Mervin Tuchet, 2nd Earl of Castlehaven, was beheaded on Tower Hill for rape and sodomy offences, after a trial by his peers , and his honours were forfeited.
Mervyn Touchet was the 12th Lord Audley in the peerage of England, and the 2nd Lord Audley and Earl of Castlehaven in the peerage of Ireland. When only about 24 years old, he inherited a goodly fortune from his father, which augmented the estate in Fonthill near Tisbury in Wiltshire which he had inherited from his mother. He proceeded to marry a heiress, by whom he begot his son James, and when she died he became wealthier still and married another heiress. His second wife was Lady Anne Stanley, and a marriage was arranged between Lady Ann's daughter and Lord Audley's son - just to keep the money in the family.
The orgies began on the very first day after Castlehaven married Anne. Castlehaven endeavoured to collect a group of lusty Irish lads to fulfil his fantasies, even going so far as to recruit vagabonds and out of work sailors from the ports.
According to her, he called upon each manservant to come into their room, one by one, "to show their Nudities, and forc'd me to look upon them, and to commend those that had the longest". On succeeding days, he brought into their bridal chamber three of his menservants, including Henry Skipwith and Giles Broadway, who lay between them, being husband before and wife aft, and upon one occasion he held Anne tightly while Broadway ravished her against her will. Another servant named Amptil (or Antill in some accounts) sometimes also participated in these odd nuptial rites.
Amptil had originally been a beggar and a vagabond, until Sir Henry Smith picked him up and made him his footman. Castlehaven eventually acquired Amptil as his personal page, and found his services so agreeable that he made him his master of the stables.
Henry Skipwith had been fetched over from Ireland to be the page to Lady Anne. Like Amptil, he also had come from a very poor background. According to Skipwith, "For the most part I lay in Bed with the Earl". At other times he lay with Amptil. At still other times Skipwith was persuaded by Castlehaven to sleep between himself and Lady Anne. Castlehaven in court admitted that he often lay with Skipwith, "and being a good Servant I gave him good Rewards".
Florentius (sometimes called Lawrence) Fitz-Patrick and Castlehaven were also buggering each other in the mansion at Fontain (later Fonthill) Gifford in the County of Wilts. Castlehaven was charged with perpetrating the crimen sodomiticum (inter alios non Christiandos) specifically upon Fitz-Patrick. Florentius was also a vagabond who one day happened upon the Fonthill estate, and lingered on, in spite of his misgivings, "through frailty, and because I was not furnished of another place".
Eventually Giles Broadway was brought into this sociable circle. Broadway was a sailor: "I came not to my lord with a desire or intent any ways to serve him, but was rather inclined for the sea: only Mr Skipwith had drawn me thither for society-sake; and not hearing from my friends concerning my intended voyage, and being more kindly respected by the earl than I looked for, I staid from week to week, and from month to month, contrary to my intention, and my lord made me his bed-fellow."
One day while they were strolling in the garden, he said to Giles, "Thou art young, lusty, and well-favoured. I am old, and cannot live long, my wife wholly delighting in lust, which I am neither able nor willing to satisfy, thou mayest do well to lie with her: and so pleasing her, after my death marry her, and thereby raise thy fortune." He continued to so solicit Giles as they lay in bed together, with Florentius lying at the foot of the bed to keep their feet warm. Broadway finally agreed, and lay with Lady Anne on only one occasion, not quite successfully penetrating her while Castlehaven held her arms behind her back. This resulted in the charge at the trial that Castlehaven had caused the rape of his own wife.
On 1 November 1630, James, Castlehaven's son, who had recently come into his majority, wrote a letter remonstrating Castlehaven for parental unkindness, and soon thereafter he brought the matter to the attention of the courts. Six weeks later Castlehaven was arrested and confined in the Tower of London pending formal arraignment. He appealed to be tried by a local jury of Wiltshire men, but was informed that as a nobleman he must be tried in Parliament, and the House of Lords duly heard the indictment in April 1631.
The outcome was a foregone conclusion because of Castlehaven's suspected Roman Catholic allegiance; in the words of the Attorney General: "when once a Man indulges his Lust, and Prevaricates with his Religion, as my Lord Audley has done, by being a Protestant in the Morning, and a Papist in the Afternoon, no wonder if he commits the most abominable Impieties". Castlehaven was the ideal victim to be prosecuted for what many regarded as the "Jesuit perversion".
Castlehaven was sequestered without benefit of counsel for more than six months. When he finally appeared in Westminster Hall, pale and haggard, he requested that a solicitor be permitted to speak for him since his voice was so weak after the confinement and poor treatment. The Lord High Steward courteously replied that the long imprisonment "hath been to you a special favour; for you have had time enough to bethink yourself", and refused to grant his request. The charges were read, containing such rhetoric as "seduced by the Instigation of the Devil, he Wickedly, Devilishly, Feloniously committed that Detestable Abominable Sin", to which Castlehaven pleaded Not Guilty.
The Attorney General Sir Robert Heath began with a harangue about the Sodomitical Sin, including its history since the degenerate times of Rome, and became so carried away with his theme that Castlehaven rightly interrupted him to urge him to stick to the specific charges of the indictment. The Lord High Steward politely bade Castlehaven to let the Attorney General complete his opening statement. Eventually Heath finished quoting Scripture, and Castlehaven was permitted to proceed with his defence.
Castlehaven began by quoting Scripture in defence of his love of Skipwith. He went on to argue that Lady Anne was a lusty whore who wanted to replace him with a younger husband, and that his son was "gaping after my estate" and was paying the servants to lie against him. He argued that a wife could not testify against her husband, but the Court decided to accept her testimony since she was the aggrieved party.
Castlehaven then emphasized the legal point that since Broadway testified that Castlehaven had emitted between his thighs rather than actually penetrated him, technically there was no sodomitical rape, but the court replied that it still came within the definition of buggery. Castlehaven then protested that Broadway by his own testimony was a participant in the crime, and could not therefore be a legal witness against him. The Lord Chief Justice argued that such a conspirator or participant could be a legal witness until he himself was convicted of the felony, "for otherwise, Facts of this nature would seldom or never be discovered".
It is this precedent in particular which would lead to the convictions of numerous homosexuals throughout the following centuries (although, during the next century, proof of actual penetration would be required for conviction of a felony and the ultimate penalty of death, while attempted but incompleted penetration would be a misdemeanour, punishable by the pillory, fines and imprisonment).
Lady Audley, young Lady Audley, Giles Broadway, and Florentius Fitz-Patrick testified, and after two hours of deliberation the jurors found Castlehaven guilty of rape, and of sodomy. He was sentenced to death. Castlehaven appealed for mercy to King Charles, who granted only a postponement of execution so he could repent. Castlehaven's coffin was prepared, and placed in a corner of his prison room.
On Saturday, 14 May, Castlehaven ascended the scaffold on Tower Hill. His hands were then tied behind his back, a handkerchief was placed over his eyes, he knelt again and placed his head upon the block, and at a sign from him the Executioner at one blow divided his head from his body. Undoubtedly Castlehaven deserved punishment for having assisted in the rape of his wife, but he would never have been prosecuted for that had he not been a homosexual and, moreover, a suspected Papist.
Six weeks later, on Monday, 27 June 1631, Florentius Fitz-Patrick and Giles Broadway were brought to trial in Westminster Hall on charges of rape and sodomy. Lady Audley appeared to give testimony against Broadway. Fitz-Patrick pleaded Not Guilty, and asked who were his accusers. Sir Nichols Hyde the Lord Chief Justice replied that he was his own accuser, because of his former testimony against Castlehaven. Florentius protested that it was against the laws of England for a man to be required to testify against himself, but Hyde countered that since his testimony had already served to take away the life of a lord, it should serve to take away his own life also. Both men were found guilty and sentenced to death.
The legal precedent clearly established the principle that homosexuals could be convicted and executed for acts which took place between consenting adults in private, even if penetration could not definitely be proven, and even if the only accusation came from the confession of one of the men involved.
On Wednesday, 6 July, Broadway and Fitz-Patrick were brought in a cart to Tyburn where they were hanged by their necks until dead.
