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THE Gunpowder Plot came within a whisker of blowing up Parliament, the King and all his ministers before it was discovered just in the nick of time.

Some believe the whole plot was secretly orchestrated by spymaster Lord Robert Cecil, effectively the prime minister of the day. Here the case against him:

Who was Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury?

Robert Cecil was born in London in 1563, the son of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who was chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I for much of her reign.

Young Robert was dropped by a nursemaid, leaving him with permanent curvature of the spine that stunted his growth.

He was ridiculed throughout his life for being small and hunchbacked. Even Queen Elizabeth called him "my pygmy" and James I called him "my little beagle".

Robert was groomed by his father in the affairs of state and soon after being elected an MP aged 21 he began taking on more and more duties of government.

After jostling for power with his rival the Earl of Essex, Robert Cecil succeeded his father as Secretary of State and Lord Privy Seal, two of the highest offices in the land.

He also inherited his father's network of spies across Europe, set up to ward against Catholic plots to depose the Protestant monarch.

Robert Cecil smoothed the succession of James VI of Scotland when he became King James I of England after Elizabeth's death in 1603.

The wily spymaster became one of the king's most trusted advisers and James rewarded him with a number of titles including the Earl of Salisbury.

Exhausted from overwork, Cecil died of cancer in 1612 at the age of 48.

His enemies made up rhymes claiming he died of the pox after affairs with noble ladies of the royal court, but this is thought to be untrue.

Sherlock star Mark Gatiss plays Cecil in the new BBC drama series Gunpowder, starring Kit Harington as plot leader Robert Catesby.

Was Robert Cecil really the mastermind of the Gunpowder Plot?

Cecil is perhaps most famous as the chief discover of the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament on November 5, 1605.

The Catholic peer Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter - thought to be from his brother-in-law Francis Tresham, one of the plotters - warning him to stay away from the State Opening of Parliament.

Monteagle passed it to Cecil, who waited six days before telling the King. His apparent plan was to catch the plotters in the act.

On the night of November 4, Guy Fawkes was arrested in a cellar under the House of Lords where he was waiting to light the fuse to 36 barrels of gunpowder the next day.

Some historians have claimed Cecil, a staunch Protestant, may have orchestrated the plot as a ruse to whip up hatred and suspicion of Catholics.

After the treason was discovered he had prominent Jesuits arrested and drove through laws persecuting Catholics in England.

Cecil's closeness to Monteagle has been suggested as evidence the Catholic peer was one of his spies.

Monteagle - who was given a huge pension for his loyalty to the Crown - is said to have been the go-between, encouraging Robert Catesby and his co-conspirators.

Catesby's servant later claimed his master had visited Cecil three times in the months before the plot was foiled.

And Cecil's writings hint mysteriously that he knew of plots against the King.

However, most historians believe he had no firm evidence until he was passed the Monteagle letter, and then used it to his advantage.

Professor Pauline Croft of Royal Holloway, University of London, wrote: "In the inflamed atmosphere after November 1605, with wild accusations and counter-accusations being traded by religious polemicists, there were allegations that Cecil himself had devised the Gunpowder Plot to elevate his own importance in the eyes of the king, and to facilitate a further attack on the Jesuits.

"Numerous subsequent efforts to substantiate these conspiracy theories have all failed abysmally."

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Who was Guy Fawkes?

Far from being the plot's ringleader Guy "Guido" Fawkes was merely the trigger man drafted in to set the fuse.

Born in York he converted to Catholicism following the death of his father and left to become Mercenary fighting for the Spanish against the Protestant Dutch.

Given his expertise in explosives he was given the task of setting and lighting the fuse to the gunpowder.

He was then meant to flee to Europe where he would win support from foreign governments.

Fawkes, 35, was caught red-handed by the King's men beneath the palace and was tortured for two days at the Tower of London until he gave up his co-conspirators.

The traditional death for traitors in 17th-century England was to be hanged, drawn and quartered in public.

Fawkes would have been forced to watch as his testicles were cut off and burnt and his heart and intestines ripped out.

But as he awaited his punishment on the gallows, Fawkes leapt from the platform and died of a broken neck.

He was hanged anyway and the four parts of his body sent around the country to warn others.

November 5 was later declared a national holiday and people began burning effigies of Fawkes - called guys - and later setting off fireworks every year on Bonfire Night.

When is Elizabeth I's Secret Agents on?

The new series charting Elizabeth's reign and heavily featuring Cecil is being shown on the BBC.

The documentary features dramatic reconstructions and interviews with historians to examine the network of spymasters and secret agents that helped protect the Queen from assassination, terror and treason for more than 40 years.

The first episode revealed how the pope's declaration of Elizabeth as a heretic 12 years into her reign set England's Catholics against her.

This led the queen to charge William Cecil, Robert's father, with stopping assassins getting through.

Episode two features Robert's work.  He had been groomed since birth to inherit his father's network and worked hard to protect the Queen in a ruthless battle with his rival The Earl of Essex.

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