GUY FAWKES NIGHT

What was the Gunpowder Plot?

As the traditional rhyme goes: "Remember, remember, the fifth of November, Gunpowder Treason and
Plot".

Bonfire Night commemorates the events of 1605, when a small group of Catholic plotters threatened to
change the course of history.

Led by charismatic religious fanatic Robert Catesby, with the help of radicalised ex-soldier Guido (or Guy)
Fawkes, the would-be terrorists hatched a plan to blow up King James I along with the Prince of Wales
and the Houses of Parliament.

The plot grew out of decades of religious war dating back to the reign of Henry VIII at the start of the
previous century, with the Catholics' disillusionment reaching boiling point after James succeeded
Elizabeth in 1603.

Guy Fawkes was recruited by Catesby to take charge of the operation in the spring of 1604 and the
plotters began digging a mine beneath parliament in the summer.

Early the following year, they rented a coal cellar underneath the House of Lords and gradually moved 36
barrels of gunpowder into the chamber.

If the plot was successful, the explosion would have obliterated the parliament building, killing hundreds
of ordinary Londoners along with the gang's intended targets and potentially plunging the nation into a
religious war.

Why did the Gunpowder Plot fail?

The plotters came unstuck just over a week before the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November, the
date chosen for their mission.

One of their number – thought by many to be Francis Tresham, who had expressed misgivings about the
plot – cracked, and sent a letter of warning to the Catholic Lord Monteagle.

This prompted a search of the buildings around Parliament on 4 November, during which Fawkes was
actually discovered in the cellar, surrounded by a large pile of firewood.

His excuse – that he was simply assembling supplies for winter – was initially enough to deceive the
search party.

However, the wary King James, whose father Henry Stuart had been blown up in Edinburgh 40 years
earlier, ordered his men to investigate again that night.
A second search once more revealed Fawkes, this time with incriminating matches and fire-lighting aids
on his person, and with his arrest the plot was foiled.

He was tortured, and the majority of Catesby's gang was shot down at Holbeach in Staffordshire after
fleeing to the Midlands.

Fawkes was hanged, drawn and quartered with the three other surviving Catholic conspirators, facing
the Palace Westminster.

Although severely weakened from torture, he managed to jump from the gallows and break his neck,
thus avoiding the gruesome mutilations which would have completed his punishment.

In early 1606, an act was passed designating 5 November as a date of thanksgiving, with bonfires and
fireworks soon settled upon as a suitably fitting commemoration.