‘Plots’ and dissent: the abortive Northern Rebellion of 1663

Abstract

This chapter examines, in the significant contexts of contemporary plot mentalité and plot literature, a supposed plot to stage an armed rising on 12 October 1663, a rising in North-East England that would begin across the counties of Yorkshire, Durham and Westmorland, and erupt into a nationwide rebellion. It raises questions as to whether the 1663 plot was — as it has been frequently depicted — a dangerous threat to the government by some ‘desperate men’, supporters of the ‘good old cause’, who wanted to bring back the English Republic. Or, can it be seen as a mere folie du jour from a few scattered and disgruntled dissenters? Or was it, as some thought at the time, a conveniently manufactured and exaggerated affair designed for public consumption by a government who were scaremongering for their own reasons? In effect, the chapter asks just how serious was this plot and its potential Northern rebellion.