17 Facts About Francis Tresham

Francis Tresham expressed concern that if the plot was successful, two of his brothers-in-law would be killed.

Historians have long suspected that Francis Tresham wrote the letter, a hypothesis that remains unproven.

Francis Tresham is said to have been a fellow prisoner with Robert Catesby held in Wisbech Castle at the time of the Spanish Armada.

Francis Tresham married Anne Tufton, daughter of Sir John Tufton of Hothfield in Kent, in 1593.

Francis Tresham's father, born near the end of Henry VIII's reign, was regarded by the Catholic community as one of its leaders.

Francis Tresham proclaimed the accession of James I to the English throne, but the king's promises to Thomas of forestry commissions and an end to recusancy fines were not kept.

Francis Tresham's father tried to have him appointed as keeper of the deer parks at Brigstock.

Francis Tresham hoped to achieve this by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder and inciting a popular revolt to install James's daughter Princess Elizabeth as titular Queen.

Francis Tresham claimed to have questioned Catesby on the morality of the plot, asking if it was spiritually "damnable".

Catesby replied that it was not, at which point Francis Tresham highlighted the danger that all Catholics would face should the plot succeed.

Francis Tresham had no money to spare, his father's debts having reduced his inheritance, although he paid a small sum to Thomas Wintour, on the understanding that the latter was to travel to the Low Countries.

Mark Nicholls states that he almost certainly wrote it, pointing to the fact that once Catesby was made aware of its existence he immediately suspected Francis Tresham and went with Thomas Wintour to confront him.

Meanwhile, Francis Tresham again urged Catesby and Wintour to abandon the scheme, but his attempts were in vain.

Francis Tresham's complicity was not revealed until the following day, although he was attributed with only a minor role.

Francis Tresham claimed to have persuaded Thomas Wintour and Thomas Percy to postpone the explosion, and that he had planned to inform the king's secretary Thomas Lake of a "Puritan conspiracy".

Francis Tresham preferred the services of a Dr Richard Foster over those of the Tower's regular doctor Matthew Gwinne; apparently Foster understood his case, indicating that it was not the first occasion on which he had treated him.

Francis Tresham apologised to the Jesuit priest Henry Garnet for implicating him in the Spanish Treason, and used the rest of his deathbed confession to protest his innocence.