When we think of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, the names that usually spring to mind are Guy Fawkes, Robert Catesby and Thomas Percy. Yet behind the conspirators was an extensive network of family relationships, and one woman found herself remarkably close to the centre of it all: Elizabeth, Lady Raleigh, better known as Bess Throckmorton, wife of Sir Walter Raleigh.
Bess was born into the influential Throckmorton family, one of England's most prominent Catholic dynasties. Although Bess herself was a Protestant, her extended family included numerous Catholics whose religious convictions had brought them into conflict with the Crown. These family connections extended into the households of the Gunpowder Plotters.
Robert Catesby
Catesby's mother was Anne Throckmorton, daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court. Through the Throckmortons, Bess was related to the wives of nearly all the principal conspirators. Among them were Martha Wright, whose husband Thomas Percy was involved in the plot and whose brothers John and Christopher Wright were also conspirators; Anne Tufton, wife of Francis Tresham; and women connected to the Wintour, Grant and other conspirator families.
These were not simply distant acquaintances. They belonged to an interconnected world of Catholic gentry families, where marriages strengthened relationships, secured property and maintained networks of influence. Family loyalties could survive differences in religious conviction, although the events of 1605 would put those loyalties under extraordinary pressure.
Bess occupied a particularly interesting position. Unlike many of her Catholic relatives, she remained a Protestant. This distinction mattered enormously when the authorities began investigating the conspiracy. Catholic households were searched, women were questioned, and several of the plotters' wives were arrested and brought to London for examination.
Bess had another, rather more immediate reason to be anxious.
Her husband, Sir Walter Raleigh, was already imprisoned in the Tower of London. Arrested in 1603 following the alleged Main Plot against James I, Raleigh had been convicted of treason and sentenced to death. His execution was postponed, however, and his sentence was eventually commuted to imprisonment for life.
The discovery of the Gunpowder Plot therefore brought an additional danger to a household already living under suspicion. Raleigh's reputation, his previous political difficulties and Bess's family connections made them particularly vulnerable to rumours that they might have known more about the conspiracy than they admitted.
Both Bess and Walter came under suspicion following the discovery of the plot. However, no evidence was found to establish their involvement, and the accusations were dropped.
For Bess, the consequences were nevertheless serious. She had two surviving sons to support, a husband whose freedom depended upon the King's mercy, and relatives whose names were now associated with one of the most notorious acts of treason in English history.
There is something particularly compelling about Bess's position. She was a Protestant woman surrounded by Catholic relatives, married to a man who had himself been condemned for treason, yet she managed to navigate the dangerous political and religious divisions of Jacobean England.
The Gunpowder Plot is usually remembered as a story of thirteen men and their terrible conspiracy. But for Bess Raleigh, it was also a family crisis. The explosion that never happened threatened to destroy lives and reputations far beyond the conspirators themselves.
Her story reminds us that behind the great political events of history were families, marriages and women who had to live with the consequences of decisions they had not made.
Discover the world of Bess Raleighin the final book of my Elizabethan series: Bess - Tudor Gentlewonan
Tony Riches
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