Ridolfi Plot

A plot instigated by Pius V in 1571, against Elizabeth and in the interests of Mary Queen of Scots. Ridolfi was employed to sound the Duke of Norfolk, who consented to enter into the scheme. A Catholic rising was to be engineered, which was to be aided by a Spanish invasion, Elizabeth was to be dethroned, and the Catholic religion restored. The existence of the plot was discovered through the arrest of one of Ridolfi’s me engers. His letters being in cypher, the names of the conspirators were not discovered. A little later, however, Norfolk was found in treasonable correspondence with Mary’s partisans in Scotland, the whole scheme was laid bare, and the leaders arrested. Norfolk was executed in the following year.