The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter Part 3

The answer is manifold: for besides the wrongs which these ruthless plotters sought to avenge, they evidently came under a potent psychological spell when they came under the influence of this wayward, yet fascinating, son of the brilliant age of Elizabeth--an age in which men's intellectual and physical powers too often attained a complete mastery over their moral powers.[20]

For a proof of Catesby's immense influence over others, it may be mentioned that Ambrose Rookwood, one of those whose blood afterwards stained the scaffold at the early age of twenty-seven for his share in the wicked scheme, says of Catesby that "he (Rookwood) loved and respected him as his own life."[21]

Four things seem to have caused those who came in contact with Robert Catesby to have been carried captive at his will, if from the first they were at all well affected towards him--his personal appearance, his generosity, his zeal, and his skill in the use of arms.

We are told that Tesimond (alias Greenway), another contemporary of Catesby, says that "his countenance was exceedingly n.o.ble and expressive.

That his conversation and manners were peculiarly attractive and imposing, and that by the dignity of his character he exercised an irresistible influence over the minds of those who a.s.sociated with him."[22]

His zeal was of that kind which is contagious and kindles responsive fire.

As for his martial prowess, it was sufficiently attested by his behaviour at the time of the Ess.e.x rising, when Father Gerard, his contemporary, tells us that "Mr. Catesby did then show such valour and fought so long and stoutly as divers afterwards of those swordsmen did exceedingly esteem him and follow him in regard thereof."[23]

CHAPTER VIII.

Thomas Winter came of a Worcestershire family. His father, George Winter (or Wintour), had married Jane Ingleby, the daughter of Sir William Ingleby, a Yorkshire knight of historic name, whose ancestral seat was Ripley Castle, near Knaresbrough[24] in Nidderdale, one of the most romantic valleys of Yorkshire.

Jane Winter's brother, Francis Ingleby,[25] a barrister, and afterwards a Roman Catholic priest, was hanged, drawn and quartered at York, on the 2nd of June, 1586, for exercising his priesthood in York and his native County.

He was a man of rare parts, and the heroic story of his life and death must have often thrilled the hearts of his sister's children.

Would that they had taken him as their model. For of all those many Roman Catholic Yorkshiremen[A] who, of divers ranks and degrees, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, preferred "death" to (what to them) was "dishonour," none has left n.o.bler memories than this self-sacrificing, exalted soul.[26]

[Footnote A: At least 49 persons, priests and laymen, suffered death in York alone for the Pope's religion, between the reigns of Henry VIII. and Charles II. inclusive. The place of execution was usually the Tyburn, opposite Knavesmire, near Hob Moor Gate, in the middle of the Tadcaster High Road. In the reign of Philip and Mary no Protestant was burned to death in Yorkshire. Archbishop Heath, of York, like Bishop Tunstall, of Durham, and the great Catholic Jurist, Edmund Plowden, who, for conscience sake, declined the Chancellorship when offered to him by Elizabeth, did not think they could "save alive" the soul of a "heretic" by roasting "dead" his body at the stake. And they were right.]

Thomas Winter, the ill-fated nephew of him just mentioned, was a courageous man and an accomplished linguist.

He had seen military service in Flanders, in behalf of the Estates-General against Spain, and in France, and possibly against the Turk.

We are told by a contemporary that "he was of such a wit and so fine a carriage, that he was of so pleasing conversation, desired much of the better sort, but an inseparable friend of Mr. Robert Catesby. He was of mean stature, but strong and comely and very valiant, about thirty-three years old, or somewhat more. His means were not great, but he lived in good sort, and with the best."[27] He seems to have been unmarried.

Sir Everard Digby was a tall, handsome, singularly generous, charming young fellow, and like Ambrose Rookwood, previously mentioned, had won the loving favour of all who knew him. Digby had two estates in the County of Rutlandshire (Tilton and Drystoke), also property in the County of Leicestershire; and through his amiable and beautiful young wife, Mary Mulsho, a wealthy heiress, he was the owner of Gothurst[A] (now Gayhurst) in the parish of Tyringham, near Newport Pagnell, in the County of Buckinghamshire, still one of England's stately homes.[28]

Francis Tresham was married to a Throckmorton, and was connected with many English families of historic name, high rank, and great fortune.

[Footnote A: Gothurst (now Gayhurst), resembles in its style of architecture, The Treasurer's House, York, on the North side of the Minster, the town-house of Frank Green, Esquire. Walter Carlile, Esquire, now resides at Gayhurst.]

He was a first cousin to Robert Catesby through his mother--a Throckmorton. Tresham and the Winters were also akin.

Francis Tresham, like his cousin, Robert Catesby, had been involved in the Ess.e.x rising, and his father, Sir Thomas Tresham, had to pay a ransom of at least 2,000 to effect his son's escape from arraignment and certain execution. Powerful interest had been exerted in the son's favour with Queen Elizabeth by Lady Catherine Howard, the daughter of Lord Thomas Howard, Lieutenant of the Tower, and afterwards Earl of Suffolk.[29]

John Grant was a Warwickshire Squire, who had married Robert and Thomas Winter's sister Dorothy. Grant's home was at Norbrook, near Snitterfield, a walled and moated mansion-house between the towns of Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon.[30] Grant was a taciturn but accomplished man, who had been likewise fined for his share in the Ess.e.x rising.

John Wright and Christopher Wright were younger sons of Robert Wright, Esquire, of Plowland (or Plewland) Hall, Welwick, Holderness, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

They were related to the Inglebies of Ripley, through the Mallories of Studley Royal near Ripon. Hence were they related to Thomas Winter, Robert Winter, and Dorothy Grant.

Robert Keyes, of Drayton in Northamptonshire, was the son of a Protestant clergyman and probably grandson of one of the Key or Kay family of Woodsome, Almondbury, near Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Through his Roman Catholic mother, Keyes was related to Lady Ursula Babthorpe, the daughter of Sir William Tyrwhitt[31] of Kettleby, near Brigg, Lincolnshire, and wife of Sir William Babthorpe, of Babthorpe and OsG.o.dby, near Selby, in the East Riding of Yorkshire Sir William Babthorpe was "the very soul of honour," one of the most valiant-hearted gentlemen in Yorkshire, and himself, likewise, related to the Mallories, the Inglebies, the Wrights, and the Winters. His sister was Lady Catherine Palmes, the wife of Sir George Palmes, of Naburn, near the City of York.

Ambrose Rookwood, of Coldham Hall--an ivy-clad, mullion-windowed mansion still standing--in the parish of Stanningfield, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, was of an honourable and wealthy Suffolk family, who had suffered fines and penalties for the profession of their hereditary faith.

His wife was a Tyrwhitt and sister to Lady Ursula Babthorpe. At the time of the Plot he was twenty-seven years of age.[A]

[Footnote A: Edward Rookwood, of Euston Hall, Suffolk, was cousin to Ambrose Rookwood. At Euston in 1578 Queen Elizabeth was sumptuously entertained by Edward Rookwood.--See Hallam's "_Const.i.tutional History_,"

and Lodge's "_Ill.u.s.trations_."]

Of the engaging Ambrose Rookwood a contemporary says, "I knew him well and loved him tenderly. He was beloved by all who knew him. He left behind him his lady, who was a very beautiful person and of a high family, and two or three little children, all of whom--together with everything he had in this world--he cast aside to follow the fortunes of this rash and desperate conspiracy."[32]

Guy Fawkes was also a Yorkshireman, being born in the year 1570, in the City of York.

His baptismal register, dated the 16th day of April, 1570, is still to be seen in the Church of St. Michael-le-Belfrey, hard-by the glorious Minster.

Probably that one of four traditions is true which says that the son of Edward Fawkes, Notary and Advocate of the Consistory Court of York, and Edith, his wife, was born in a house situated in High Petergate. In fact, in the angle formed by the street known as High Petergate and the ancient alley called Minster Gates, leading into the Minster Yard, opposite the South Transept of the Minster, and at the top of the mediaeval street called Stonegate.[A]

[Footnote A: The house I refer to is occupied by the Governors of St.

Peter's School (where Fawkes was himself educated), by Mr. T. H. Barron, and Mr. Matkins. It is still Minster property. It is a brick Elizabethan house refaced. Fawkes' grandmother, Mrs. Ellen Fawkes, almost certainly lived in a house in High Petergate, on the opposite side of the road, probably. His father may have had a house also at Bishopthorpe.--See Supplementum I.]

Though the property Guy Fawkes inherited was small, his descent and upbringing had made him the equal and companion of the gentry of his native County.

In the thirty-third year of Elizabeth (1592), in a legal doc.u.ment dealing with his property, Guy Fawkes is described as of Scotton, a picturesque village in the ancient Parish of Farnham, between Knaresbrough and Ripley, in Nidderdale.

Fawkes was a tall athletic man, with brown hair and an auburn beard. He was modest, self-controlled, and very valiant. He left England for Flanders most likely in 1593 or 1594. At the time of the conspiracy he was about thirty-five years of age. He was unmarried.

Fawkes was highly intelligent, direct of purpose, simple of heart, well-read, and, as a soldier of fortune in the Netherlands, not only "skilful in the wars," but, apart from his fanaticism, which seems to have grown by degrees into a positive monomania, possessed of many attractive, and even endearing, moral qualities.

Fawkes held a post of command in the Spanish Army when Spain took Calais in 1596, and gave promise of becoming, like his friend and patron, Sir William Stanley, an ideal "happy warrior," and one of England's greatest generals.[A]

[Footnote A: It is interesting and instructive to compare the Forty Years'

War between Spain and the Netherlands with the present unhappy strife in South Africa between Britons and the descendants of those that repelled the arms of the once greatest soldiery in the world. The war between Spain and the Dutch was not a religious war at the commencement of the struggle.

It arose out of a chafing under the sovereignty of Spain, and a dispute about tenths. In fact, many Catholics fought against Philip II. in this war at the beginning.

I visited Scotton for the first time on the day set apart in York as a general holiday for the Relief of Mafeking (19th May, 1900).]

It is said by an old writer, "Winter and Fawxe are men of excellent good natural parts, very resolute and universally learned."[33] In the days of their joyous youth these two gifted men may have many a time and oft played and sported together in Nidderdale, with its purple moors, its rock-crowned fells, its leafy woods, its musical streams, its flowery ghylls, its winding river.

Guy Fawkes was a son of destiny, a product of his environment, a creature of circ.u.mstances--always saving his free-will and moral responsibility.

But, dying, he must have remembered his dear York and sweet Scotton.

CHAPTER IX.