Rye House Plot was a scheme concocted by radical members of the English Whig Party in 1682 and 1683. The conspirators planned to kill Charles II, king of England, and his brother James, Duke of York. James was a Roman Catholic and heir to the throne. Some of the plotters favored a republic, and others wanted to place Charles’s illegitimate son, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, on the throne. The assassination was to have occurred near a country home called the Rye House as the king and his brother returned to London from Newmarket in Cambridgeshire. The scheme failed after the royal party left Newmarket earlier than expected.
In June 1688, an informant revealed the Rye House Plot to royal authorities. Many prominent Whigs and individuals who favored forming a republic were arrested, including the political theorist Algernon Sidney and the politician William Russell, Lord Russell. Both Russell and Sidney were tried and beheaded. The Whigs regarded them as martyrs to the party.
