during the First English Civil War, but had been given little recompense at the 1660 Restoration. This supposedly provoked Ayloffe to "draw up with the republicans". Along with Andrew Marvell and William Carstares, Ayloffe is thought to have been part of an intelligence network led by Pierre du Moulin (d.1676), the secretary of William of Orange, which operated to oppose French and Catholic interference on English policy. At the opening of Parliament in October 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Ayloffe threw a sabot under the Speaker's chair, supposedly a reference to French influence on the country. He was briefly detained by the doorkeepers, but released on grounds of being insane, or "distracted". An active propagandist and versifier, Ayloffe has been identified as the author of "much of the republican doggerel of the 1670s". As part of du Moulin's group, he helped smuggle propaganda into England, including pamphlets attacking Stuart foreign policy, their government and monarchy in general. In 1678, he gave evidence in a Commons debate on the danger posed by Catholic soldiers "going into Ireland". During this, the sabot incident was used as evidence he was "mad", though Tory politician and lawyer Sir Thomas Meres argued "Mr. Ayliffe is a man of good sense, and points at what he intends". He was closely involved in the 1679 to 1681 campaign led by Lord Shaftesbury to exclude the Catholic James from succeeding his brother Charles II. Along with other members of the radical Green Ribbon Club, he supported helped organise the 1680 'Great Petition' demanding the recall of Parliament. Signed by 18,000 people, others involved included Richard Rumbold, Richard Nelthorpe and Robert Ferguson, all of whom were implicated in the Rye House Plot. Allegedly organised by Rumbold, the plan was to ambush Charles and his brother as they returned to London from Newmarket in March 1683. It was betrayed before being put into action, although there is considerable debate as to how serious it was, or what its objectives were. Along with many others, including Rumbold, Nelthorpe and Ferguson, a warrant was issued for his arrest; he escaped to the Dutch Republic, although his property was confiscated. In 1684 he returned covertly to England to raise funds amongst Nonconformist ministers for a proposed uprising against the Stuart monarchy. This was largely a failure as few people would speak to him due to his reputation as an "atheist and a