Edward Fitzharris

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Edward Fitzharris (c.1648–1681) was an Anglo-Irish conspirator whose 1681 trial raised questions about how power and law worked in England. His case came after the Popish Plot hoax, and his execution for treason highlighted tensions between Parliament and the courts.

Life
Edward Fitzharris was the younger son of Sir Edward Fitzharris, 2nd Baronet of Kilfinin in County Limerick, and his wife Eileen FitzGerald. He grew up as a Roman Catholic. His early years took him abroad: he left Ireland in 1662 to learn French, returned in 1665, and in 1668 he went to Prague hoping to serve the Emperor against Hungary, then wandered through Flanders to England. He later held a captain’s commission in a company raised by Sir George Hamilton for Louis XIV, but after leaving France he went to Paris. He came back to England in October 1672 and, in February 1673, became a lieutenant in Captain Sydenham’s company in the Duke of Albemarle’s regiment. He had to resign after the Test Act of 1673. For eight years he moved in Catholic circles, including with the Duchess of Portsmouth.

In February 1681 he wrote a libel advocating the deposition of King Charles II and the exclusion of James, Duke of York. His motives aren’t clear; he may have hoped to plant the document in a Whig circle and then expose it for a reward as an informer. He was betrayed by an accomplice, Edmond Everard, and was sent first to Newgate Prison and then to the Tower of London.

Trial and execution
Fitzharris claimed he could reveal the murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey and then implicated the Earl of Danby. He was impeached by the House of Commons for high treason, and the case prompted a dispute over whether trials should be in the Lords or in common-law courts. Parliament was dissolved after eight days. He was later tried before the King’s Bench in Easter term, and he argued that proceedings were improperly started while other cases were under the Lords’ jurisdiction; the court ruled against him. On June 9, 1681, he was convicted.

A priest, Francis Hawkins, persuaded him to draw up a confession accusing Whig leaders, naming William Howard, among others. The confession turned out to be controversial and was viewed by many as a fabrication. Fitzharris was executed on July 1, 1681, the same day as Oliver Plunkett; the supposed confession appeared the next day, and Hawkins was rewarded. The authorities later defended the confession as false. In 1689, John Hawles, then Solicitor General, condemned the trial as illegal, and the Commons urged mercy for Fitzharris’s widow and children.