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Plot

Rye House

Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire

A plot to ambush the king on his way home from the races.

In 1683 a group of plotters planned to attack Charles II and his brother James at Rye House as they returned from Newmarket races. A fire in Newmarket sent the king home early, and he passed safely before the ambush was ready.

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When
1683
Where
51.7650, 0.0140
Group
Plots

Visiting

The brick gatehouse survives in a riverside park.

Cover of Guy Fawkes: Traitor or Faithful? by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

Guy Fawkes: Traitor or Faithful?

This book asks one question and keeps asking it: was Guy Fawkes faithful, or a traitor? Most people think they already know. The answer has been handed down for four hundred years, with a bonfire and a rhyme, and it is rarely examined. From the boy from Stonegate in York to the cellar, the Tower and Westminster Hall, every chapter ends with a ledger of what it adds in his favour and what it adds against him. By the last page you may find that the answer you arrived with is not the one you leave with.

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