Editing Gunpowder Plot (section)

===Early plots===
In the absence of any sign that James would move to end the persecution of Catholics, as some had hoped for, several members of the [[clergy]] (including two anti-Jesuit priests) decided to take matters into their own hands. In what became known as the [[Bye Plot]], the priests [[William Watson (priest)|William Watson]] and [[William Clark (priest)|William Clark]] planned to kidnap James and hold him in the [[Tower of London]] until he agreed to be more tolerant towards Catholics. Cecil received news of the plot from several sources, including the [[Archpriest]] [[George Blackwell (priest)|George Blackwell]], who instructed his priests to have no part in any such schemes. At about the same time, [[Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham|Lord Cobham]], [[Thomas Grey, 15th Baron Grey de Wilton|Lord Grey de Wilton]], [[Griffin Markham]] and [[Walter Raleigh]] hatched what became known as the [[Main Plot]], which involved removing James and his family and supplanting them with [[Arbella Stuart]]. Amongst others, they approached [[Philip III of Spain]] for funding, but were unsuccessful. All those involved in both plots were arrested in July and tried in autumn 1603. [[George Brooke (conspirator)|George Brooke]] was executed, but James—keen not to have too bloody a start to his reign—reprieved Cobham, Grey, and Markham while they were at the scaffold. Raleigh, who had watched while his colleagues sweated, had been due to be executed a few days later, but was also pardoned. Arbella Stuart denied any knowledge of the Main Plot. However, the two priests, Watson and Clark—condemned and "very bloodily handled"—were executed.<ref>{{Harvnb|Haynes|2005|pp=32–39}}</ref>

The Catholic community responded to news of these plots with shock. That the Bye Plot had been revealed by Catholics was instrumental in saving them from further persecution, and James was grateful enough to allow pardons for those recusants who sued for them, as well as postponing payment of their fines for a year.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2005|pp=76–78}}</ref>

On 19 February 1604, shortly after he discovered that his wife, Queen Anne, had been sent a [[rosary]] from the pope via one of James's spies,{{efn|Historians are divided on when and if Anne converted to Catholicism. "Some time in the 1590s, Anne became a Roman Catholic."<ref>{{Harvnb|Willson|1963|p=95}}</ref> "Some time after 1600, but well before March 1603, Queen Anne was received into the Catholic Church in a secret chamber in the royal palace".<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2005|p=15}}</ref> "... Sir John Lindsay went to Rome in November 1604 and had an audience with the pope at which he revealed that the queen was already a Catholic".<ref>{{Harvnb|Northcote Parkinson|1976|p=36}}</ref> "Catholic foreign ambassadors—who would surely have welcomed such a situation—were certain that the Queen was beyond their reach. 'She is a Lutheran', concluded the [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] envoy Nicolo Molin in 1606."<ref>{{Harvnb|Stewart|2003|p=182}}</ref> "In 1602 a report appeared, claiming that Anne&nbsp;... had converted to the Catholic faith some years before. The author, the Scottish [[Jesuit]] [[Robert Abercromby (missionary)|Robert Abercromby]], testified that James had received his wife's desertion with equanimity, commenting, 'Well, wife, if you cannot live without this sort of thing, do your best to keep things as quiet as possible'. Anne would, indeed, keep her religious beliefs as quiet as possible: for the remainder of her life—even after her death—they remained obfuscated."<ref>{{Harvnb|Hogge|2005|pp=303–304}}</ref>}} Sir [[Anthony Standen (spy)|Anthony Standen]], James denounced the Catholic Church. Three days later, he ordered all Jesuits and all other Catholic priests to leave the country, and reimposed the collection of fines for recusancy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2005|pp=41–42}}</ref>

James changed his focus from the anxieties of English Catholics to the establishment of an Anglo-Scottish union.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2005|pp=100–103}}</ref> He also appointed Scottish nobles such as [[George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar|George Home]] to his court, which proved unpopular with the [[Parliament of England]]. Some Members of Parliament made it clear that, in their view, the "effluxion of people from the Northern parts" was unwelcome, and compared them to "plants which are transported from barren ground into a more fertile one". Even more discontent resulted when the King allowed his Scottish nobles to collect the recusancy fines.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2005|pp=103–106}}</ref> There were 5,560&nbsp;convicted of recusancy in 1605, of whom 112&nbsp;were landowners.<ref>{{Harvnb|Northcote Parkinson|1976|p=8}}</ref> The very few Catholics of great wealth who refused to attend services at their parish church were fined £20 per month. Those of more moderate means had to pay two-thirds of their annual rental income; middle class recusants were fined one [[Shilling (British coin)|shilling]] a week, although the collection of all these fines was "haphazard and negligent".<ref>{{Harvnb|Northcote Parkinson|1976|p=34}}</ref> When James came to power, almost £5,000 a year (equivalent to almost £12 million in 2020) was being raised by these fines.{{efn|Comparing relative [[purchasing power]] of £5,000 in 1605 with 2008.}}<ref name=MeasuringWorth>{{citation |last=Officer |first=Lawrence H. |title=Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to Present |publisher=MeasuringWorth |url=http://www.measuringworth.com/ppoweruk/index.php |year=2009 |accessdate=3 December 2009 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091124192556/http://www.measuringworth.com/ppoweruk/index.php |archivedate=24 November 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Northcote Parkinson|1976|p=33}}</ref>

On 19 March, the King gave his opening speech to his first English Parliament in which he spoke of his desire to secure peace, but only by "profession of the true religion". He also spoke of a Christian union and reiterated his desire to avoid religious persecution. For the Catholics, the King's speech made it clear that they were not to "increase their number and strength in this Kingdom", that "they might be in hope to erect their Religion again". To [[John Gerard (Jesuit)|John Gerard]], these words were almost certainly responsible for the heightened levels of persecution the members of his faith now suffered, and for the priest [[Oswald Tesimond]], they were a repudiation of the early claims that the King had made, upon which the papists had built their hopes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2005|pp=106–107}}</ref> A week after James's speech, [[Edmund Sheffield, 1st Earl of Mulgrave|Edmund, Lord Sheffield]], informed the king of over 900&nbsp;recusants brought before the [[Assizes]] in [[Normanby, North Lincolnshire|Normanby]], and on 24 April, the [[Popish Recusants Act 1605]] was introduced in Parliament which threatened to outlaw all English followers of the Catholic Church.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2005|p=108}}</ref>