Francis Throckmorton (1554—1584) was a conspirator against Queen Elisabeth I of England. He was a nephew of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton who served the Virgin Queen as a diplomat and the son of Sir John Throckmorton. Sir John, Francis Throckmorton's father, held the post of Chief Justice of Chester but was deposed from that office in 1579, a year before his death. The reasons for Sir John's removal from the bench are unclear: He may have been guilty of abusive practices in the administration of justice, but he may also have been punished for his pro-Catholic beliefs.

Francis Throckmorton was educated in Oxford and entered the Inner Temple in London as a pupil in 1576. In 1580 he traveled to the European continent and met leading Catholic malcontents from England in Spain and France. After his return to England in 1583 he served as an intermediary for communications between Mary, Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned in England, and the Spanish ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza and supportes of the Catholic cause on the continent. His actions raised the suspicions of Sir Francis Walsingham. Francis Throckmorton was arrested in October 1583. A search of his house produced incrimiating evidence. After being tortured on the rack, Throckmorton confessed that he had participated in a plot to overthrow the Queen and restore the catholic church in England by means of an invasion led by Henry I, Duke of Guise and a contemporaneous uprising of catholics within the country. Although he later retracted his confession, Francis Throckmorton was convicted of High treason and executed in 1584.

Reference

Syney Lee (1898), Throckmorton, Francis. In: Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 56. 1898. PP. 327—329.