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The death of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey has baffled scholars and armchair detectives for centuries; this book offers compelling new evidence and, at last, a solution to the mystery.
List of contents
Introduction. The Bottomless Pit: Conspiracy Theories & the Death of a Westminster JPHistorical, political and conspiratorial perspectives
Chapter summary
1. The Usual Suspects: the Case against the CatholicsThe English anti-Catholic conspiracist tradition
Rumours, hearsay and the
corpus delicti Accusers and accused
2. An Inside Job? The Earl of Danby and other Court SuspectsA constitutional and conspiratorial crisis
Thomas Osborne, earl of Danby
An Anglican Plot? Israel Tonge's 'very honourable friends'
Plots and counterplots: Danby in the Tower
3. 'The Devil in his Clothes': Suicide Theories, Then and NowEarly suicide theories
Roger L'Estrange's crime scene investigation
'Master of a dangerous secret ': Godfrey's mental state
Spectral sightings: tracking Godfrey's last movements
Ockham's razor?
4. 'Managery... behind the Curtain'? Oppositional Plots and Whig LordsTrue crime, false leads and tall tales
Shaftesbury and subornation
Whig suspects and oppositional secrets
5. 'Horrible Secrets...not for his Majesty's Service': William Lloyd's ShorthandThe correspondence of Roger L'Estrange and William Lloyd
Royal suspects and secrets
'Died Abner as a fool dieth '? What William Lloyd believed
Conclusion. A Bipartisan Martyr? In Search of the Real Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey 'Keeping faire with boeth sides': Godfrey as critic, courtier, mediator and sleuth
A plausible suspect: the secrets of 'a certain great man'
A possible murder scenario
Select Bibliography
Index
About the author
Andrea McKenzie
Summary
The death of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey has baffled scholars and armchair detectives for centuries; this book offers compelling new evidence and, at last, a solution to the mystery.
