Among the prisoners committed to the Tower in September 1571, for supposed complicity in the Ridolfi plot, was Henry Goodere, the elder: another was his brother-in-law, Richard Lowther, a Roman Catholic. On the same charge Henry Wriothesley, second Earl of Southampton (also a Roman Catholic), was imprisoned in the Tower from October 1571 to May 1573. Goodere was released in 1572. It is likely that he was known to the Earl before their arrest.

‘Henry Goodere was examined on October 13, chiefly about Mary Stuart, but also about Southampton…. On July 9, 1572, there was a new examination of Henry Goodere, Henry Percy and the earl of Southampton…. Goodere said, “Being imprisoned in a tower, not past thirty foot from the tower where the earl of Southampton lieth, and of Henry Percy, sometimes walking in a little court that he used, at one time only did he speak to the Earl, and especially of the deliverance of the Earl. The Earl did once come towards this examinate with a joyful countenance, and said that he heard good news, and that my Lord of Leicester had sent him word that he should keep his promise to him…. But Sir Henry Percy was often on the Leads when this examinate was at his book, and he does not know if the Earl talked to him.”