Algernon and the Rye House Plot
Only by a trick of fate in 1683, finds J.H.M. Salmon, were Charles II and his brother preserved from an ambush that might have put an end to monarchy in England.
On the east bank of the River Lea at Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire stand the ruins of the Rye House. “The house is an old, strong building,” ran the official account of the 1683 conspiracy to which it gave its name, “and stands alone, encompassed by a mote. Towards the garden it has high walls, so that twenty men might easily defend it against five hundred.” After some two and three-quarter centuries the remnants of moat and castle testify to the careful planning of the conspirators, and to the trick of fate which preserved Charles II and his brother from an ambush that might well have put an end to monarchical government in England.
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