Although he was raised in an Anglican household and married a Protestant, Digby and his wife were secretly received into the strictly illegal and underground Catholic Church in England by the Jesuit priest Fr.

The family had a more positive reversal of fortune in 1485 when Sir Everard's sons fought for the victorious Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

[nb 1][4] The conspirator was a cousin of Anne Vaux, who for years placed herself at considerable risk by sheltering Jesuit priests such as Henry Garnet.

When Digby fell seriously ill, Gerard used the occasion to convert him also, and the two subsequently became close friends, "calling eachother [sic] 'brother' when we wrote and spoke".

He was apparently an unforgiving landlord, as his tenants in Tilton petitioned the Crown for redress when he failed to honour the expensive leases granted them by his father.

He added to his property in Buckinghamshire by buying land in Great Missenden, and a month after the queen's death his social station was elevated when on 24 April 1603 he was knighted by James I at Belvoir Castle.

[3] In late August or early September 1605, Digby, his wife Mary, and their secret Jesuit chaplain Edward Oldcorne joined a pilgrimage organised by, amongst others, Henry Garnet and Anne Vaux.

[nb 3] The party had set out from White Webbs at Enfield Chase, heading for the shrine of St Winefride's Well at Holywell, and had occasionally stopped along the way to collect more followers.

As the thirty or so pilgrims returned from Holywell in mid-September, they stopped at Rushton Hall where Sir Thomas Tresham had recently died, and then continued on to Digby's seat at Gayhurst.

[17][18] He therefore planned to kill James by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder, and then inciting a popular revolt during which a Catholic monarch would be restored to the throne.

Catesby then named the other conspirators, and promised Digby that as soon as they reached Gayhurst he would demonstrate that their religion allowed such acts of regicide, thus dissuading the young lord from confessing to Garnet and discovering the Jesuit's opinion of the matter.

[20] Digby also provided monetary assistance; he promised £1,500 after fellow plotter Thomas Percy failed to pay the rent due for several properties in Westminster.

[26] Around midnight on 4 November, Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding the gunpowder the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords, and arrested.

[27] Catesby told Digby that the king and Salisbury were dead, and "if true Catholics would now stir, he doubted not that they might procure to themselves good conditions".

[28] On 6 November the fugitives raided Warwick Castle and managed to secure more horses, before moving on to Norbrook to collect stored weapons.

Catesby ordered his servant (and fellow plotter) Thomas Bates to deliver a letter to Father Garnet at Coughton Court.

They arrived that night at Holbeche House on the border of Staffordshire, and tired and desperate, spread out some of the now-soaked gunpowder in front of the fire, to dry out.

Digby unsuccessfully sought an audience with James to try and explain himself, in Fraser's opinion suggesting either that the extent of his involvement was limited, or that he was "astonishingly naive and trusting of his sovereign's forgiveness."

[41] Dressed in a black satin suit and "tuff taffetie gown",[42] he gave a short and moving speech, defending his actions by explaining his affection for Catesby, and the cause of his religion.

He accused King James of reneging on his promises of toleration for Catholics, and told of his fears of harsher laws against recusancy.

"[44] He spent his last few days in the Tower writing letters to his wife and his sons, urging the two brothers to avoid the examples set by figures such as Cain and Abel.

Throngs of spectators lined the streets as he was strapped to a wattled hurdle, and alongside Robert Wintour and John Grant was dragged by horse to the western end of Old St Paul's Cathedral churchyard.

He mounted the scaffold and addressed the audience, telling them that he knew he had broken the law, but that morally, and in the eyes of his religion, he had committed no offence.