Gunpowder Plot Conspirator. The Gunpowder Plot was hatched by disillusioned Catholics, upset with the new King James who had pledged, but failed, to ease restrictions and punishments for practising Catholics. After assassinating the King by blowing up Parliament during its opening session, the conspirators planned to kidnap the child Princess Elizabeth and install her on the throne as a Catholic Queen. The plot was foiled a few days before it was due to be carried out when authorities received an anonymous letter informing them of the plot. Although the identity of the letter writer has never been established, Tresham is the most popular candidate among historians. He was of distinguished ancestry and well educated, but his family's adherence to the Catholic faith left him unable to matriculate and his father was several times arrested for his beliefs. Bitter and resentful at his family's treatment, he lived a reckless and sometimes criminal life, described as "a wild and unstayed man" by a contemporary. He was the last of the conspirators to join the plot, entering the group only two weeks before the plot was due to be carried out, and his dedication to the scheme was from the start greatly lacking. He seems to have been recruited largely for financial support, having recently come into a substantial inheritance. He avoided meetings with the other conspirators, was in London at the time of the delivery of the betrayal letter and was a close associate of Lord Monteagle, the recipient of the letter. There is even some evidence that the betrayal was prearranged between Tresham and Monteagle, and that Tresham was visited in late October and threatened by two other conpsirators who doubted his loyalty to the cause. Tresham was arrested after the plot was discovered, but was never tried and although he was imprisoned, he was not executed with the other conspirators. He is alleged to have died in prison of natural causes but if this was the case, there is no record of disposition of his remains; rumors persist to this day that he was permitted to escape to the Continent and live out his natural life incognito, most likely in Catholic Spain.