Coombe Abbey, the Princess and Guy Fawkes: Rugby's connections to the Gunpowder Plot

Whilst the fifth of November is a time of people coming together for food, drink, bonfires, sparklers and firework pyrotechnics, it is a reminder of one of England’s most notorious acts of treason way back in 1605. The Gunpowder Plot, the failed attempt to kill King James I and his courtiers by blowing up the Houses of Parliament.

On that date, a solitary figure is arrested in the cellars of Parliament House and although he first gives his name as John Johnson, Guy Fawkes, as he is really called, is one of thirteen who have conspired to blow up Parliament, the King, and his Lords. By doing so, they were looking to throw the whole country into turmoil and raise a new monarch who was sympathetic to their cause and return England to its Catholic past.

Central England has several locations with extra significance from playing a part in events up to and on the 5th November (1605), and none more so than in and around Rugby.

Ashby St Ledgers: the ‘Command Centre’

The village of Ashby St Ledgers on the county border of Warwickshire with Northamptonshire was a key location in the build-up to those events. The Manor House in the village was the home of the Catesby family and it was here in 1605 that Robert Catesby and his fellow conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, gathered in the Manor’s gatehouse, a 'Command Centre' as it were during the planning of the Gunpowder Plot. In the room above the Gatehouse with its privacy from the main house and a clear view of the surrounding area, Catesby and the other conspirators planned a great deal of the Gunpowder Plot. Ashby St. Ledgers also became a repository for the arms, munitions and gunpowder that the plotters were amassing. Catesby claimed that he was organising a regiment, of which he was the captain, to fight in the Low Countries. As it turned out, that was not the case.

Dunchurch: within striking distance

Equally as prominent in events was the village of Dunchurch, an important staging post on two major coaching routes, one of those being from London to Holyhead. The stone marker which you can see in the centre of the village today gives the distance to London as 79 miles so a reasonably good distance from the capital you would think, and safe distance so thought the Gunpowder Plotters. They stayed at the Red Lion Inn in Dunchurch awaiting news of Fawkes's attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The property in the centre of the village is now also a private residence called 'Guy Fawkes House' but back then it was a proverbial hub of activity and within striking distance of another of their key targets as part of the plot. Coombe Abbey.

Had the planned explosion been successful the plan was that they would abduct Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, James I's nine year-old daughter, from there before leading an uprising in the Midlands. Using her as a puppet queen and figurehead and proclaiming her as Queen Elizabeth II, they would reintroduce the Catholic faith to England. That was the plan anyway.

Coombe Abbey

Similar if you were to visit Ashby St Ledgers and Dunchurch, it is hard to believe that the modern day Coombe Abbey we see today was so central to the events that unfolded and a key location to the conspirators’ plot.

The Cistercian Abbey of Cumbe dates back to its founding in the 12th century and was the largest and most powerful influential monastery in Warwickshire. It was mainly used for grazing sheep and growing cereals, but it remained in the hands of the monks quite happily and successfully until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 after which point the land was appropriated by King Henry VIII.

From here the estate passed through several hands including the Earl of Warwick, until it was purchased in 1581 by Sir John Harrington of Exton in Rutland. The elder Sir John Harrington was descended from Robert Bruce and used this Scottish ancestry to win favour with James VI of Scotland when it was apparent he would succeed Elizabeth. Harrington later used this influence to become the guardian of the young Princess Elizabeth, daughter to James I.

London in the late 16th century and early 17th centuries was not a nice place and it was after a few months there that her parents King James and Queen Anne decided for the benefit of her health and education that the princess should live with guardians in the countryside. The nine year-old Elizabeth arrived at Coombe around late 1603 or early 1604 to be under the guardianship of Lord and Lady Harington. They did all they could to offer the finest education and a happy environment for the young girl, however the huge expense involved in keeping her happy very nearly made the Harringtons bankrupt but it was seen to be for a worthy cause and potential favour in return on their part in years to come.

An act of treason and a hasty escape

But the peace and tranquillity that Coombe enjoyed was about to be shattered.

On the night of 4th November 1605, the conspirators headed for Dunsmore Heath for a mock hunt – a cover for the capture of Princess Elizabeth. In order for their part of the plot to work, the conspirators in Warwickshire needed to make sure that Harrington was away from Coombe. So the plotters invited the Lord and his friends to a fake hunting match to make sure he would be out of the house ‘for the surprise of the most virtuous Princess Elizabeth’ who could then easily be taken.

However it did not go to plan. Harrington refused and then heard that a group of Catholic men were meeting at Dunchurch under the command of Sir Everard Digby on the 4th of November. When Lord Harington was then told that all of his friend’s horses had been stolen, he said that ‘it cannot be, but some great rebellion is at hand’.

In the early hours of 5th November, Harrington at Coombe Abbey received word of the plot to kill the King, the intended uprising and the 'Hunting Party' who were en route from Dunchurch to capture the young Princess. Fearing for her safety and rather than waiting for approval from the court; Harington had Elizabeth’s belongings packed and moved into the walls of Coventry under the guardianship of Sir Thomas Holcroft; this until the conspirators were captured and arrested following Fawkes’ own foiled plan to blow up parliament.

The fact that the conspirators had also stored arms, ammunition and horses at Coughton Court in South Warwickshire ready for the intended uprising shows just how far the plotters were prepared to go to achieve their aims. When news of the plot has failed, Catesby and his entourage briefly return to Ashby St Ledgers before riding onwards to Holbeche House in Staffordshire where three days later he made his last stand along with three other of the conspirators before being shot by his pursuers. The remaining eight of the plotters were executed in January of the following year after being found guilty of treason; all hung, drawn and quartered beside Westminster. The gruesome executions proved to be a fitting deterrent to rebels and if anything King James’s reign was actually strengthened by the attempt on his life, believing that a miracle had taken place in order to save him and confirming his divine right as King.

Princess Elizabeth however was badly shaken by her ordeal and never became Queen of England as her brother Charles I succeeded her father as King. She did however become Electress of the Palatine upon her marriage to Frederick V Elector Palatine and briefly reigned as Queen of Bohemia.

And what of Coombe Abbey?

The Craven family acquired the Estate in 1622 and it remained with them for 300 years. During the Craven ownership, the Abbey was extensively developed with various buildings added, such as the West Wing in 1677 with renowned landscape gardener Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown asked to redesign the surrounding gardens and land.

Following the death of Lord Craven in 1921, the Countess made the difficult decision to sell the estate and two years later the house and its grounds were bought by a builder named John Gray. Coventry City Council took ownership of the Abbey in 1964, along with its extensive estate of 150-acres and after a series of restoration, in 1966 the Park many of us continue to see and enjoy today was opened to the public with the hotel opening in 1995.

Standing outside of the hotel today and admiring the lake and ponds with its swans and ducks and the elegance of the estate’s gardens and woodlands are a far cry from those turbulent days of over 400 years ago which nearly changed the course of history.

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• Coombe Abbey will be hosting a Gunpowder Gala this weekend where actors reveal the story of The Gunpowder Treason and the danger it presented to Coombe Abbey over a four-course meal, followed by an outdoor firework display over the lake. For more details and to book, head to the Coombe Abbey website here.

• That is followed later in the month by the return of Luminate at Coombe Abbey, a spectacular winter light trail which runs nightly from Friday 24th November 2023 until Friday 2nd January 2024. For further details and tickets, head to the Luminate website here.

Karl Quinney is a freelance business copywriter and travel writer based in Rugby, Warwickshire. Visit his websites at www.karlquinney.co.ukand www.thelandlockedtraveller.co.uk