Robert Catesby was the charismatic leader of the group of conspirators. He had a way with people, and convinced a number of his impressionable friends to go along with the murderous plan which would later be known as the Gunpowder Plot. Even as problems with his plot later arose and some members expressed doubt, Catesby remained convinced that violent action was the only way forward.
Catesby first recruited his close friends and relatives: Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright and Thomas Percy, but the group quickly grew to include Guy Fawkes. The small core of conspirators felt Guy would be a strong addition. Guy was not part of the close knit circle of Catesby's small group, but he had spent time in the Netherlands and in Spain where he had fought, many said very well, as a mercenary. While in Spain he also earned the nickname Guido. Indeed, he even signed his name Guido Fawkes in a number of places.
He was as passionate about the plight of the Catholics in England as his colleagues. As a member of the group, he quickly became a trusted member, and was later charged with the dangerous task of acquiring 36 barrels of gunpowder and storing them in a rented space beneath the House of Lords.
Soon after Fawkes' addition, others who joined the group were Robert Wintour, Christopher (Kit) Wright, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates. Latecomers to the group were John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Francis Tresham, and Everard Digby. In all, there were 13 conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot. If Robert Catesby was the leader, how did Guy Fawkes become the most famous member of the Gunpowder Plot?
Guy Fawkes was the one who was caught under the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder. For two days, Guido was the only suspect in custody and his name became synonymous with the Powder Treason, as the Gunpowder Plot was known at the time.
But Guy wasn't in prison alone for long. Soon, many conspirators were either caught outright as they flew from London, or surrendered shortly thereafter. Some, however, including the ringleader Robert Catesby, were killed in a siege within a few days of the failed attempt.
All the conspirators who were not killed in the siege were imprisoned, tortured, and executed in the most gruesome way (except Francis Tresham who fell sick and died while in prison).
As is often the case with confessions made under duress, plotters admitted to everything they knew, and complemented this information with whatever authorities wanted to hear - in hopes of ending their ordeal. The result was questionable confessions, at least partly manufactured by authorities for their own purposes. These "confessions" conveniently incriminated two leading English Jesuits (Catholics) - who according to some historians had no involvement in the Plot. Regardless, it allowed the government to justify further anti-Catholic and get rid of at least two problematic Catholic leaders.
All imprisonned plotters were executed publicly in March 1607. They were "hanged, drawn, and quartered", a brutal practice which authorities hoped would instill terror in other potential traitors.
Did public executions really function as a deterrent? Or did they simply feed the climate of violence that encouraged Catesby and his men to pursue their deadly aims?

Guy Fawkes had twice the gunpowder needed By Fiona Govan

Guy fawkes, it seems, was a little over zealous with the gunpowder. Half the number of barrels he smuggled into Parliament would have been enough to destroy the chamber above him and wipe out the ruling elite - providing he had got around to lighting the fuse. Had he not been foiled in his gunpowder plot, commemorated this Saturday, the blast would have been audible five miles away and would have killed those in the vicinity almost instantly. The impact of the explosion has been worked out by a group of modern-day explosives experts who succeeded where Fawkes failed 400 years ago. The makers of a television programme built a full-sized replica of the 17th century House of Lords before following Fawkes's meticulous plans and detonating 36 barrels of explosive beneath it. Filmed inside the mocked-up chamber - packed with sensors and crash test dummies to represent King James I, peers, bishops and MPs - the documentary shows in graphic detail what would have happened if Fawkes had been successful. The programme, which cost £1 million to make, shows that the massacre would have succeeded with half of the amount of gunpowder that was in place in November 1605. The programme-makers, working at the Spadeadam RAF base on the Scottish border, used 720 tons of concrete to recreate the undercroft where the Catholic plotters' gunpowder was hidden with a full Lords chamber built above. The civil engineering firm Arup concluded that the blast would have propelled the timber floor upwards so fast that everyone in the chamber would have been killed. Anyone who did manage to survive would have been finished off by the subsequent fireball, flying timber fragments or the impact of falling back to the ground. David Hadden, a consultant at Arup, said: "After years of speculation, the test has proved once and for all that Fawkes's plan would have had devastating consequences for anyone present in the House of Lords that day, though not for the surrounding areas as previously thought".

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