Richard Baines

Robert Baines was born in about 1554. (1) Very little is known of his early life but it is believed that he attended Cambridge University with Christopher Marlowe. Baines received his MA in 1576. (2)

In 1579 Baines attended the English College at Rheims in France. It was a seminary at which Catholics could study for the priesthood. He was ordained as a deacon on 8th May 1581. On 4th October 1581 he celebrated his first Mass as a priest. However, it later emerged he was working as a government spy for Francis Walsingham. (3)

In May 1582 he was arrested and imprisoned where he wrote a lengthy confession of his offences. (4) Baines claimed he intended to kill everyone in the college by "injecting poison" into a well. He then changed his mind and tried instead to sow dissent among new recruits. Park Honan, the author of Christopher Marlowe - Poet and Spy (2005), believes that Baines was not a very good spy: "By turns shrewd and asinine, Baines gulled the gullible and pocketed bribes, but failed in more sensitive duties." (5)

Charles Nicholl believes that Baines was installed as the rector of Waltham, near Cleethorpes in 1587. "He is described as a Cambridge man, and this is almost certainly our Baines. The wavering Catholic, the anti-Catholic spy, the Protestant minister: it is a plausible progression... According to recently discovered documents, Baines procured this benefice through the financial assistance and patronage of a certain William Ballard of Southwell, Nottingham." (6)

In 1591 Baines was living with Christopher Marlowe in the little sea-port of Vlissingen. The following year Marlowe was arrested with Gifford Gilbert, a goldsmith, and both men were accused by Baines of being counterfeiters. Under examination, Marlowe admits that he was with Gilbert when he made a Dutch shilling. However, he claimed that he was only testing out the goldsmith's skills. (7)

It has been argued that Baines had set-up Marlowe: "One day in Flushing, Gifford Gilbert minted a Dutch shilling in pewter, so false in colour that it was clearly designed as a token of his skills. Marlowe perhaps felt resigned to fate; but it appears that by taking Richard Baines at face value he lost sight of his own danger. Baines, by then, had professed warm friendship, goodwill, or an approval of coining; tactically, he may have posed as a man hoping to profit from counterfeiting himself, and so wished the two chamber-mates all success. Whatever he said makes little difference. He misled Marlowe, who grossly misjudged the spy's character and underestimated him." (8)

Richard Baines was believed and Christopher Marlowe, Evan Flud, and Gifford Gilbert, were deported on 26th January 1592. On his return Marlowe was interviewed by William Cecil, Lord Burghley. It is not known what happened at this meeting but he was certainly free by May, 1592. It has been suggested that the reason for this was that he had been working as a spy for Cecil in Europe. (9)

On 11th May 1593 the Privy Council instructed its officers to seek out the source of certain "libels", or inflammatory writings, directed against foreigners resident in London. Baines suggested that they searched the home of Thomas Kyd. The officers found, not what they were looking for, but material considered equally incriminating. It was claimed that they found material suggesting he was an atheist. Kyd was arrested and imprisoned. (10)

Kyd was tortured and he confessed that he was a member of an atheist group that included Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Harriot, Walter Warner and Matthew Roydon. However, he did not name the three men who were considered the leaders of the group, Walter Raleigh, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, and Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland. (11)

From his prison cell Kyd wrote to the lord keeper, Sir John Puckering, pleading his innocence. In one of his letters, he explained that the incriminating documents were not his but Marlowe's. In a second letter Kyd wrote more fully about "Marlowe's notoriously subversive views, accusing his fellow playwright of being blasphemous, disorderly, holding treasonous opinions, being an irreligious reprobate". (12) In his confession Kyd claimed that "it was his (Marlowe) custom… to jest at the divine scriptures and strive in argument to frustrate and confute what hath been spoken or written by prophets and such holy men". He also suggested that Marlowe had talked about Jesus Christ and St. John as bedfellows. (13)

On 20th May 1593 Christopher Marlowe was arrested and charged with blasphemy and treason. Richard Baines claimed that Marlowe was definitely an atheist. He claimed that he definitely heard Marlowe say that "Christ was a bastard and his mother dishonest". He also said that Marlowe once remarked that "if he were put to write a new religion, he would undertake both a more excellent and admirable method". Finally, he stated that Jesus Christ was a homosexual and "St John the Evangelist was bedfellow to Christ... and that he used him as the sinners of Sodoma". (14)

Roy Kendall, the author of Christopher Marlowe and Richard Baines: Journeys Through the Elizabethan Underground (2004) has discovered that the following year Baines was framed for a capital crime. In 1594 he was hanged at Tyburn. (15)

Primary Sources

(1) Park Honan, Christopher Marlowe - Poet and Spy (2005)

One day in Flushing, Gifford Gilbert minted a Dutch shilling in pewter, so false in colour that it was clearly designed as a token of his skills. Marlowe perhaps felt resigned to fate; but it appears that by taking Richard Baines at face value he lost sight of his own danger. Baines, by then, had professed warm friendship, goodwill, or an approval of coining; tactically, he may have posed as a man hoping to profit from counterfeiting himself, and so wished the two chamber-mates all success. Whatever he said makes little difference. He misled Marlowe, who grossly misjudged the spy's character and underestimated him. Baines was not inclined to string along with his roommates' plans: he knew counterfeiting was treasonous. Having delayed overnight after seeing the false coin, he went straight to the governor of Flushing, who arrested both Marlowe and Gilbert.

Student Activities

Henry VIII (Answer Commentary)

Henry VII: A Wise or Wicked Ruler? (Answer Commentary)

Henry VIII: Catherine of Aragon or Anne Boleyn?

Was Henry VIII's son, Henry FitzRoy, murdered?

Hans Holbein and Henry VIII (Answer Commentary)

The Marriage of Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon (Answer Commentary)

Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves (Answer Commentary)

Was Queen Catherine Howard guilty of treason? (Answer Commentary)

Anne Boleyn - Religious Reformer (Answer Commentary)

Did Anne Boleyn have six fingers on her right hand? A Study in Catholic Propaganda (Answer Commentary)

Why were women hostile to Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn? (Answer Commentary)

Catherine Parr and Women's Rights (Answer Commentary)

Women, Politics and Henry VIII (Answer Commentary)

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (Answer Commentary)

Historians and Novelists on Thomas Cromwell (Answer Commentary)

Martin Luther and Thomas Müntzer (Answer Commentary)

Martin Luther and Hitler's Anti-Semitism (Answer Commentary)

Martin Luther and the Reformation (Answer Commentary)

Mary Tudor and Heretics (Answer Commentary)

Joan Bocher - Anabaptist (Answer Commentary)

Anne Askew – Burnt at the Stake (Answer Commentary)

Elizabeth Barton and Henry VIII (Answer Commentary)

Execution of Margaret Cheyney (Answer Commentary)

Robert Aske (Answer Commentary)

Dissolution of the Monasteries (Answer Commentary)

Pilgrimage of Grace (Answer Commentary)

Poverty in Tudor England (Answer Commentary)

Why did Queen Elizabeth not get married? (Answer Commentary)

Francis Walsingham - Codes & Codebreaking (Answer Commentary)

Codes and Codebreaking (Answer Commentary)

Sir Thomas More: Saint or Sinner? (Answer Commentary)

Hans Holbein's Art and Religious Propaganda (Answer Commentary)

1517 May Day Riots: How do historians know what happened? (Answer Commentary)

References

(1) Roy Kendall, Christopher Marlowe and Richard Baines: Journeys Through the Elizabethan Underground (2004) page 23

(2) Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (1992) page 147

(3) David Riggs, The World of Christopher Marlowe (2004) page 127

(4) Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (1992) page 146

(5) Park Honan, Christopher Marlowe - Poet and Spy (2005) page 144

(6) Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (1992) page 153

(7) David Riggs, The World of Christopher Marlowe (2004) page 274

(8) Park Honan, Christopher Marlowe - Poet and Spy (2005) page 278

(9) Charles Nicholl, The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (1992) pages 278-285

(10) J. R. Mulryne, Thomas Kyd : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(11) David Riggs, The World of Christopher Marlowe (2004) page 295

(12) J. R. Mulryne, Thomas Kyd : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(13) Paul Hyland, Ralegh's Last Journey (2003) page 68

(14) David Riggs, The World of Christopher Marlowe (2004) page 112

(15) Roy Kendall, Christopher Marlowe and Richard Baines: Journeys Through the Elizabethan Underground (2004) page 308