Which official led the search that discovered Guy Fawkes beneath Parliament in 1605?

Sir Thomas Knyvet led the search that discovered Guy Fawkes beneath Parliament in 1605.

Knyvet was a justice of the peace and an official connected with the royal household. Acting on the suspicious contents of a cellar beneath the House of Lords, he arranged a search shortly before the planned state opening. His men found a man who identified himself as John Johnson, later recognized as Guy Fawkes, guarding a large stock of gunpowder.

The discovery did not result from an accidental spark or an explosion. It followed a warning letter sent to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, which alerted the government to the intended attack. Knyvet’s search converted the warning into an arrest and allowed the authorities to secure the explosives.

Robert Cecil, the king’s principal minister, is often associated with the investigation, but he was not the official who physically led the cellar search. Sir Thomas Knyvet is the specific name linked to Fawkes’s discovery.