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The Bond of Association was a document created in 1584 by Francis Walsingham and William Cecil after the failure of the Throckmorton Plot in 1583. Its purpose was to deter attempts to assassinate Elizabeth I.[1][2]
The document obliged all signatories to execute any person that:
- attempted to usurp the throne
- successfully usurped the throne
- made an attempt on Elizabeth's life
- successfully assassinated Elizabeth
In the last case, the document also made it obligatory for the signatories to hunt down the killer.
Elizabeth authorised the Bond to achieve statutory authority.
The Bond of Association was a response to the assassination of William the Silent in July 1584, and the continuing threat posed to Elizabeth I by the supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots as a rival claimant to the English throne, in the aftermath of the discovery of the Throckmorton Plot.[3][4]
The Bond was a key legal precedent for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587.[5] Walsingham discovered alleged evidence that Mary, in a letter to Anthony Babington, had given her approval to a plot to assassinate Elizabeth and by Right of Succession take the English throne. Ironically, Mary herself was a signatory of the Bond.[6]
In March 1585, the Bond of Association was in part incorporated in the Act for the Queen's Safety.[7]
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