BABINGTON, ANTHONY (156r-1586), English con spirator, son of Henry Babington of Dethick in Derbyshire, and of Mary, daughter of George, Lord Darcy, was born in October 1561, and was brought up secretly a Roman Catholic. As a youth he served at Sheffield as page to Mary queen of Scots, for whom he early felt an ardent devotion. In 158o he came to London, attended the court of Elizabeth, and joined the secret society formed that year supporting the Jesuit missionaries. In 1582, after the execution of Father Campion, he withdrew to Dethick, and later went abroad. He became associated at Paris with Mary's supporters who were planning her release with the help of Spain, and on his return he was entrusted with letters for her. In April 1586 he became, with the priest John Ballard, leader of a plot to murder Elizabeth and her ministers, and organize a general Roman Catholic rising in England and liberate Mary. The con spiracy included, in its general purpose of destroying the govern ment, a large number of Roman Catholics, and had ramifications all over the country. Philip II. of Spain promised to assist with an expedition directly the assassination of the queen was effected. Babington entered into a long correspondence with Mary, which was intercepted by the spies of Walsingham. On Aug. 4 Ballard was seized and betrayed his comrades, probably under torture. Babington then applied for a passport abroad, for the ostensible purpose of spying upon the refugees, but in reality to organize the foreign expedition and secure his own safety. The passport being delayed, he offered to reveal to Walsingham a dangerous conspiracy, but the latter sent no reply, and meanwhile the ports were closed.
One night while supping with Walsingham's servant, he ob served a memorandum of the minister's concerning himself, fled to St. John's Wood, where he was joined by some of his com panions, and after disguising himself succeeded in reaching Har row, where he was sheltered by a recent convert to Romanism. Towards the end of August he was discovered and imprisoned in the Tower.
On Sept. 13-14 he was tried with Ballard and five others by a special commission, when he confessed his guilt, but strove to place all the blame upon Ballard. All were condemned to death for high treason. On the 19th he wrote to Elizabeth praying for mercy, and the same day offered fi,000 for procuring his pardon; and on the loth, having disclosed the cipher used in the corre spondence between himself and Mary, he was executed in Lin coln's Inn Fields. The detection of the plot led to Mary's own destruction.
There is no positive documentary proof in Mary's own hand that she had knowledge of the intended assassination of Elizabeth, but her circumstances, together with the tenour of her corre spondence with Babington, place her complicity beyond all rea sonable doubt.