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Babington, Antony 1561-86
English conspirator

Born into a wealthy Catholic family in Dethick, Derbyshire, he served as a page to Mary, Queen of Scots during her imprisonment at Sheffield. In 1586 he was induced by John Ballard and other Catholic emissaries to lead a conspiracy aiming to murder Elizabeth I and release Mary (the Babington Plot). Coded messages in which Mary approved the plot were intercepted by Francis Walsingham, and were later used against her. Babington fled but was captured at Harrow and executed with the others.