An engraving of Titus Oates standing, full length, with his head and hands in the stocks; wearing a long black coat, breeches, and a wig. His likeness is based on Robert White's engraving of c.1679 (RCIN 659517).

Titus Oates (1649-1705) was the fabricator of the so-called Popish Plot, which was to overshadow religious and political life in Britain from 1678 until the end of Charles II's reign. Oates claimed to have discovered a conspiracy to assassinate Charles in order that his brother would ascend the throne and return the nation to Catholicism. However outlandish the purported details, the Popish Plot was immediately accepted as the latest in a long line of Catholic plots since the time of the Reformation. At the height of his influence, Oates was provided with a sizeable pension and lodgings in Whitehall Palace, and the power to order the arrest of whomsoever he accused: at least 22 men were executed on his perjured evidence. His lies finally caught up with him on 10 May 1684, when he was himself arrested after calling the Duke of York a traitor. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 1685, and his punishment included being placed in the pillory five times a year. It is likely that this print records his first public humiliation, on 19 May 1685. Despite his blatant and murderous lies, Oates was released from prison in 1689 by William III, and had his pension reinstated.

Text adapted from Charles II: Art & Power, London, 2017