Ambrose Rookwood

rdf:langString Ambrose Rookwood

rdf:langString Ambrose Rookwood

rdf:langString Ambrose Rookwood

rdf:langString Westminster, London, England

rdf:langString Suffolk, England

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString Early 19th-century portrait of Rookwood

rdf:langString Robert and Henry

rdf:langString Gunpowder plot, a conspiracy to assassinate King James I and members of the Houses of Parliament

rdf:langString Horse-breeder

rdf:langString Dorothea Drury

rdf:langString Robert Rookwood

rdf:langString Then did he acknowledge his offence to be so heinous, that he justly deserved the indignation of the King, and of the Lords, and the hatred of the whole Common-wealth, yet could he not despair of Mercy at the hand of a Prince, so abounding in Grace and Mercy : And the rather, because his offence, though it were incapable of any excuse, yet not altogether incapable of some extenuation, in that he had been neither Author nor Actor, but onely perswaded and drawn in by Catesby, whom he loved above any worldly man : and that he had concealed it, not for any malice to the Person of the King, or of the State, or for any ambitious respect of his own, but onely drawn with the tender respect, and the faithful and dear affection he bore to Mr. Catesby his Friend, whom he esteemed more dear than any thing else in the world. And this mercy he desired not for any fear of the image of death, but for grief that so shameful a Death should leave so perpetual a blemish and blot unto all Ages upon his Name and Blood. But howsoever that this was his first Offence, yet he humbly submitted himself to the Mercy of the King, and prayed, that the King would herein imitate God, who sometimes doth punish corporaliter, non-mortaliter ; corporally, yet not mortally.

rdf:langString Uprising

rdf:langString The gunpowder-treason: with a discourse of the manner of its discovery

rdf:langString Elizabeth Tyrwhitt

rdf:langString Ambrose Rookwood (c. 1578 – 31 January 1606) was a member of the failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to replace the Protestant King James I with a Catholic sovereign. Rookwood was born into a wealthy family of Catholic recusants, and educated by Jesuits in Flanders. His older brother became a Franciscan, and his two younger brothers were ordained as Catholic priests. Rookwood became a horse-breeder. He married the Catholic Elizabeth Tyrwhitt, and had at least two sons. He was enlisted into the plot in September 1605 by Robert Catesby, a religious zealot whose impatience with James' treatment of English Catholics had grown so severe that he conspired to blow up the House of Lords with gunpowder, killing the king and much of the Protestant hierarchy. With the other conspirators he had recruited, Catesby also planned to incite a rebellion in the Midlands, during which James's nine-year-old daughter Princess Elizabeth would be captured, and installed as titular queen. Rookwood's stable of fine horses was essential for the uprising to succeed. The explosion was planned to coincide with the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605, but the man left in charge of the gunpowder stored beneath the House of Lords, Guy Fawkes, was discovered there and arrested. Rookwood fled the city, and informed Catesby and the others of the plan's failure. Together the remaining conspirators rode to Holbeche House in Staffordshire, where on 8 November they were attacked by the pursuing Sheriff of Worcester and his men. Catesby was killed, but Rookwood survived, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Rookwood and the survivors were arraigned on 27 January 1606 in Westminster Hall. Pleading not guilty, he claimed to have loved Catesby "above any worldly man". He was convicted; his request for mercy was ignored, and he was hanged, drawn and quartered on 31 January, in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster.