Thomas Winter

Thomas Winter, more commonly written Thomas Wintour, was a member of the group that planned the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. A committed Catholic, he travelled to the Spanish Netherlands seeking support and later helped recruit Guy Fawkes before joining the conspiracy led by Robert Catesby. Wounded after the plot failed, he was captured, tried and executed in January 1606.

Winter appears in historical fiction about the Gunpowder Plot, where he is usually portrayed as a practical organiser caught between religious conviction and the conspiracy’s escalating violence. Ken Follett’s A Column of Fire includes the political world and events surrounding the plot, while other novels of 1605 often use Winter as one of the principal conspirators alongside Catesby and Fawkes.

Alison Weir’s The Cardinal places Thomas Winter within a narrative shaped by family, marriage and personal loyalty, court politics and dynastic power, and religion, belief and institutional authority. Alison Weir’s The Cardinal’s Daughter places Thomas Winter within a narrative shaped by family, marriage and personal loyalty, political ambition and government, and exploration, travel and cultural encounter.