Valentine Thomas
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Valentine Thomas (died 1603) was an English servant or soldier whose confession in 1598 as a would-be assassin of Elizabeth I caused tension between England and Scotland.[1] Thomas's confession implicated James VI of Scotland, who wrote several letters to Elizabeth to ensure his rights to English throne were unharmed.[2]
Valentine Thomas was arrested in March 1598 at Morpeth. A Scottish man captured in England, Robert Crawforth, gave testimony that prompted Thomas's arrest.[3] He described meeting Thomas and the usher or door keeper John Stewart at Holyrood Palace in 1597. John Stewart gave Thomas access to the palace and James VI.[4] James had a servant of that name, John Stewart of Rosland, usually identified as an usher.[5] Crawforth, who was transferred to the Marshalsea prison in London,[6] described one aspect of a conspiracy, that Valentine Thomas had offered to engage the support of English Catholics to put James on the English throne.[7]
Crawforth was encouraged to implicate Thomas and assist in his capture by Edward Grey of Howick, constable of Morpeth Castle and depute Border Warden.[8] Thomas was arrested and taken to the Marshalsea and then questioned in the Tower of London. He was to stand trial for a plot rebel with recusants and Pickering in the north of England. After a time, in his conversations with other prisoners and during further questioning he spoke of meetings with James VI and a plot to kill Elizabeth I.[9]
Thomas said he had used alias surnames of Anderson and Alderson.[10] Thomas claimed to have had access to the Scottish royal court via John Stewart, an usher or keeper of the king's chamber door. He said that he had heard James VI wish that William Cecil, the English Lord Treasurer was dead. Thomas said he offered to kill Cecil, and after further discussion, James suggested he should stab Queen Elizabeth while delivering a petition.[11][12]
It was said that Thomas's confessions also described a meeting at Linlithgow Palace.[13] In his description of the conversation, Thomas said he told James that he was to attend the wedding of a kinsman in Glasgow, and James responded mentioning "Sorley Boy", meaning James MacDonald, a brother of Angus MacDonald of Dunyvaig. Thomas mentioned the Campbell laird of Ardkinglas was present at Holyroodhouse or Linlithgow.[14] James MacDonald was understood to be a kinsman of Sorley Boy MacDonnell, who had been regarded by Elizabeth I as rebel in Ireland.[15]
English authorities were keen to investigate those who crossed the border without permission. In 1599, English agents from Berwick-upon-Tweed captured an English visitor at the Scottish court, Edmund Ashfield, and took him back to England. Ashfield, like Thomas, was interested in James's succession and the potential support of Catholic recusants for his rule in England. Elizabeth I wrote that Ashfield was one of her subjects motivated by their "own humour and busy natures". Ashfield was of gentry status, liitle is known of Thomas's background.[16]
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