Edward Colman or Coleman (17 May 1636 – 3 December 1678) was an English Catholic courtier under Charles II of England. He was hanged, drawn and quartered on a treason charge, having been implicated by

Titus Oates Titus Oates (15 September 1649 – 12/13 July 1705) was an English priest who fabricated the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II. Early life Titus Oates was born at Oakham in Rutland. His father Samuel (1610� ...

in his

false accusations A false accusation is a claim or allegation of wrongdoing that is untrue and/or otherwise unsupported by facts. False accusations are also known as groundless accusations or unfounded accusations or false allegations or false claims. They can occur ...

concerning a Popish Plot.Andrew Barclay, 'Colman , Edward (1636–1678)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 He is a Catholic

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

Life

He was born at

Brent Eleigh Brent Eleigh is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. Located between Hadleigh and Lavenham, in 2005 it had a population of 180 reducing to 174 at the 2011 Census. According to Eilert Ekwall the possible me ...

, Suffolk, son of the local

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

Thomas Colman and his wife Margaret Wilson; he was a cousin of the

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

MP, Richard Colman, who died in 1672, and through Richard's wife Anne Hyde a distant connection of

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (18 February 16099 December 1674), was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to Charles I during the First English Civil War, and Lord Chancellor to Charles II fro ...

. He attended

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, receiving an MA in 1659. Colman, who had been reared as a strict

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

, converted to Roman Catholicism in the early 1660s. He has been described as a man of considerable charm and ability, but lacking in common sense or political realism. Sir Robert Southwell, who knew him well, called him "a man who must run himself into the briars". He was married: his wife was known to be a woman of great charm, but little else seems to be recorded of her. In appearance he was strikingly pale and emaciated, due it was said to his practice of regular

fasting Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see " Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after ...

; his white face being all the more noticeable because he always wore a black

periwig A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona' ...

Career

In June 1661 he became a

gentleman pensioner His Majesty's Body Guard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms is a bodyguard to the British Monarch. Until 17 March 1834, they were known as The Honourable Band of Gentlemen Pensioners. Formation The corps was formed as the Troop of Gen ...

to Charles II. He was a charismatic advocate of the Catholic cause and is credited with several high-profile conversions, including possibly the future James II, although the details of that conversion are shrouded in mystery, due to the King's insistence on secrecy. It was more likely the Jesuit Emmanuel Lobb who received James into the Catholic Church. In 1673 James appointed Colman secretary to his wife, Mary of Modena, despite warnings from several quarters, including Charles II himself, that he was not a man to be trusted. The passing of the

Test Act The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and nonconformists. The underlying principle was that only people taking communion in ...

in the same year, barring Catholics from public office, has been described as a shattering blow to his hopes of an important political career, and condemned him to a life of "backstairs intrigue", unless he could get the Act repealed. This explains his repeated efforts to obtain a dissolution of the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...

, although his belief that a new Parliament would be disposed to repeal the Test Act was shared by no one else. His intrigues were so ill-judged that they led to the Cavalier Parliament in its final session passing a second and more stringent Test Act, while the next Parliament, elected after Colman's death was, quite contrary to his predictions, even more hostile to Catholicism than its predecessor. He visited

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in the hope of gaining support from the

Papal nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international org ...

there for a scheme for increased tolerance for English Catholics, but nothing came of it. He also visited Paris without an official pass, which was later used in evidence against him at his trial in 1678. Subsequently, he was in contact with highly placed Catholics in France. Through an English Catholic army officer stationed in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, Sir William Throckmorton, he passed on political information to the Jesuit Jean Ferrier who was

confessor Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways. Confessor of the Faith Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death.Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

. In 1675 he offered his services in favour of Catholicism to

François de la Chaise François de la Chaise (August 25, 1624 – January 20, 1709) was a French Jesuit priest, the father confessor of King Louis XIV of France. Biography François de la Chaise was born at the Château of Aix in Aix-la-Fayette, Puy-de-Dôme, Auverg ...

, successor to Ferrier as royal confessor; in 1676 he was in communication with Father Saint-Germain, former

confessor Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways. Confessor of the Faith Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death.Mary of Modena, offering his assistance to prevent a rupture between England and France. These attempts failed to procure money, due mainly to the scepticism of Simon Arnauld, Marquis de Pomponne, Louis' Foreign Minister, who put no faith in Colman, Throckmorton or indeed King Charles II, whom he did not even think worth the trouble of bribing. Louis evidently shared this view: as Throckmorton admitted "he (Louis) hath so mean an opinion of King Charles and all his partners, he scarce thinks anything we do worth money". Colman succeeded later in obtaining £3500 from three successive French ambassadors, whom he supplied with information on the proceedings of Parliament. Colman acted independently of Charles II in trying to obtain French financial assistance to reduce the King's dependence on the

anti-Catholic Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics or opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and/or its adherents. At various points after the Reformation, some majority Protestant states, including England, Prussia, Scotland, and the Uni ...

Parliament. When money was eventually secured by Charles, it was not through any of Colman's efforts. Throckmorton had been killed in a duel in the spring of 1675: this, following Ferrier's death the previous winter, deprived Colman of his most useful contacts at the French Court. He was still in touch with Father Saint-Germain, but this connection did him nothing but harm, as Saint-Germain, who had been forced to flee from England after allegedly threatening the life of a former Catholic priest called de Luzancy, was regarded as even more unstable and fanatical than Colman himself.

Lord High Treasurer The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State in ...

Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby viewed Colman as a dangerous influence on James, a view shared by the King. Danby had him dismissed in 1676 after Colman was caught leaking naval intelligence in a newsletter; according to both to the '' Dictionary of National Biography'' and recent research, the dismissal was at the prompting of the

Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, Henry Compton, although

Antonia Fraser Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (' Pakenham; born 27 August 1932) is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and p ...

notes that the King himself had on several occasions urged his brother to dismiss him. Edward continued with unofficial duties for James and he may have disbursed bribes to MPs on behalf of the French ambassador. In the summer of 1678 he clashed with the vehemently anti-Catholic Welsh landowner John Arnold of Monmouthshire, who challenged him to a duel, alleging that Colman was responsible for Arnold being dismissed from his office as justice of the peace (the dismissal was in fact the result of a local feud in Monmouthshire). The duel never took place. Arnold was no doubt delighted by Colman's ruin and death, but does not seem to have played any part in his downfall.

The Popish Plot

Colman was targeted by Oates when the latter presented his fantasy, the Popish Plot, before the King and the Privy Council on 28 September 1678. Oates did not know Colman personally: this caused him some awkward moments at Colman's trial, where he had great difficulty in explaining his failure to recognise him at the subsequent Council meeting of 30 September. Oates however had evidently learnt enough about Colman to realise that he was vulnerable to attack, due to his intrigues with the French Court, futile though they were. According to Oates, Colman would become secretary of state on the death of Charles. It later emerged that the magistrate, Sir

Edmund Berry Godfrey Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey (23 December 1621 – 12 October 1678) was an English magistrate whose mysterious death caused anti-Catholic uproar in England. Contemporary documents also spell the name Edmundbury Godfrey. Early life Edmund Berry Godf ...

, had contacted Colman, who was a friend of his, shortly after the meeting and the following day Colman's house was searched; letters covering his dealings with France were uncovered.

Arrest

The warrant for his apprehension was sent out on Sunday night, 29 September. At the suggestion of Danby, Colman's papers were to be searched for thoroughly. William Bedloe carried the warrant to apprehend Colman and search for his papers. Oates, in what seems to have been an inspired piece of guesswork, had already suggested that if Colman's letters were opened, in particular his letters to Father La Chaise, they would contain treasonable matter, "which might cost him his neck". Whether this was his own notion, or whether it was suggested to him by someone else, is unclear. Colman's papers were found, some of recent date in paper bags; incriminating letters of earlier years were in a deal box, slightly nailed down. The Government expressed its surprise that after several days warning Colman should have made so little effort to hide them properly: a new pavement had recently been laid in the house, though it is not clear if it was intended as a hiding place. Inexplicably, Colman continued to deny having written the letters for several weeks after they were discovered. It is possible, as Kenyon suggests, that after a lapse of four or five years he had actually forgotten writing them, or perhaps he did not yet realise the danger they put him in.Kenyon ''The Popish Plot'' p.84 The letters were carried off, but Colman's wife declared him to be absent, and to the Government's later embarrassment she persuaded the searchers to let her keep several bundles of letters which she claimed were personal. His sister removed a trunk full of documents from his house a week later, rousing further suspicions about what incriminating evidence her brother was concealing. On Monday morning he came forward voluntarily, and offered himself to the Secretary of State, Sir Joseph Williamson. In the afternoon he was heard before

Sir Robert Southwell Sir Robert Southwell PRS (31 December 1635 – 11 September 1702) was a diplomat. He was Secretary of State for Ireland and President of the Royal Society from 1690. Background and education Robert Southwell was born near Kinsale in County ...

, and others of the Privy Council, in the presence of Oates, who was unable to recognise him. He made so "voluble and fair a defence", urging his voluntary appearance as proof of his "innocence of these vile things", that the Council, exhausted by the long day's proceedings, decided not to order his arrest. He was only committed to the care of a messenger, and his papers were not searched carefully till a week later. The informers seemed about to lose credit when the death of Sir

revived the flagging investigation. On 16 October Colman was removed from the messenger's care and committed to Newgate Prison. Even careful scrutiny of his letters revealed nothing directly pertaining to Oates' allegations, but the Government was horrified at the manner in which a minor civil servant had undertaken on behalf of a foreign power to alter the Government of England, while they were naturally irritated by the unflattering portraits Colman had given Louis XIV of themselves. The legal advice to the Crown was that some of the letters were clearly treasonable. Kenyon argues that the King decided to make an example of Colman, in order to reassure the public that the Crown would allow the law to take its course even against Court officials, and that he was happy to sacrifice a man whom he had always distrusted. By 10 November Colman, having been shown the allegedly treasonable letters, at last admitted to having written them. The strange optimism (Kenyon attributes it to a natural levity of mind) which he had shown up to then finally deserted him: he predicted correctly to the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

that "I have confessed to that which will destroy me" (although many believed that he continued to hope in vain for a pardon right up to the very end).

Trial

Parliament had reassembled on 21 October, in an atmosphere of unprecedented hysteria about the Plot. Ominously for Colman, the simple cry of "Colman's letters!" was enough to cause uproar in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

. The Government decided that to appease the public's desire for blood, it was vital that a few of the suspected plotters be sacrificed as quickly as possible. The first victim of the plot was William Staley, a young Catholic

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

who had allegedly vowed to kill the King (in fact the threat seems to have been simply a foolish remark spoken in drink). Staley was executed on 26 November 1678, but clearly, the death of an unknown Catholic layman would not be enough to appease public anger: indeed at Staley's trial the prosecution had some difficulty in explaining why he, as opposed to the leading Jesuit fathers, was on trial at all. On 10 November Colman was offered a pardon if he made a full confession; he was warned that if found guilty he would suffer in its full horror the gruesome death prescribed for convicted traitors. Colman refused to confess, and preparations were made to try him as quickly as possible. On Saturday, 23 November 1678, Colman was arraigned for

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

, and the trial took place on Wednesday, the 27th, at the King's Bench bar, before the Lord Chief Justice

William Scroggs Sir William Scroggs (c. 162325 October 1683) was Lord Chief Justice of England from 1678 to 1681. He is best remembered for presiding over the Popish Plot trials, where he was accused of showing bias against the accused. Youth and early career S ...

and three junior judges. Scroggs was a firm believer in the Popish Plot, and although he assured Colman that he would receive a fair trial- "we seek no man's blood, but only our own safety"- there is no doubt that he was determined to secure a conviction by any means necessary. Colman declared that he had not continued the correspondence beyond 1674. Oates swore that he had carried a treasonable letter from Colman to the rector of St. Omer, containing a sealed answer to Father La Chaise, with thanks for the ten thousand pounds given for the propagation of the Catholic religion, and chiefly to cut off the King of England. Then followed details of the narrative according to Oates of 'consults' with the Jesuits in May 1678. Arrangements had been made to assassinate the King. 'This resolve of the Jesuits was communicated to Mr. Colman in my hearing at Wild House (i.e. the Spanish

Embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

in London)' said Oates. Then Oates told of a consultation in August at the Savoy, with Colman present, arranging to poison the

Duke of Ormonde The peerage title Earl of Ormond and the related titles Duke of Ormonde and Marquess of Ormonde have a long and complex history. An earldom of Ormond has been created three times in the Peerage of Ireland. History of Ormonde titles The earldom ...

and to rise in rebellion. Four Irish ruffians had been sent to

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

, and £80 for their payment was ordered to be carried by a messenger, to whom Colman gave a guinea. Ten thousand pounds were to be offered to

Sir George Wakeman Sir George Wakeman (died 1688) was an English doctor, who was royal physician to Catherine of Braganza, Consort of Charles II of England. In 1678, in the allegations of the fabricated Popish Plot, he was falsely accused of treason by Titus Oates, ...

, physician to Queen

Catherine of Braganza Catherine of Braganza ( pt, Catarina de Bragança; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to King Charles II, which lasted from 21 May 1662 until his death on 6 February 1685. She ...

, to poison the king; instructions had been seen and read by Colman, copied out by him and sent to other conspirators. Colman had been appointed a principal secretary of state by commission from Father D'Oliva ( Giovanni Paolo Oliva), Superior General of the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

, (unfortunately for Colman the Government knew that he had corresponded with Oliva as well as with the French Court). In cross-examination, Oates shuffled and excused himself. In particular, he could not explain to the Court's satisfaction why he had failed to recognise Colman at the crucial Council meeting of 30 September: the judges were not impressed with his pleas that it had been late and he was tired. Bedloe was examined concerning the packets of letters from Colman to Father La Chaise in 1675, which Colman admitted to sending, and the money which Colman had received from the French Government to bribe members of Parliament; again, Colman admitted receiving the money, but insisted that he had simply pocketed it. Bedloe, there as at later trials, made a very poor impression. Scroggs, who could never resist the urge to bully a witness, even one appearing for the Crown, gave both Oates and Bedloe a most unpleasant time in the witness box, but, mindful of the need to secure a conviction, did not go so far as to accuse them of

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

. In his summing up he referred briefly to their evidence ("you have heard it") but made no comment, one way or the other, on their veracity To spare the Duke of York any embarrassment, the prosecution did not tell the jury that Colman had ever been in his employment, instead referring vaguely to Colman holding an unspecified public office (although they can scarcely have believed that the jury were unaware of his true position). Colman in his defence could have pleaded that he had acted throughout the exchange of correspondence on the Duke's express orders. He was clearly tempted to do so, but at the last moment he seems to have suffered from a fatal hesitation (perhaps he still hoped for a pardon), and took refuge in evasion and ambiguous remarks such as "I might possibly make use of the Duke's name; it is possible, they say I did it". Scroggs, not unreasonably, said: "you have such a swimming way of melting words that it is a troublesome thing for a man to collect matter out of them". The finding of the letters having been certified, and the handwriting identified as Colman's, they were put in evidence, and the

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

William Jones laid great stress on them; they did prove the strong desire of Colman for the dissolution of parliament. He plainly had advocated foreign bribery of the king to insure such a dissolution, and used some strong phrases as to the Catholic hopes of suppressing heresy. Kenyon argues that a case may be made for his guilt, noting similarities between Colman's case and that of

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, (13 April 1593 ( N.S.)12 May 1641), was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1 ...

, executed for treason by act of

attainder In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditar ...

in 1640.Kenyon p.142

Verdict and execution

There was no proof of any conspiracy by Colman in a plot for the assassination of, or a rebellion against Charles II except the perjured testimony of Oates and Bedloe. Nonetheless the jury, following the unmistakable instructions from Scroggs in his summing up, found Colman guilty. Scroggs replied to his solemn declarations of innocence: 'Mr. Colman, your own papers are enough to condemn you'. The next morning a sentence of death and confiscation of property was pronounced, and on Tuesday, 3 December, he was executed, avowing his faith and declaring his innocence. Some onlookers thought that he was hoping for a reprieve, even at the very end, but it did not come.

Ring

A gold signet ring, believed to be Colman's, was found on the banks of

Loch Lomond Loch Lomond (; gd, Loch Laomainn - 'Lake of the Elms'Richens, R. J. (1984) ''Elm'', Cambridge University Press.) is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of C ...

in 2017 by a detectorist.

References

;Attribution