George Brooke (conspirator)

George Brooke (1568-1603) was an English aristocrat, executed for his part in two plots against the government of King James I.

Origins and education

Brooke was the fourth and youngest son of William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham, by Frances, daughter of Sir John Newton, and was born at Cobham Hall, Kent, on 17 April 1568. He matriculated at King's College, Cambridge, in 1580, and took his M.A. degree in 1586.

Career disappointment

He obtained a prebend in the church of York, and was later promised the mastership of the Hospital of St Cross, near Winchester, by Queen Elizabeth. The queen, however, died before the vacancy was filled up, and James gave it instead to an agent of his own, James Hudson. This caused Brooke to become disaffected.

The Bye Plot

Brooke and Sir Griffin Markham persuaded themselves that if they could get possession of the royal person they would have it in their power to remove the present members of the council, compel the king to tolerate the Roman Catholics, and secure for themselves the chief employments of the state. As part of their arrangements Brooke was to have been Lord Treasurer. From this scheme sprang the Bye Plot, also known as the 'treason of the priests.'

The Main Plot

To Brooke's connection with the Bye may be ultimately traced the discovery of a second plot, known as the Main Plot, in which Sir Walter Raleigh and Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham were implicated. Brooke being the brother of Cobham, Cecil suspected that Cobham and Raleigh might be concerned in the first treason, and by acting at once vigorously he discovered the second plot. Brooke was arrested and sent to the Tower of London in July 1603; he was arraigned on the 15th. He pleaded not guilty, though his confessions had gradually laid bare the whole details of the plots.

Execution

Brooke appears to have hoped to the last to obtain a pardon by means of Cecil, who had married his sister. He wrote to Cecil enquiring what he might expect after so many promises received, and so much conformity and accepted service performed by him to Cecil. Brooke, in fact, alone of the lay conspirators suffered on the scaffold in the castle yard at Winchester on 5 December 1603.

Private life

Brooke married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, Lord Borough, and by her had a son, William, and two daughters. Although his children were restored in blood, his son was not allowed to succeed to the title.

Thomas Weelkes dedicated a collection of madrigals to Brooke, and Charles Tessier dedicated to him a manuscript collection of French songs. The latter work contains two introductory sonnets by Brooke. [Gustav Underer, "Prostitution in Late Elizabethan London", Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, volume 15, (2003)]

References