Raleigh is tried on November 17 in…
November 1603 CE
Raleigh is tried on November 17 in the converted Great Hall of Winchester Castle for treason.
During the trial, the evidence is shown to be inconsistent, especially in regard to Raleigh, who conducts his defense with great skill, which may, in part, explain why King James spares his life, despite the guilty verdict.
The two priests, condemned by the pope, and "very bloodily handled", are tried and executed for their parts in the scheme, together with the conspirator Sir George Brooke but James, keen not to have too bloody a start to his reign, reprieves Cobham, Grey, and Markham, while they are at the scaffold, and the Main plot conspirators are left in the Tower.
The Catholic community has responded to news of these plots with shock.
That the Bye Plot had been revealed by Catholics is instrumental in saving them from further persecution, and James is grateful enough to allow pardons for those recusants who sued for them, as well as postponing payment of their fines for a year.