17 Facts About Titus Oates

Titus Oates was an English priest who fabricated the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II.

Titus Oates's father Samuel, of a family of Norwich ribbon-weavers, was a graduate of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and became a minister who moved between the Church of England and the Baptists; he became a Baptist during the English Civil War, rejoining the established church at the Restoration, and was rector of All Saints' Church at Hastings.

However, the charge was shown to be false and Titus Oates himself was facing charges of perjury, but he escaped jail and fled to London.

Titus Oates was involved with the Jesuit houses of St Omer in France and the Royal English College at Valladolid in Spain.

Titus Oates was admitted to the training course for the priesthood in Valladolid through the support of Richard Strange, head of the English Province, despite a lack of basic competence in Latin and later claimed, falsely, that he had become a Catholic Doctor of Divinity.

Titus Oates claimed that he had pretended to become a Catholic to learn about the secrets of the Jesuits and that, before leaving, he had heard about a planned Jesuit meeting in London.

Titus Oates accused Sir George Wakeman, Queen Catherine of Braganza's doctor, and Edward Colman, the secretary to Mary of Modena, Duchess of York, of planning to assassinate Charles.

Titus Oates was given a squad of soldiers and he began to round up Jesuits, including those who had helped him in the past.

Titus Oates subsequently exploited this incident to launch a public campaign against the "Papists" and alleged that the murder of Godfrey had been the work of the Jesuits.

Titus Oates enlisted the aid of "Captain" William Bedloe, who was ready to say anything for money.

The King personally interrogated Titus Oates and caught him out in a number of inaccuracies and lies.

In particular, Titus Oates unwisely claimed to have had an interview with the Regent of Spain, Don John, in Madrid: the King, who had met Don John at Brussels during his Continental exile, pointed out that Titus Oates' hopelessly inaccurate description of his appearance made it clear that he had never seen him.

Titus Oates asked the College of Arms to check his lineage and produce a coat of arms for him and subsequently received the arms of a family that had died out.

Rumours surfaced that Titus Oates was to be married to a daughter of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury.

Oates was taken from his cell wearing a hat with the text "Titus Oates, convicted upon full evidence of two horrid perjuries" and put into the pillory at the gate of Westminster Hall, where passers-by pelted him with eggs.

The presiding judge at his trial was Judge Jeffreys, who stated that Titus Oates was a "shame to mankind", despite the fact he himself had helped to condemn innocent people on Titus Oates' perjured evidence.

Titus Oates was played by Nicholas Smith in the 1969 BBC TV serial The First Churchills.