The Popish Plot

A fabricated Catholic conspiracy that convulsed English politics in 1678.

The plot

Titus Oates, a disgraced clergyman, alleged that Catholics were plotting to assassinate Charles II and place his Catholic brother James on the throne. The plot was entirely invented, but anti-Catholic sentiment in England was strong enough to make it believable. About 35 people were executed on Oates’s perjured testimony before the hysteria subsided.

Political consequences

The Popish Plot triggered the Exclusion Crisis — the parliamentary attempt to bar James from the succession. This fight produced England’s first real political parties: the Whigs (who wanted to exclude James) and the Tories (who defended hereditary succession). The crisis also deepened the divide between the crown and Parliament that would culminate in the Glorious Revolution a decade later.

In the novel

The Popish Plot and its aftermath define the political atmosphere Daniel Waterhouse inhabits in the late 1670s and 1680s — a London where conspiracy theories have real consequences and political allegiances can be fatal.