Editing Everard Digby (section)

{{short description|16th- and 17th-century English conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605}}
{{other people}}
{{Good article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2012}}
{{Infobox gunpowder plot
| honorific_prefix    = Sir
| name                = Everard Digby
| image               = EDigby.jpg
| alt           = Portrait of Sir Everard Digby
| caption             = Portrait of Digby
| enlisted            = 21 October 1605
| role                = Uprising
| apprehended            = 8 November 1605
| birth_name          =
| birth_date          = c. 1578
| birth_place         = <!-- [[Stoke Dry]], [[Rutland]] -->
| death_date          = 30 January 1606 (aged 27–28)
| death_place         = [[Castle Baynard|Castlebaynard Ward]], [[City of London]], [[Middlesex]], England
| death_cause               = 
| other_names               = 
| motive              = [[Gunpowder plot]], a conspiracy to assassinate [[James I of England|King James VI & I]] and members of the [[Houses of Parliament]]
| criminal_charge              = 
| conviction          = [[High treason]]
| conviction_penalty  = [[Hanged, drawn and quartered]]
| conviction_status   = 
| occupation          = 
| spouse              = Mary Mulsho
| parents             = Sir Everard Digby<br />Maria Neale
| children            = [[Kenelm Digby]], John Digby
}}
'''Sir Everard Digby''' (c. 1578 – 30 January 1606) was a member of the group of provincial members of the [[English nobility]] who planned the failed [[Gunpowder Plot]] of 1605. Although he was raised in an [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] household and married a Protestant, Digby and his wife were secretly received into the strictly illegal and underground [[Catholic Church in England and Wales|Catholic Church in England]] by the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] priest Fr. [[John Gerard (Jesuit)|John Gerard]]. In the autumn of 1605, he made a [[Christian pilgrimage]] to the shrine of [[St Winefride's Well]] in [[Holywell, Flintshire|Holywell]], [[Wales]]. About this time, he met [[Robert Catesby]], who was planning to blow up the [[Palace of Westminster#Old Palace|House of Lords]] with [[gunpowder]] as an alleged act of [[tyrannicide]] and a [[decapitation strike]] against [[James VI and I|King James I]]. Catesby then planned to lead a popular uprising aimed at [[regime change]], through which a Catholic monarch would be placed upon the English throne.

The full extent of Digby's knowledge of and involvement in the plot is unknown, but at Catesby's behest, Digby rented [[Coughton Court]] and prepared a "hunting party", ready for the planned uprising. The plot failed, however, and Digby joined the conspirators as they took flight through the [[English Midlands|Midlands]], failing to garner support along their way. Digby left the other fugitives at [[Holbeche House]] in [[Staffordshire]], and was soon captured and taken to the [[Tower of London]].

Digby was tried on 27 January 1606. Despite an eloquent defence, he was found guilty of [[high treason]], and three days later was [[hanged, drawn and quartered]].