10 Traitors Who Were Proven Right
6. Catholics Deserved To Be Treated As Equals - Robert Catesby And The Gunpowder Plot
No, this isn't an attempt to be satirical, and like a few other alleged traitors on this list, it's debatable whether Robert Catesby was working for the greater good or not. But was he proven correct in what he believed? Yes, it's fair to say he was.
Although Guy Fawkes is the modern face of the Gunpowder Plot, it was Catesby who organised everything (Fawkes was essentially the bomb maker).
Catesby wasn't motivated by a desire to free England and Scotland from a tyrannical monarch, rather he sought equal rights for Catholics. He wasn't a religious zealot. Catesby had married a Protestant, and his children had been raised in the Protestant faith. What he wanted was fair treatment.
Catesby had hoped that the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne in 1603 (as James I), might bring about a cessation of hostility towards Catholics, following years of persecution under Elizabeth I and Edward VI before her.
Unfortunately, despite his late mother's adherence to Catholicism and his own, seemingly moderate views, James VI & I turned out to be just as anti-Catholic as his predecessors. Exasperated, Catesby became convinced that the only way to effect change would be to replace the current regime.
As we know, the plan to blow up James and Parliament failed. Catesby was killed in a shootout with James's soldiers, and the rest of the plotters were executed. A backlash against Catholics ensued.
Did the Gunpowder Plot actually exacerbate the persecution of Catholics? It's debatable. But what's true is that Catholics continued to be treated with suspicion, and were excluded from high office for hundreds of years after Catesby's death. Even to this day, Catholics are barred from succession to the British throne, after the Act of Settlement of 1701.