Dr. Morys Clynnog’s Invasion Projects of 1575–1576

This paper deals with six documents concerning plans for the invasion of England which were put forward by Dr. Morys Clynnog in 1575 and 1576. First noted by Arnold Oscar Meyer, they have never been studied in detail. This is due in part to the lack of background material, for it is still possible to uphold Meyer’s verdict of half-a-century ago that “the diplomatic history of these plans of invasion is still far from being complete”. The Elizabethan exiles had no concerted plan of action, and each group pursued its own policies. Those that come within the scope of this survey are those of: Dr. William Allen and Sir Francis Englefield; Dr. Nicholas Sander; Thomas Goldwell Bishop of St. Asaph and Dr. Nicholas Morton; Prior Shelley, and Dr. Morys Clynnog together with Dr. Owen Lewis. The point may be illustrated by a document of 1572. Soon after the election of Pope Gregory XIII, Allen and twelve other English exiles wrote from Louvain to Cardinal Morone, the Protector of England, enclosing a memorial for the Pope, asking for Papal intervention to help English Catholics. They asked Morone to discuss the matter with Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of St. Asaph, Nicholas Sander and Nicholas Morton. Goldwell and Morton had been active in English affairs in the pontificate of Pius V. On the part of the exiles in the Low Countries, no mention was made of Dr. Owen Lewis, who as a canon lawyer was at this time pursuing a highly successful career in the diocese of Cambrai; nor did Allen suggest that Cardinal Morone should take the advice of Morys Clynnog, a Welsh exile in Rome who was high in his favour. These omissions suggest that the two Welsh exiles stood somewhat apart from Allen and his co-signatories in 1572. Clynnog, after the death of his patron Cardinal Pole in 1558, had attached himself to Cardinal Morone. He became involved in a violent quarrel in Rome with Morton in 1565, in which Morone’s support had enabled him to gain a victory over Morton and his followers in the English Hospice. There is evidence that this feud was still vigorous in 1579, and that Morton had as an ally Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of St. Asaph: and by that date Owen Lewis had ranged himself with Morys Clynnog. Lewis arrived in Rome in the summer of 1574, on legal business from Cambrai. In less than a year he had become a Papal Referendary, an office which gave him direct access to the Pope. He was thus well placed to play a leading part in the politics of the English exiles. The documents discussed in this paper lend support to the view that he embarked on his first essay in statecraft very soon after his arrival in Rome, and that the invasion-projects which now exist in the handwriting of Morys Clynnog were, in effect, proposals which had the backing of Owen Lewis, and which had among their objectives the conferring on him of a Cardinal’s hat.