the original cause of Paget and Morgan's division from Dr. Allen and himself was their exclusion, by desire of the Duke of Guise and the Archbishop of Glasgow, from the consultation held at Paris in 1582 relative to the deliverance of the Queen of Scots, and the restoration of England to catholic unity by means of a foreign invasion (ib. ii. 392). Thenceforward Paget and Morgan inspired Mary with distrust of Spain and the jesuits.
During all this time, while apparently plotting against Queen Elizabeth, Paget was acting the part of a spy, and giving political information to her ministers. As early as 8 Jan. 1581–2 he wrote from Paris to secretary Walsingham in these terms: ‘God made me known to you in this town, and led me to offer you affection; nothing can so comfort me as her Majesty's and your favour.’ Again he wrote, on 28 Sept. 1582: ‘In my answer to her Majesty's command for my return to England, assist me that she may yield me her favour and liberty of conscience in religion. … If this cannot be done, then solicit her for my enjoying my small living on this side the sea, whereby I may be kept from necessity, which otherwise will force me to seek relief of some foreign prince.’ On 23 Oct. 1582 he informed Walsingham of his intention to go to Rouen for his health, and to drink English beer. He professed dutiful allegiance to Elizabeth, and his readiness to be employed in any service, matter of conscience in religion only excepted.
In September 1583 Paget came privately from Rouen to England, assuming the name of Mope. It is alleged that the object of his journey was to concert measures for an invasion by the Duke of Guise and the King of Scots. For a time he lay concealed in the house of William Davies, at Patching, Sussex. On the 8th he had an interview at Petworth with the Earl of Northumberland. He was afterwards secretly conveyed to a lodge in the earl's park, called Conigar Lodge, where he lay for about eight days. His brother, Lord Paget, was sent for to Petworth, where Charles and the earl had several conferences. On the 16th Charles Paget met in a wood, called Patching Copse, William Shelley, esq., who was subsequently convicted of treason (Baga de Secretis, pouch 47).
Lord Paget, writing to his brother on 25 Oct. in the same year, said his stay in Rouen was more misliked than his abiding in Paris, considering that he consorted with men like the Bishop of Ross. He added that he was sorry to hear by some good friends that he carried himself not so dutifully as he ought to do, and that he would disown him as a brother if he forgot the duty he owed to England. From this letter it would seem that Lord Paget's interview with his brother at Petworth must have been of a more innocent character than has been generally supposed. However, about the end of November Lord Paget fled to Paris, and thenceforward became suspected of complicity in all his brother's treasons. On 2 Dec. 1583 Sir Edward Stafford, the English ambassador to France, wrote from Paris to Walsingham: ‘Lord Paget, with Charles Paget and Charles Arundel, suddenly entered my dining chamber before any one was aware of it, and Lord Paget says they came away for their consciences, and for fear, having enemies.’ They also told him that ‘for all things but their consciences they would live as dutifully as any in the world.’
From this period Charles Paget, in conjunction with Morgan and other malcontents at home and abroad, continued their machinations, which were, of course, well known to the English government; and in June 1584 Stafford, the English ambassador, made a formal demand, in the name of Queen Elizabeth, for the surrender of Lord Paget, Charles Paget, Charles Arundel, Thomas Throckmorton, and Thomas Morgan, they having conspired against the life of the English queen. The king of France, however, refused to deliver them up, although he soon afterwards imprisoned Morgan, and forwarded his papers to Queen Elizabeth.
It is clear that Paget was regarded with the utmost distrust and suspicion by Walsingham, who, in a despatch sent to Stafford on 16 Dec. 1584, says: ‘Charles Paget is a most dangerous instrument, and I wish, for Northumberland's sake, he had never been born.’ In May 1586 Paget, on account of illness, went to the baths of Spain. He was attainted of treason by act of parliament in 1587.
Although all his plots had signally failed, he appears still to have clung to the idea that the protestant religion in England could be subverted by a foreign force. Writing under the signature of ‘Nauris,’ from Paris, to one Nicholas Berden alias Thomas Rogers, 31 Jan. 1587–8, he observed, in reference to the anticipated triumph of the Spanish Armada: ‘When the day of invasion happens, the proudest Councillor or Minister in England will be glad of the favour of a Catholic gentleman.’ In the same letter he stated that all Walsingham's alphabets or ciphers had been interpreted by him.
In March 1587–8 he entered the service of
