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People behind the Gunpowder plot

Guy Fawkes is the name associated above all others with the infamous Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Perhaps because he was the one caught red-handed, he's become our Bonfire Night 'celebrity'. But what of the other men involved?

Thomas and Robert Winter

Thomas Winter was among the first to be drawn into the plot. His brother Robert was recruited later. It was Thomas who tried to get the conspirators to abandon the plot when he realised that it had been discovered

Thomas Percy

Percy was a violent, wild character. He was married to Christopher and John's sister, Martha and came from a very wealthy, powerful family

John and Christopher Wright

These brothers were viewed as dangerous Catholics by the authorities before they had even been drawn into the plot

Robert Catesby

Find out how Catesby became the charismatic mastermind of the Gunpowder Plot

Francis Tresham

The most reluctant of the conspirators, it may have been Tresham who sent the Monteagle letter warning his brother-in-law not to attend Parliament

Robert Keyes and John Grant

Keyes looked after the gunpowder and Grant bought weapons for the conspirators

Thomas Bates, Ambrose Rookwood and Sir Everard Digby

Thomas Bates was Catesby's servant. Rookwood and Digby were both brought into the plot because of their money

Guy Fawkes

Recruited as the gunpowder expert, Guy Fawkes was caught red-handed in the basement storeroom under the House of Lords with the barrels of gunpowder on the 5 November 1605