Popish Plot Popish Plot The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the executions of at least 22 men and precipitated the Exclusion Bill Crisis. Eventually Oates's intricate web of accusations fell apart, leading to his arrest and conviction for perjury. The fictitious Popish Plot must be understood against the background of the English Reformation and the subsequent development of a strong anti-Catholic sentiment among the mostly
A Ballad upon the Popish Plot it in the press. The narrator ends with a “Prayer” against the plotters and for the providence and safety of the current King, and with the hope that the participants will be executed at Tyburn, a village in Middlesex County well known for capital punishment of London criminals and martyrs. The ballad is one of several that describe the “Popish Plot” in England and Scotland between 1678 and 1681, and the print publication of the ballad is tentatively dated from 1678 or 1679. All versions of this ballad held at the English Broadside Ballad Archive at the University of California,