Anthony Babington

Anthony Babington (24 October 1561 – 20 September 1586) was an English nobleman convicted of plotting the assassination of Elizabeth I of England and conspiring with the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots. The "Babington Plot" and Mary's involvement in it were the basis of the treason charges against her which led to her execution. He was a member of the Babington family.

Born into a Catholic gentry family to Sir Henry Babington and Mary Darcy, granddaughter of Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy, at Dethick Manor in Dethick, Derbyshire, England, he was their third child. His father died in 1571 when Anthony was nine years old, and his mother remarried to Henry Foljambe. Anthony was under the guardianship of his mother, her second husband, Henry Foljambe, and Philip Draycot of Paynsley Hall, Cresswell, Staffordshire, his future father-in-law. While publicly Protestant, the family remained Catholic.

Babington was employed as a page boy in the Earl of Shrewsbury's household. The Earl was at this time the jailer of Mary, Queen of Scots and it is likely that it was during this time that Babington became a supporter of Mary's cause to ascend the throne of England. In 1579 he was married to Margery Draycot.

In about 1580, while travelling on the continent, he had met the arch-conspirator Thomas Morgan, and he was persuaded to courier letters to Mary while she was still being held by his former master, the Earl of Shrewsbury. He also assisted the movement of priests in the Catholic Midlands. But by 1586, with Mary removed to the harsher regime of Tutbury and the consequent closing down of communications with her, Babington's role as a courier came to an end. Twice in early 1586 he received letters from France, destined for Mary, but in each case he declined to 'deal further in those affairs'. Around this time he was reportedly considering leaving England permanently and was trying to secure a passport along with his Welsh friend, Thomas Salisbury. He obtained an introduction to Robert Poley, a man with good political contacts, with a view to securing a 'licence' to go to France. Unknown to Babington, Poley was an agent for Francis Walsingham, the Secretary of State, and was under orders to infiltrate known Catholic circles. He probably intentionally failed to obtain a passport for Babington, and instead persuaded him that he, Poley, was a Catholic sympathiser and could be trusted. It was Babington's misplaced trust of, and possibly even love for, Poley that was a large contributory factor in his eventual downfall.

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