Roberto Di Ridolfi

During the early years of .

His intention was to marry Mary, Queen Of Scots to the Duke Of Norfolk and to place her on the English throne. With the aid of John Lesley , Bishop of Ross , he gained the consent of these high personages to the conspiracy, and then in 1571 he visited the Duke Of Alva at Brussels , Pope Pius V at Rome , and Philip II at Madrid to explain to them his scheme and to gain their active assistance thereto.

However, his messenger to Lesley, by name Charles Baillie (1542-1625), was seized at Dover and revealed the existence of the plot under torture. Consequently, Norfolk and Lesley were arrested, the former being condemned to death in January 1572. Ridolfi, who was then in Paris , could do nothing when he heard this news, and his scheme collapsed. Afterwards he served the Pope , but much of his later life was spent in Florence, where he became a Senator and where he died on the 18th of February 1612.

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Roberto Di Ridolfi