Robert Catesby

Infobox Criminal
subject_name = Robert Catesby


image_size = 180px
image_caption = from print of the group
date_of_birth = 1573
place_of_birth = Lapworth, Warwickshire
date_of_death = November 8, 1605
place_of_death = Holbeach House, Staffordshire, England
charge = Conspiracy to assassinate King James I (James VI of Scotland) and members of the houses of the Parliament of England
penalty = never arrested
status =
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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 notable of whom was Guy Fawkes) who endeavoured to blow up the Houses of Parliament in England in 1605. However, the Gunpowder Plot was uncovered and the barrels of gunpowder defused before any damage was done. [ [http://www.gunpowder-plot.org/catesby.asp Catesby at Gunplowder plot.org] accessed August 2007]

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. [Fraser, Antonia. "Faith and Treson: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot". pg 184. New York, 1996.]

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.

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