Rye House Plot of the degree to which details of the conspiracy were finalised. Whatever the state of the assassination plot, plans to mount a rebellion against the Stuart monarchy were being entertained by some opposition leaders in England, and the government cracked down hard on those in a series of state trials, accompanied with repressive measures and widespread searches for arms. The Plot presaged, and may have hastened, the rebellions of 1685, the Monmouth Rebellion and Argyll's Rising. After the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in 1660 there was concern among some members of Parliament, former republicans and sections of
A Ballad upon the Popish Plot circumstances that brought him to instigate the plot: financial difficulty, lack of public approval, and ultimately a bribe (“Some Whisperers fix’d him / Upon this design” [3.5-6]). The other participants include a vicious, imprisoned “Knave” (4.1) complicit with another plotter who will “[Relieve] his Invention, and [quicken] his Pace” (4.9); an imprisoned thief and murderer; a perjurer who twice lied about the occurrences of the plot, bribed with money the second time; a professional in the Court who encouraged rumors of the plot with a fellow guilty court-member; and a dull-witted, ill-dressed merchant who supports the plot by writing about