house produced incriminating evidence and, after torture upon the rack, Throckmorton confessed his involvement in a plot to overthrow the Queen and restore the Catholic Church in England. An invasion led by Henry I, Duke of Guise, would have been coupled with an orchestrated uprising of Catholics within the country. Throckmorton later retracted his confession, but other sources of the plot, and a search of his premises, further incriminated him. He was convicted of high treason and executed on 10 July 1584. His arrest led to the end of the conspiracy and the expulsion of the Spanish ambassador. In September 1586, Mary, Queen of Scot's servant Jérôme Pasquier was questioned in the Tower of London by Thomas Phelippes. He confessed to writing a letter in cipher for Mary to send to the French ambassador Castelnau asking him to negotiate a pardon for Francis Throckmorton in a prisoner exchange. In film and literature Sir Francis Throckmorton is featured in the film Elizabeth: The Golden Age, where he is played by Steven Robertson. In the film, he is shown asking for help from his cousin, Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of Queen Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting and later the wife of Sir Walter Raleigh. Throckmorton's recruitment to act as a courier to Queen Mary and the way he was discovered by Walsingham's agents are depicted in Ken Follett's historical novel A Column of Fire. As depicted in the book, Throckmorton was a minor member of the conspiracy, the main organiser who recruited him managing to escape undetected. Notes References 1554 births 1584 deaths People executed under the Tudors for treason against England Executed English people Francis Date of birth unknown Date of death missing Place of birth missing Place of death missing People executed by the Kingdom of England by hanging People executed under Elizabeth I