Edmund Berry Godfrey

23 December 1621 - 12 October 1678. English magistrate and Justice of Peace for Westminster. His death in October 1678 led to anti-Catholic hysteria and debates over the succession to the throne of England.

Backstory

The reason for the political relevance of his person and his murder was his involvement in the conspiracy over the Popish Plot. In 1676/1677, his name first appeared in connection with Sir Robert Peyton, a senior member of the Green Ribbon Club and leader of the so-called Peyton Gang, which, among other things, campaigned against the recatholicization of England and for the alteration of the succession to the throne. At the same time, Godfrey cultivated friendships with Catholics such as the Catholic priest John Grove or the collaborator at the court of Charles II. Edward Coleman. In September 1678, the involvement in the Popish Plot began, initiated by the Anglican priest Titus Oates, who, along with two other men, approached Godfrey and presented him under oath with alleged evidence of a Catholic conspiracy involving the assassination of Charles II and the resulting coronation of his brother James II. Godfrey responded by becoming unsettled. He did not make Oates' ideas of a Popish Plot public, but presumably informed his friend Edward Coleman of the possible plot.

Murder

On 12 October 1678, Godfrey disappeared after leaving his home. His body was found five days later on 17 October in a ditch near Primrose Hill. His own sword was in his back. In addition, his body showed traces of violent impact. His neck was broken and there were marks of strangulation on his neck.

Investigations and theories

Even though the theory of a suicide kept coming up, it was quickly rejected by investigators. In November 1678, William Bedloe, a Popish Plot informant and fraudster, testified that he saw Catholic silversmith Miles Prance at Somerset House murder Godfrey. Prance then testified a short time later that he had even witnessed the crime, and that three men had murdered Godfrey in the presence of Catholic priests. The men were laborers Robert Green, Henry Berry, and Lawrence Hill, all three of whom, it later turned out, were executed by mistake. In the 1680s, after the political turmoil had subsided, Sir Roger L'Estrange again devoted himself to the case. In his book A Brief History of the Time, he elaborates his theory about a suicide of Godfrey. However, it can be assumed that he manipulated witnesses and modified circumstantial evidence in the course of his investigations. Since the murder could thus never be solved, many more theories have been put forward since then.

Political consequences

The death of Godfrey caused a wave of hatred against the Catholics in England and the Catholic James II, then Charles’s heir presumptive. Godfrey was stylized as a Protestant icon and his funeral was used for propaganda purposes. The political crisis in which the succession to the throne of England was doubted resulted in the Exclusion Bills of 1679-1681, which were intended to exclude James II from succession to the throne, but never came into effect. The two camps that emerged in the context of Godfrey's assassination went on to form the two parties of Whigs and Tories.

Sources

"Godfrey, Sir Edmund Berry (1621–1678), magistrate." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, January 2008, https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-10868. Accessed 11 December 2022.

Lang, Andrew. The Valet’s Tragedy, and Other Studies, Project Gutenberg, 2000. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2073/2073-h/2073-h.htm.

"Sir Edmund Godfrey." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, November 2007. academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Sir-Edmund-Godfrey/37168. Accessed 4 Dec. 2022.