Francis Tresham

Sir Francis Tresham (c. 1567 – December 1605), English Gunpowder Plot conspirator, eldest son of Sir Thomas Tresham of Rushton (a descendant of Sir Thomas Tresham, Speaker of the House of Commons, executed by Edward IV in 1471), and of Muriel, daughter of Sir Thomas Throckmorton of Coughton, was educated at Oxford.

Francis Tresham was the first son, and oldest of eleven children of Sir Thomas Tresham of Rushton, Northamptonshire and Muriel Throckmorton, daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton, Warwickshire. Francis was descended from a long line of respected ancestors. His great-grandfather, Sir Thomas Tresham, was appointed by Queen Elizabeth I as the Prior of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. Francis was educated at either St John's College or Gloucester Hall, or both, but the religion of his father and himself prevented his graduation. As early as 1586 he is mentioned as frequenting the French Ambassador's house with Lady Elizabeth Strange, Lady Compton, and other Catholics.

Sir Thomas Tresham, his father, at this stage had begun to suffer extreme persecution for his stubborn adherence to the Catholic Faith. In August 1581, he was arrested for the first time, committed to the Fleet prison and tried in Star Chamber for the harboring of Father Edmund Campion, along with his brothers-in-law William, Lord Vaux of Harrowden and Sir William Catesby of Lapworth.

He was, like his father, a Roman Catholic, and his family had already suffered for their religion and politics. He is described as "a wild and unstayed man," was connected intimately with many of those afterwards known as the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, being cousin to Catesby and to the two Wintours, and was implicated in a series of seditious intrigues in Elizabeth's reign. In 1596 he was arrested on suspicion together with Catesby and the two Wrights during an illness of Queen Elizabeth. In 1601 he took part in Essex's rebellion and was one of those who confined the Lord Keeper Egerton in Essex House on February 8. He was imprisoned and only suffered to go free on condition of a fine of 3000 marks paid by his father. He was one of the promoters of the mission of Thomas Wintour in 1602 to Madrid to persuade the king of Spain to invade England. On the death of Elizabeth, however, he, with several other Roman Catholics, joined Southampton in securing the Tower for James I.

Tresham was the last of the conspirators to be initiated into the Gunpowder Plot. According to his own account, which receives general support from Thomas Wintour's confession, it was revealed to him on October 14 1605. Inferior in zeal and character to the rest of the conspirators, he had lately by the death of his father, on September 11, 1605, inherited a large property and it was probably his financial support that was now sought. But Tresham, as the possessor of an estate, was probably less inclined than before to embark on rash and hazardous schemes. Moreover, he had two brothers-in-law, Lords Stourton and Monteagle, among the peers destined for assassination.

He expressed his dislike of the plan from the first, and, according to his own account, he endeavoured to dissuade Catesby from the whole project, urging that the Romanist cause would derive no benefit, even in case of success, from the attempt. His representations were in vain and he consented to supply money, but afterwards discovered that no warning was to be given to the Roman Catholic peers.

All the evidence now points to Tresham as the betrayer of the plot, and it is known that he was in London within 24 hours of the dispatch of the famous letter to Lord Monteagle which revealed the plot. In all probability he had betrayed the secret to Monteagle previously, and the method of discovery had been settled between them, for it bears the marks of a prearranged affair, and the whole plan was admirably conceived so as to save Monteagle's life and inform the government, at the same time allowing the conspirators, by timely warning, opportunity to escape.

Tresham avoided meeting any of the conspirators as he had agreed to do at Barnet, on October 20, but on the 31st he was visited by Wintour in London, and summoned to Barnet on the following day. There he met Catesby and Wintour, who were prepared to stab him for his betrayal, but were dissuaded by his protestations that he knew nothing. After the plot was discovered, Tresham was arrested and put in prison, where he died.

Depictions in popular culture

Tresham was the narrator of one chapter of Alan Moore's novel "Voice of the Fire", set in and around Northampton over a period spanning from prehistory to the present day. His chapter was set on November 5, 1607, by which time Tresham had already died, and he narrates as a severed head set on a pike outside Northampton. During the chapter, he is joined on his pike by the recently removed head of John Reynolds, who led the Midlands food riots of that year, ironically against Tresham's own family.

References

*1911