Rye House Plot Rye House Plot The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother (and heir to the throne) James, Duke of York. The royal party went from Westminster to Newmarket to see horse races and were expected to make the return journey on 1 April 1683, but because there was a major fire in Newmarket on 22 March (which destroyed half the town), the races were cancelled, and the King and the Duke returned to London early. As a result, the planned attack never took place. Historians vary in their assessment
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,