Catesby is one of Richard’s most essential instruments, a courtier whose moral flexibility makes him the perfect servant to a tyrant. Unlike Buckingham, who wrestles with conscience before refusing Richard’s darkest orders, Catesby simply executes what he is told without apparent hesitation. He first appears in Act 1, Scene 3, where he listens silently as Richard manipulates the court, already positioned as someone who observes and reports. His function is to test the loyalty and allegiance of other nobles—particularly Lord Hastings—and to determine whether they will support Richard’s claims to the throne.
Catesby’s most important scene comes in Act 3, Scene 2, when Richard sends him to sound out Hastings before the council meeting. Catesby approaches the task with a kind of cheerful efficiency, flattering Hastings with news of Richard’s favor and asking oblique questions about his willingness to support Richard’s elevation. When Hastings insists he will never betray his oath to the young princes, Catesby reports this firmly back to Richard—information that leads directly to Hastings’s arrest and execution that same day. In this moment, Catesby becomes the instrument through which Richard eliminates one of his last obstacles. He does not murder Hastings himself, but his intelligence gathering makes the murder possible. He is the unseen machinery of tyranny, the spy who converts loyalty into evidence of treason.
Throughout the play, Catesby moves between scenes delivering messages, gathering intelligence, and enforcing Richard’s will. He carries orders to the Duke of Norfolk, spreads rumors about Anne’s illness to justify Richard’s marriage plans, and brings news of Buckingham’s rebellion and Richmond’s invasion. By the final battle at Bosworth, he is reporting on the enemy’s movements and the morale of Richard’s own troops. Catesby never speaks a word of moral doubt or hesitation. He is not corrupted by ambition or twisted by trauma; he is simply willing. In a play about the cost of evil, Catesby represents a particular kind of evil—not the dramatic villainy of Richard’s soliloquies, but the quiet complicity of the functionary who asks no questions and makes the machinery work.
I call thee not. Richard! Ha!
I didn't call you. Richard! Ha!
Catesby · Act 1, Scene 3
Margaret catches Richard trying to interrupt her curse and corrects him—she was not calling on him but on the audience to witness. The exchange is brief but pivotal because it shows Margaret's control of language and symbol; she owns Richard in the moment she rejects him. It demonstrates that power in this play is not military but rhetorical and moral.
And 1 more — see the full scene index.
