Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham

:"See also Baron Cobham for other simultaneous creations of the title."Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham (November 22, 1564 – January 24, 1618 (Old Style)/February 3, 1619 (New Style)) was an English peer who was implicated in the Main Plot against the rule of James I of England.

The son of William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham, he succeeded his father as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports under Queen Elizabeth. Shortly after the ascension of James I, he was implicated in the 'treason of the main' in 1603. His brother George was executed, and Henry was imprisoned in the Tower of London by James I, probably in an attempt to obtain the Cobham estates for the Duke of Lennox.

He was the second husband of Lady Frances Howard, daughter of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham and Katherine Carey.

He may have been the subject of a number of Elizabethan satires such as Thomas Nashe's "Lenten Stuffe", Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour", and may have been the model of Shakespeare's Falstaff, who was original given the name 'Oldcastle'. Sir John Oldcastle was an ancestor of Lord Cobham.

Cobham and the Main Plot

Contemporary accounts portray Cobham as a good natured but unintelligent man. He opposed the ascension of James I to the throne, along with Lord Grey of Wilton, allegedly for pro-Catholic reasons. In fact, Cobham's dislike of James probably did arise from quarrels over religious policy, but Lord Grey was anti-Catholic and opposed James for his monetary policies. Cobham shows little political activity prior to James's time, and he seems generally to have been an uninvolved peer. His brother, George Brooke, on the other hand, was involved in radical religious politics.

In 1603, the first year of James I's rule, both Brookes were involved in plots against the king. George Brooke entered into the radical and absurd Bye Plot with two Catholic priests, Watson and Clarke, to kidnap the king and privy council, and force them to ease the political persecution of English Catholics.

At the very same time, Grey and Cobham entered into the Main Plot to raise a regiment of soldiers and force a "coup d'etat". Cobham and Grey were to raise one-hundred and sixty thousand pounds (a figure that could be safely multiplied by twenty to convert to contemporary money) to bribe or hire an army. Cobham was to be the go-between with the Count of Aremberg, who would do the actual negotiations with the Spanish court for the money. The conspirators, upon seizing government, would depose James and put Lady Arabella Stuart on the throne in his stead.

It is very likely that none of the offers from Aremberg were in good faith, and it is exceptionally unlikely that the Spanish court, already deeply indebted to banks in Belgium and Netherlands and having lost its armada and many of its galleons to English pirates, was in any position to offer such an astronomical sum to an unlikely intrigue. However, Cobham believed the offers. He spoke with Walter Raleigh about contacting Aremberg, and he was readying to set forth.

However, the Bye plot was discovered through its hireling "swordsmen," and the Bye plot conspirators were imprisoned. George Brooke may have sought to avoid a death sentence by informing on his brother. In any case, he provided information on the Main plot, and Grey, Cobham, and Ralegh were imprisoned in the Tower. During the trial, the evidence was shown to be inconsistent, especially in regard to Raleigh. The Bye plot conspirators were executed in 1603, and the Main plot conspirators were left in the Tower. In 1604 (new style), Cobham's honors in the Knights of the Garter were taken down and expelled.

After thirteen years in prison, Cobham was executed. [However this information is contradicted in Henry Lushington Stephen's book State Trials, Political and Social, Vol. II. Stephen reports that Brooke was allowed to leave prison in 1617 to visit Bath on the condition that he return to prison; Brooke suffered a stroke on his return from Bath and he died in 1619. This information is on page 49, footnote 1.]

References

* [http://www.lexscripta.com/articles/raleigh4.html Lex Scripta on the Bye and Main plots]