John Ballard and His Involvement in the Babington Plot

Background

There is not a lot of concrete evidence to determine that the name of the Jesuit priest involved in the Babington Plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I was actually John Ballard. This has made the search for information from his early life rather difficult. However, I did stumble upon a few bits of information giving some possibilities about his life prior to the Babington Plot. There are many different records and possibilities of his life, so I have listed most of them here in order to allow everyone to make his/her own judgments about what is correct.

According to a thread found on Roots Web, an ancestry website, John Ballard was the name of a Jesuit priest involved in the Babington Plot. His year of birth was not explicitly stated, but it says that he was born in Wratting, Suffolk to William Ballard. He attended school at Elmdon.  According to a record of alumni from Cambridge, he did study at Cambridge around 1574, before becoming a seminary priest, and finally an ordained priest in 1581, only 5 years before his execution. The record at Cambridge puts him around the age of 17 at his arrival, which led me to deduce his birth year as being circa 1552 – 1553. The Cambridge alumni post also has him as attending St. Catherine’s College at Michaelmas in 1569.

However, according to the full text of “Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington Plot,” Ballard was born in the diocese in Ely. Here, it also states that he was educated at Cambridge and then ordained a priest in Rheims at Chalons.

Occupation and lifestyle

As one might imagine, given that he was attempting to overthrown a Protestant queen in order to give the throne to a Catholic queen, Ballard was very devoted to his faith. As far as I can tell from the extensive research I’ve done in order to extrapolate as much information about his life as possible, he spent the majority of his time being a priest. He was a devout Jesuit priest.

According to William Tyrrell’s “most valuable pages” found in the full text of “Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington Plot” describe Ballard’s character as “peculiar.” He is not portrayed as a murderer, but simply a “man vainglorious and desirous of his own praise, and to be meddling in things about his reach.” The author of this text seems to think that Ballard had small minor flaws that “led him to ruin,” such as believing his power to be bigger than him. It wouldn't be out of the question to assume that he believed this plan as coming from God, thus believing himself invincible. Babington, contrary to Tyrrell, described Ballard to Mary Queen of Scots as “a man of virtue and learning and of singular zeal to the catholic cause and your Majesty’s service.” The text also explains that Ballard “gradually became obsessed with the idea that he was a statesman with a special mission to fulfill.” This expounds on the possibility that he was on a mission from God, believing that his plan could not fail. It is possible that they became less and less careful as the plan went on about being secretive in their mission, obviously not aware that there was a spy, Gifford, among them.

Circumstances of Incarceration

One thing that is not uncertain about John Ballard’s life is that he was involved in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth I. Though it is remembered as the Babington Plot, it was John Ballard who persuaded Anthony Babington to organize a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, which would give the throne to Mary Queen of Scots. Before organizing the Babington Plot, John Ballard met another conspirator, John Savage, who was involved in a different plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I. Ballard, who had already been plotting a conspiracy, was inspired by Savage, and took it upon himself to speak with the Spanish Ambassador Bernardino de Mendozathe, who gave Ballard Spain's promise of support if the overthrow was successful, according to the UK's National Archive website.

As it turns out, one of the men working for John Savage, Gilbert Gifford, was captured by Sir Francis Walshingham, the head of Queen Elizabeth’s secret service, who convinced Gifford to act as a spy within the Babington Plot, according to the British Heritage website. As many spies did at the time, they used a cipher to decode their messages. Unfortunately for them, Babington wrote a letter to Mary Queen of Scots which outlined their plot to overthrow Elizabeth. Her response was then intercepted by Walshingham, which gave him enough information to arrest and torture the involved conspirators.

Importance of Narrative

There is almost no information on Ballard’s time in the tower that I can find. However, I would say the fact that he was arrested, tried, and executed on counts of high treason had an impact on the country of England at the time. He was attempting to overthrow a – supposedly – beloved queen in favor of her imprisoned cousin. Elizabeth had warned her subjects that people were trying to dethrone her, and uncovering the Babington Plot proved this. Also it shows the subjects at the time that if you are Catholic, you have the possibility of being executed; more importantly, it solidifies the Queen’s power at the time. Although it is remembered as the Babington Plot, there is no doubt that Ballard was the idea-man behind the plan, which is why, according to "Sir Walter Raleigh and the Babington Plot" by Matthew Lyons, Ballard was the first to die, and most gruesomely, having his genitals cut off after having been hanged until half-dead, after which he was dismembered and his head set upon the gallows. This sets a sort of a precedent that even the man who set out the do the plan, Babington, and whose name will forever rest on this plot, was not executed first. If you are the one to come up with the plot to murder the queen, you will be the first to die. Ballard and Babington were executed together, though as I said, Ballard first, on September 20, 1586.