Robin was the real Plot terrorist
A penny for the Robin . . . it doesn't sound right, does it? Children say "A penny for the Guy" even though, in truth, Guy Fawkes was not the leading character in the Gunpowder Plot.
The real mastermind and chief plotter was Robert Catesby of Ashby St Ledgers, near Daventry, while his cousin, Francis Tresham of Rushton, near Kettering, was the conspirator who eventually "blew" the plot!
So what were these two local terrorists really like?
Robin, as Catesby was known, was born in 1573, probably at Bushwood Hall in Lapworth, Warwickshire, where the Catesby family had held land since the 1480s, but he was brought up at Ashby St Ledgers with his parents, Sir William and his wife, Anne, in a strictly Catholic household.
His father had suffered a great deal for his faith and in 1581, when Robin was only eight years old, Sir William was arrested for the first time and tried in the Court of Star Chamber, along with his cousin William, Lord Vaux of Harrowden and his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Tresham of Rushton, for the harbouring of the saintly Fr Edmund Campion.
His adherence to the Catholic cause not only cost him his freedom, but also one fifth of his huge estates.
Clearly Robin grew up ingrained with the Catholic cause.
It was natural, then, that he would one day put his beliefs into action with potentially disastrous results.
Robin was unusually tall, "two yards high" and very handsome. He was serious, but loved to enjoy himself, a brilliant horseman and swordsman, rich, generous, courageous, intrepid and admired by everyone.
He was also magnetic and he could "sell" any idea to other fanatics, including treason.
He was fervently religious, something of a missionary and eager for the conversion of England.
He went to Worcester College, Oxford in 1586 but could not complete his degree course because he would have had to swear the Oath of Supremacy.
From Oxford he studied in France where he was instilled with somewhat extreme ideals and, in modern parlance, radicalised.
His cousin, Francis Tresham, was born in 1567 at Rushton Hall.
Like Robin, Francis was educated at Worcester College and he too did not graduate.
Both saw their fathers imprisoned for the Catholic cause. Bitter at his father's treatment, Francis was open to anti-government ideals.
He was "a wylde and unstayed man", reckless and extravagant, wayward, lacking in discretion and not easy to handle.
He was also violent, having been imprisoned for attacking a man and his pregnant daughter for money ostensibly owed.
Perhaps worst of all, he was a coward and a hypocrite, having defamed his own father to the King on one occasion and spying for the Court on his Catholic relations.
At 37, he was nowhere near as fervent a Catholic as Catesby and, as such, he was "not much to be trusted" by the other conspirators.
Their judgement proved to be well-founded.
Francis tried to get Robin to drop the plot and offered him money to leave the country, but the plot went ahead until Tresham gave it away.
Tresham died in the Tower of an unknown illness and later his head was displayed in Northampton's Market Square.
Catesby was shot and crawled to a picture of the Virgin and died kissing it.
The plot was an act of terrorism. The motives of none of the 13 conspirators (many related to each other) can be justified but, in the event, Tresham's act of cowardice saved the day.
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