Robert Catesby Biography

Birth of Robert Catesby

Robert Cateby is tried in Star Chamber alongside William Vaux, 3rd Baron Vaux of Harrowden, and his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Tresham, for harbouring the Jesuit Edmund Campion

Educated at Gloucester Hall in Oxford, a college noted for its Catholic intake

Catesby is arrested because of his Catholic sympathies during Elizabeth Is illness

Hoped that if Essex succeeded, there might be a Catholic monarch, the rebellion is a failure however, and the wounded Catesby is captured, imprisoned and fined 4,000 marks (equivalent to over pounds 6 million as of 2008)

Sir Thomas Tresham helps pay some of Catesbys fine, following which Catesby sells his estate at Chastleton

Along with several other conspirators, he took part in the Earl of Essexs rebellion in 1601, during which he was wounded and captured

Involved in the failed Essex rebellion

Involved in the failed Essex rebellion

Catesby helped to organise a mission to the new king of Spain, Philip III, urging Philip to launch an invasion attempt on England, which they assured him would be well supported, particularly by the English Catholics.

Thomas Percy meets with Robert Catesby, a religious zealot similarly unimpressed with the new royal dynasty, & joins Catesbys conspiracy to kill the king and his ministers by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder.

This record states: Catesby helped to organise a mission to the new king of Spain, Philip III, urging Philip to launch an invasion attempt on England, which they assured him would be well supported, particularly by the English Catholics.

This record states: Robert Catesby may have sent Christopher Wright to Spain to see if Philip III would continue to support English Catholics after Elizabeth's death.

This record states: Thomas Wintour was chosen as the emissary, but the Spanish king, although sympathetic to the plight of Catholics in England, was intent on making peace with James.

Thomas Percy meets with Robert Catesby, a religious zealot similarly unimpressed with the new royal dynasty, & joins Catesbys conspiracy to kill the king and his ministers by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder

Begins to recruit other Catholics to his cause, including Thomas Wintour, John Wright, Thomas Percy, and Guy Fawkes

Catesby invited Thomas Wintour to his house in Lambeth, where they discussed Catesby's plan to re-establish Catholicism in England by blowing up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament.

Fawkes, Catesby, Wright and Wintour agree the plot at the Duck and Drake in the Strand.

The plotters take a secret oath at the Duck and Drake inn near the Strand in London, they include Thomas Percy, Robert Catesby and his cousin Thomas Wintour, John Wright and Guy Fawkes.

Catesby invited Thomas Wintour to his house in Lambeth, where they discussed Catesbys plan to re-establish Catholicism in England by blowing up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament

Fawkes, Catesby, Wright & Wintour agree the plot at the Duck & Drake in the Strand

The first meeting between the five conspirators took place on 20 May 1604, probably at the Duck and Drake Inn, just off the Strand, Thomas Wintours usual residence when staying in London. Fawkes became involved with a small group of English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate the Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter, third in the line of succession, Princess Elizabeth

It was announced on 24 December that the re-opening of Parliament would be delayed, concern over the plague meant that rather than sitting in February, as the plotters had originally planned for, Parliament would not sit again until 3 October 1605

By October Catesby had enlisted a total of 12 Catholic men, and the last remaining plot details were now being considered

The plot was revealed to the authorities in an anonymous letter sent to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby

The leading conspirators meet & decide to go ahead with the plot

During a search of the House of Lords at about midnight on 4 November 1605, Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder enough to reduce the House of Lords to rubble and arrested. Most of the conspirators fled from London as they learned of the plots discovery, trying to enlist support along the way

The lot is betrayed by an anonymous letter to Lord Monteagle. Heads a plot to blow up Parliament against the treatment of the Catholics by James I. 36 barrles of gunpowder are placed under the old House of Lords

Death of Robert Catesby, shot by a single bullet

Death of Robert Catesby, shot by a single bullet

Death of Robert Catesby, shot by a single bullet. Catesby is killed in a siege within a few days of the failed attempt Gunpowder Plot