Robert Keyes was one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot, an unsuccessful attempt by a group of English Roman Catholics to blow-up Westminster Palace and kill King James I (James VI of Scotland) and members of both houses of the Parliament, during the opening session of Parliament on 5 November 1605, while the king addressed a joint assembly of both the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
Born around 1565, he was the son of Edward Keye...
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Robert Keyes was one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot, an unsuccessful attempt by a group of English Roman Catholics to blow-up Westminster Palace and kill King James I (James VI of Scotland) and members of both houses of the Parliament, during the opening session of Parliament on 5 November 1605, while the king addressed a joint assembly of both the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
Born around 1565, he was the son of Edward Keyes, the Rector of Staveley, Derbyshire. His mother, who was a daughter of Sir Robert Tyrwhitt from Kettleby, Lincolnshire, was related to the Babthorpes of Osgodby who were staunch Catholics. Through his mother he was related to co-conspirators Sir Ambrose Rokewood, John and Christopher Wright and Robert and Thomas Wintour. He was almost certainly brought up as a Protestant but by the time of the plot he had converted to Catholicism.
He and his wife Christina were employed by Lord Mordaunt in 1604. Keyes' role is not known (he was possibly a...
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