Titus "the Liar" Oates (September 15th, 1649 - July 12/13, 1705) was an English perjurer and hatemonger who fabricated the so-called "Popish Plot" against King Charles II, triggering a Pogrom against Catholics in England. He and Israel Tonge wrote a lengthy manuscript claiming that the Catholic Church had sanctioned a (fictional) plot formulated by Jesuits to kill the king in revenge for Oates' dismissal from the Jesuit house of St. Omer. After the execution of fifteen innocent people, Oates was exposed and severely punished, being pilloried and eventually tied to a cart and dragged through the streets being whipped. He was imprisoned for three years for perjury and died obscure and forgotten.
Trivia
- In 1673, he falsely accused a teacher of being a paedophile and was forced to flee the parish.