Robert Catesby.html



Robert Catesby
from print of the group
Born	1573 Lapworth, Warwickshire
Died	November 8, 1605 Holbeach House, Staffordshire, England
Charge(s)	Conspiracy to assassinate King James I (James VI of Scotland) and members of the houses of the Parliament of England
Penalty	never arrested
Occupation	Landed Gentry
Spouse	Catherine Leigh
Children	William and Robert

Robert Catesby (1573 – November 8, 1605), born in Lapworth, Warwickshire, or possibly in Northamptonshire, to a strongly Roman Catholic family, was the leader of a group of Roman Catholic conspirators (the most famous albeit least important of whom was Guy Fawkes; as Fawkes was the one discovered under Houses of Parliament on the fateful night of 5 November, designated to put the fire to the torch of the gunpowder, he came to be synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot throughout the centuries - when in reality it was actually Catesby who was the brains and originator behind the scheme. Catesby also died at Holbeach, see below, and thus escaped both trial and the feared traitor's execution of being hanged, drawn and quartered; this probably also helped to obscure the vital role he played in the plot, in the mythology that was afterwards created around the event). However, the Gunpowder Plot was uncovered and the barrels of gunpowder defused before any damage was done.¹

A contemporary engraving of the conspirators (detail). The Dutch artist, Crispijn van de Passe the Elder, probably never met any of the conspirators, but the print has become well-known nonetheless.

Following the discovery of the plot, Catesby and the other conspirators fled to the Midlands. He died three days after the discovery of the plot, at Holbeach House near Kingswinford in Staffordshire, when the house was stormed by constables and deputies. Catesby, Sir Ambrose Rokewood, Lord John Grant and Grant's friend, Henry Morgan all died in the ensuing shootout.²

Before the Gunpowder Plot, Catesby was involved with the Earl of Essex in the failed attempt to remove Elizabeth I from power in 1601. He was not executed because of his small role, but was heavily fined, costing him his manor house in Chastleton.

Catesby's father spent a significant part of his life imprisoned for offences related to his Catholic recusancy.

References

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