Robert Keyes
Robert Keyes | |
|---|---|
_by_Claes_(Nicolaes)_Jansz_Visscher.jpg) Print of the execution of the conspirators in January 1606 | |
| Born | c. 1565 |
| Died | 31 January 1606 |
| Spouse | Christina |
| Motive | Gunpowder plot, a conspiracy to assassinate King James VI & I and members of the Houses of Parliament |
| Conviction(s) | High treason |
| Criminal penalty | Hanged, drawn and quartered |
| Role | Guarding the explosives |
| Enlisted | October 1604 |
Robert Keyes was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a conspiracy to assassinate King James I by blowing up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605. He was the sixth man to join the plot.
Unlike several other conspirators Keyes was not a particularly wealthy man. He was trusted by Robert Catesby, the plot's author, with guarding the explosives stored at his lodgings in London. When the plot was uncovered he fled the city, and was captured several days later in Warwickshire. He was subsequently tried with his co-conspirators, found guilty, and in January 1606 hanged, drawn and quartered.
Life before 1604
Born in about 1565, Robert Keyes was the son of the Protestant Rector of Staveley in North Derbyshire. His mother was a daughter of Sir Robert Tyrwhitt of Kettleby in Lincolnshire, and related to the staunchly Catholic Babthorpes of Osgodby.[1] Keyes' first cousin Elizabeth Tyrrwhitt was married to another member of the plot, Ambrose Rookwood. Despite his father's religion, by 1604 Robert had converted to Catholicism.[2] His wife Christina, a widow when he married her, was the governess for the children of Henry Mordaunt, 4th Baron Mordaunt, at Drayton in Northamptonshire,[3] and for this Keyes gained the use of horses and other amenities. Unlike several others involved in the Gunpowder Plot, he was not a wealthy man.[4] Although he had a servant, William Johnson, he claimed that he had lost his possessions at some time as a result of persecution.[5]
Joins the plot
English Catholics had hoped that the persecution of their faith would end when the apparently more tolerant King James I succeeded Queen Elizabeth I, but Robert Catesby, a Catholic zealot from Ashby St Ledgers, remained unimpressed by the new royal dynasty.[6][7] He therefore planned to kill James by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder, following which he would help incite a popular revolt to install James's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, as titular Queen.[8] Keyes joined the conspiracy in October 1604.[9] His role was to guard the gunpowder and other items stored at Robert Catesby's house in Lambeth.[2]
The Jesuit priest John Gerard described Keyes as "a grave and sober man, and of great wit and sufficiency",[10] while historian and author Cyril Northcote Parkinson's image of him was of a "desperate man, ruined and indebted".[11] Tall, with a red beard, Catesby declared him "a trusty honest man", and may have paid him for his services.[1] Like fellow plotter Guy Fawkes, he was judged as capable of looking after himself. Keyes was particularly worried about the safety at Parliament of Lord Mordaunt, his wife's employer. He was not alone; several other conspirators expressed similar concerns about the safety of fellow Catholics who would be at Parliament on the day of the planned explosion.[12] Thomas Percy was concerned for his patron, Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, and the Lords Vaux, Montague, Monteagle and Stourton were also mentioned. Keyes's suggestion to warn Lord Mordaunt was treated by Catesby with derision, when he answered that "he would not for the chamber full of diamonds acquaint him with the secret, for that he knew he could not keep it."[13]
On 4 November, the day before the planned explosion, Keyes and his wife's cousin, Ambrose Rookwood spent the night at the house of Elizabeth More, near Temple Bar.[14] Late in the evening, Fawkes visited Keyes there, and was given a watch (left by Thomas Percy), to time the fuse.[15] Several hours later, however, Fawkes was discovered guarding the explosives, and arrested.[16]
Failure, capture and death
When Keyes heard that Fawkes had been captured he took to his horse and fled for the Midlands. He was overtaken at Highgate by Rookwood, himself rushing to inform Catesby and the others of what had transpired. After he and Rookwood had caught up with Catesby, Percy, Thomas Bates, and John and Christopher Wright, Keyes left the group, and headed instead for Lord Mordaunt's house at Drayton, where he went to ground.[17] He was identified as a suspect on 6 November,[18] and captured three days later in Warwickshire. During his interrogation he revealed that he had been travelling to see Rookwood's family, having heard that the young lord had been captured. He was sent to London on 16 November, and interrogated again in the Tower of London.[citation needed] In his Narrative, the Jesuit Oswald Tesimond wrote:
He claimed his motive had been to promote the common good. That is, that he hoped his native land would be turned back to the Catholic faith. The violence of the present persecution had driven him also to take part in the conspiracy.[5]
The conspirators were tried on 27 January 1606 at Westminster Hall. Despite their not guilty pleas (only Digby pleaded guilty), all eight were found guilty. They were each allowed to speak "wherefore judgement of death should not be pronounced against them".[19] Keyes made no attempt to excuse his actions, claiming that "death was as good now as at any other time",[20] preferable to living "in the midst of so much tyranny".[21][22] On 31 January 1606 Keyes, Rookwood, Thomas Wintour and Fawkes were taken to the Old Palace Yard in Westminster, to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Rookwood and Wintour were the first to ascend to the gallows. Grim-faced, Keyes went "stoutly" up the ladder, but with the halter around his neck he threw himself off, presumably hoping for a quick death. The halter broke, however, and he along with the others was taken to the block to suffer the remainder of his sentence.[23]
References
- ^ a b Haynes 2005, p. 55
- ^ a b Fraser 2005, pp. 130–131
- ^ Bengsten 2005, p. 125
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 131
- ^ a b Tesimond 1973, p. 214
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 41–42
- ^ Haynes, Alan (5 November 2009), The Enduring Memory of the Gunpowder Plot, bbc.co.uk, retrieved 14 July 2010
{{citation}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - ^ Fraser 2005, p. 140
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 120
- ^ Gerard & Morris 1871, p. 87
- ^ Northcote Parkinson 1976, p. 96
- ^ Northcote Parkinson 1976, pp. 62–63
- ^ Haynes 2005, p. 82
- ^ Simons 1963, p. 157
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 201
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 201–203
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 204–205
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 211
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 270
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 271
- ^ Fraser 2005, p. 358
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 263–271
- ^ Fraser 2005, pp. 282–283
- Bibliography
- Fraser, Antonia (2005) [1996], The Gunpowder Plot, London: Phoenix, ISBN 0753814013
- Bengsten, Fiona (2005), Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, and the Gunpowder Plot (illustrated ed.), Trafford Publishing, ISBN 1412055415
- Gerard, John; Morris, John (1871), The condition of Catholics under James I : Father Gerard's narrative of the Gunpowder Plot, vol. 1, London: Longmans, Green
- Haynes, Alan (2005) [1994], The Gunpowder Plot: Faith in Rebellion, Sparkford, England: Hayes and Sutton, ISBN 0750942150
- Simons, Eric (1963), The Devil of the Vault – A Life of Guy Fawkes, London: Fredrick Muller Limited
- Tesimond, Oswald (1973), The Gunpowder Plot: the narrative of Oswald Tesimond alias Greenway, London: Folio Society, ISBN 978-0850670684