11 Facts About Robert Keyes

Unlike several other conspirators Keyes was not a particularly wealthy man.

Robert Keyes was trusted by Robert Catesby, the plot's author, with guarding the explosives stored at the latter's lodgings in London.

Robert Keyes's mother was a daughter of Sir Robert Tyrwhitt of Kettleby, Lincolnshire, and related to the Catholic Babthorpes of Osgodby.

Robert Keyes 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.

Father Oswald Tesimond claimed that Robert Keyes had "tasted persecution himself, having lost his goods because of it" while historian and author Cyril Northcote Parkinson's image of him was of a "desperate man, ruined and indebted".

Several conspirators expressed concerns about the safety of fellow Catholics who would be at Parliament on the day of the planned explosion; Robert Keyes was particularly worried about Lord Mordaunt, his wife's employer.

When Robert Keyes heard that Fawkes had been captured he took to his horse and fled for the Midlands.

Robert Keyes was overtaken at Highgate by Rookwood, who was rushing to inform Catesby and the others of what had transpired.

Robert Keyes made no attempt to excuse his actions, claiming that "death was as good now as at any other time", preferable to living "in the midst of so much tyranny".

Robert Keyes claimed that his motive had been to promote the common good.

Grim-faced, Robert Keyes went "stoutly" up the ladder, but with the halter around his neck he threw himself off, presumably hoping for a quick death.