspended, but they did resume 239 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:44,280 Speaker 1: fairly quickly. The first one after that was to take 240 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:46,320 Speaker 1: place in the home of the Earl of Harrowby and 241 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:50,840 Speaker 1: Grosvenor Square on February twenty This will would learned of 242 00:14:50,920 --> 00:14:53,400 Speaker 1: it on the twenty two through an announcement published in 243 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:56,200 Speaker 1: The New Times and The announcement itself may have been 244 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:59,280 Speaker 1: brought to his attention by a man named George Edwards. 245 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:02,040 Speaker 1: The land was to go to Grosvenor Square with a 246 00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:04,360 Speaker 1: note for the Earl, and then once the servant had 247 00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:09,000 Speaker 1: opened the door, rush in, brandishing pistols, subdue all the servants, 248 00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:11,840 Speaker 1: block their escape roots, and if any of them tried 249 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:15,680 Speaker 1: to escape, they would use hand grenades to kill all 250 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:19,680 Speaker 1: the servants in the household. Then, according to court testimony, 251 00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:22,520 Speaker 1: they were planning to go onto the dining room and quote. 252 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:25,160 Speaker 1: The men who were to go into the room were 253 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:28,160 Speaker 1: to rush in directly and to murder all they found 254 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:30,800 Speaker 1: in the room, good or bad, and if there were 255 00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:34,400 Speaker 1: any good ones, they would murder them for keeping bad company. 256 00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:38,120 Speaker 1: One of the conspirators, James Ing's, volunteered to rush the 257 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:41,720 Speaker 1: room first and behead everyone there and take the heads 258 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:45,520 Speaker 1: of the lord's Castlereagh and Sidmouth for later display. They 259 00:15:45,520 --> 00:15:48,600 Speaker 1: were the Secretaries of State for Foreign and Home Affairs. 260 00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:53,280 Speaker 1: Once this mass assassination was complete, the conspirators plans to 261 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 1: move on to loot and destroy nearby barracks and stables, 262 00:15:56,880 --> 00:15:59,320 Speaker 1: and then take over the Lord Mayor's residence to use 263 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:03,000 Speaker 1: as a seat their provisional government that done, they were 264 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,440 Speaker 1: going to raid the bank and if all, if at 265 00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:09,240 Speaker 1: all possible, come away with the books still intact, so 266 00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:12,480 Speaker 1: that they could use them as evidence for wrongdoing within 267 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:17,760 Speaker 1: London's more affluent class. But once again Thistlewood's attempt to 268 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:21,080 Speaker 1: start a rebellion was thwarted. Thomas Hyden, one of the 269 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:23,760 Speaker 1: men Thistlewood had tried to recruit, wrote a letter to 270 00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:26,680 Speaker 1: Lord castle Read detailing this plot, which he gave to 271 00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:30,600 Speaker 1: Lord Harrowby in a park. Lord Harrowby immediately canceled the 272 00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:34,280 Speaker 1: dinner and informed the Bow Street Runners that something was afoot. 273 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:40,280 Speaker 1: Hyden wasn't Thistlewood's only undoing, though. George Edwards, one of 274 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:44,040 Speaker 1: Thistlewood's co conspirators, was really a spy for the government. 275 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:47,640 Speaker 1: He had been passing information about Thistlewood's activities to the 276 00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:51,680 Speaker 1: Bow Street Runners the entire time. There's even some suggestion 277 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:54,480 Speaker 1: that he set Thistlewood up in all of this, not 278 00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:58,120 Speaker 1: only calling his attention to the advertisement about the dinner, 279 00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:02,440 Speaker 1: but actually placing that at advertisement in the New Times himself. 280 00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:06,760 Speaker 1: At trial, the court reporter who usually posted those sorts 281 00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:10,520 Speaker 1: of announcements testified that he had not placed one for February, 282 00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:13,040 Speaker 1: and that the one that appeared in the New Times 283 00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:15,600 Speaker 1: that day or the day before didn't even sound like 284 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:19,439 Speaker 1: one he had written. Regardless of how it all came about, 285 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:23,160 Speaker 1: Bow Street runners raided the conspirators loft before they even 286 00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:27,399 Speaker 1: left their Cato Street lodgings. In the ensuing melee, Thistlewood 287 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:31,480 Speaker 1: killed one officer, Richard Smithers, with his rapier, before escaping 288 00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:35,640 Speaker 1: and evading capture until the following morning. We will talk 289 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:38,480 Speaker 1: about the trial and it's aftermath after one more quick 290 00:17:38,520 --> 00:17:47,080 Speaker 1: sponsor break. Although there were certainly others involved in the 291 00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:50,800 Speaker 1: planning in some way, in the end, thirteen conspirators and 292 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:54,320 Speaker 1: the plots at massacre the cabinet were arrested. Most of 293 00:17:54,359 --> 00:17:59,359 Speaker 1: them were laborers or craftspeople. In some ways they were shoemakers, carpenters, 294 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:03,400 Speaker 1: taylor Is and the like. Two turned King's evidence, which 295 00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:05,880 Speaker 1: meant that the trial could proceed without blowing the cover 296 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:08,280 Speaker 1: of George Edwards by having to call him to the 297 00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:12,080 Speaker 1: stand to testify. One of the cases was also dropped. 298 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:16,399 Speaker 1: The trials began on April seventeen, eighteen twenty, and the 299 00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:19,160 Speaker 1: guilt of most of those on trial was never really 300 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:23,440 Speaker 1: in question. Witness after witness named Thistlewood as the ringleader 301 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:27,600 Speaker 1: and key organizer of the entire operation. The defense of 302 00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:32,000 Speaker 1: one of the co conspirators in particular stands out William Davidson, 303 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:35,400 Speaker 1: who was tried a little later in April. Davidson, born 304 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:38,359 Speaker 1: in Jamaica, was the son of Jamaica's white Attorney General 305 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:40,879 Speaker 1: and a black Jamaican woman. He had been sent to 306 00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:43,640 Speaker 1: England to receive an education that would be on par 307 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:49,800 Speaker 1: with his father's position. At trial, Davidson said in his 308 00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:53,800 Speaker 1: own defense, quote, I was accidentally drawn into Cato Street 309 00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:55,840 Speaker 1: in the way I have said, but knew nothing of 310 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:59,240 Speaker 1: a plot to plunder, burn or massacre. I did not 311 00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:01,920 Speaker 1: know that any such plot was in existence. I am 312 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:04,520 Speaker 1: not such a man if my color be against me, 313 00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:07,040 Speaker 1: I am not void of all feeling, and would not 314 00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:10,240 Speaker 1: act the murderer or the brute. He then went on 315 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,400 Speaker 1: to suggest that it was all a case of mistaken identity, 316 00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:16,240 Speaker 1: that he had been mistaken for another black man, which 317 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:18,560 Speaker 1: had also happened to him at the Sunday School where 318 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:22,360 Speaker 1: he taught. According to Davidson, all the witnesses who described 319 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:25,120 Speaker 1: quote a man of color, we're talking about some other 320 00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:29,639 Speaker 1: man and not him. The judge tried to assuage Davidson's 321 00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:31,960 Speaker 1: fears that his color was being used as a strike 322 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:35,520 Speaker 1: against him, saying quote, you may rest most perfectly assured 323 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:38,320 Speaker 1: that with respect to the color of your countenance, no 324 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:41,679 Speaker 1: prejudice either has or will exist in any part of 325 00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:44,680 Speaker 1: this court against you. A man of color is entitled 326 00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:48,639 Speaker 1: to British justice as much as the fairest British subject. 327 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:52,919 Speaker 1: But Davidson's argument of mistaken identity did not lead to 328 00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:55,720 Speaker 1: an acquittal. He and all the other men on trial 329 00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:59,080 Speaker 1: for the conspiracy were all found guilty and sentenced to 330 00:19:59,119 --> 00:20:03,879 Speaker 1: be taken to their execution on hurdles, hanged, beheaded, and quartered. 331 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:07,720 Speaker 1: Five of those sentences were commuted to transportation to New 332 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:12,000 Speaker 1: South Wales, and the men transported arrived there on September. 333 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:19,040 Speaker 1: The executions of the others, who were Arthur Thistlewood, James Ng's, 334 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:23,080 Speaker 1: James Brunt, William Davidson, and Richard Tid were carried out 335 00:20:23,119 --> 00:20:27,000 Speaker 1: on May one, eight twenty, although the carrying on hurdles 336 00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:30,199 Speaker 1: and the quartering afterward were dropped from their sentence for 337 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:34,399 Speaker 1: what was framed as humanitarian reasons. The woods last statement 338 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:37,400 Speaker 1: before his execution was quote, my only sorrow is that 339 00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:40,800 Speaker 1: soil should be a theater for slaves, for cowards, and 340 00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:44,320 Speaker 1: for despots. My motives, I doubt not, will hereafter be 341 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:49,159 Speaker 1: justly appreciated. Their execution drew an enormous crowd, and a 342 00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:52,679 Speaker 1: railing at St. Sepulcher's Church collapsed under the weight of 343 00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:54,600 Speaker 1: all the people who had climbed up onto it for 344 00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:58,399 Speaker 1: a better view. The bodies remained hanging for half an 345 00:20:58,440 --> 00:21:02,240 Speaker 1: hour before the beheading. An ax was specially made for 346 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:05,679 Speaker 1: the execution, but the actual beheading wound up being carried 347 00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:08,480 Speaker 1: out by a barber surgeon wearing a mask and using 348 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:13,080 Speaker 1: a surgical knife. According to William Thackeray's account, James Brunt's 349 00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:15,760 Speaker 1: head was dropped while it was being displayed to the crowd, 350 00:21:16,119 --> 00:21:18,600 Speaker 1: which was one of the incidents cited in efforts to 351 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:23,280 Speaker 1: get beheading removed from the punishments for traders. Eventually, all 352 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:27,920 Speaker 1: the other ancillary steps to the execution itself were removed 353 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,920 Speaker 1: in the from the punishments for traders, so people would 354 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:34,280 Speaker 1: just be hanged in instead of taken to the gallows 355 00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:36,359 Speaker 1: on hurdles and then hanged and then beheaded and then 356 00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:41,760 Speaker 1: quartered which was a lot, although there was plenty of 357 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:45,720 Speaker 1: more moderate activism around the rights of workers and reforms 358 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,800 Speaker 1: of parliament and all those sorts of things after this point. 359 00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:51,879 Speaker 1: The failed Cato Street Rebellion really put an end to 360 00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:54,560 Speaker 1: the most radical and violent arm of the labor rights 361 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:58,680 Speaker 1: movement at the time. The spency and philanthropists effectively dissolved, 362 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:01,000 Speaker 1: and at the same time, the government pointed to the 363 00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:04,199 Speaker 1: Cato Street Rebellion as evidence that the Six Acts and 364 00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:07,560 Speaker 1: the Combination Acts that had previously been passed we're all 365 00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:12,160 Speaker 1: necessary to keep order. The location where the conspirators were 366 00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:16,399 Speaker 1: discovered was marked with a plaque in ninety seven. It 367 00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:21,040 Speaker 1: has a historical marker. Uh not the same name recognition though, 368 00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:25,320 Speaker 1: as Guy Fox plots blew up Parliament. No, not at all, 369 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:28,199 Speaker 1: even though they had the same core objective, which was 370 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:36,480 Speaker 1: to destroy the government and start over. Fay so much 371 00:22:36,480 --> 00:22:39,560 Speaker 1: for joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode is 372 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:41,600 Speaker 1: out of the archive, if you heard an email address 373 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:43,880 Speaker 1: or a Facebook U R L or something similar over 374 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:46,520 Speaker 1: the course of the show, that could be obsolete now. 375 00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:51,159 Speaker 1: Our current email address is History Podcast at I Heart 376 00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:54,879 Speaker 1: radio dot com. 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