Robert Catesby son of Sir William Catesby of Lapworth in Warwickshire, a prominent recusant who was a descendant of Sir William Catesby, speaker of the House of Commons in 1484, executed by Henry VII after the battle of Bosworth, was born in 1573.
Robert Catesby was educated in nearby Oxford.
In 1601 Robert Catesby took part in the rebellion of Essex, was wounded in the fight and imprisoned, but finally pardoned on the payment of an enormous fine, to obtain which he was forced to sell a portion of his property.
In 1602 he despatched Thomas Winter and the Jesuit Tesimond alias Greenway to Spain to induce Philip III to organize an invasion of England, and in 1603, after James's accession, he was named as an accomplice in the "Bye Plot. "
Catesby was a man of great beauty of person, " above 2 yards high, " says Father Gerard, " and though slender, yet as well-proportioned to his height as any man one should see. "
He was, however, headstrong, wilful and imprudent, fit for action, but incapable of due deliberation, and entirely wanting in foresight.
The idea of some great stroke seems to have first entered his mind in May 1603.
On the 2nd of November his resolution was shaken by Tresham's renewed entreaties that he would flee, and his positive assurance that Salisbury knew everything.
On the evening of the 3rd, however, he was again, through Percy's insistence, persuaded to stand firm and hazard the great stroke.
The rest of the story is told in the article Gunpowder Plot.
Here it need only be said that Catesby, after the discovery of the conspiracy, fled with his fellow-plotters, taking refuge ultimately at Holbeche in Staffordshire, where on the night of the 8th of November he was overtaken and killed.
Robert Catesby married a Protestant in 1593 and fathered two children.
