The Enduring Memory of the Gunpowder Plot

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• 1. Introduction
• 2. Broken hopes
• 3. Vicious reaction
• 4. Lasting suspicion
• 5. Repression
• 6. Find out more
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Introduction

To begin to understand the reasons why the Gunpowder Plot has reverberated so strongly down the years, it is necessary to look at the family history of an old and rich Catholic family, the Catesbys. It was the dynamic conspirator Robert Catesby who, along with Thomas Winter and John Wright, first devised the plot.

The intention of this vicious trio was to target King James, his wife Queen Anne, their son and heir Prince Henry, the privy councillors, nobility, clergy, judges and principal gentlemen of England - and blast them all to kingdom come during the ceremony of the State Opening of Parliament.

'The intention of this vicious trio was to target King James...'

The planned huge explosion would also have killed and maimed the many Londoners who would have gathered to view the event. Catesby, the mastermind and charismatic leader of the tight knit band of plotters, paid no attention to the mayhem his actions would have caused in the country at large, having been corrupted by hatred of Protestant rulers during the long reign of Queen Elizabeth I (who died in 1603).

Some of the wealth of the Catesbys had been squeezed from them by the fitful administration of anti-Catholic laws in Elizabethan England. Four years after serving the Queen as sheriff of Warwickshire, where he had inherited large land holdings, Sir William Catesby (father of Robert), and Sir Thomas Tresham, his brother-in-law, had stood trial for contempt in the Star Chamber.

The 'contempt' was their refusal to state on oath whether or not a Jesuit priest, Edmund Campion, had been illegally received in their homes. They were prominent figures in their communities, and so were treated to the exemplary punishment of a heavy fine for their refusal.

Between 1581 and 1605 Tresham was forced to pay £8,000 in penalties' about £4 million in today's values. Such fines may have been hurtful, but the men who paid them did not seek a violent end to the reign of Elizabeth I. They remained loyal to her, even though some of the younger generation fretted and frothed with rage.

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Published: 2001-05-01