The Gunpowder Treason and Plot
I know of no reason the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot
Guy Fawkes has become legend, especially in England, where the 5th of November is celebrated as the day on which he and his accomplices were thwarted in their attempt to destroy the Houses of Parliament and assassinate the King of England. The annual celebration known as Guy Fawkes Day or Bonfire Night generally involves Fawkes being burned in effigy accompanied by a fireworks display, but Fawkes was a very real person and his story is one of secrecy and intrigue.
Guy Fawkes was born in Stonegate, York in 1570 to a proctor and his wife. His fathers famly was Protestant, but his mothers family was Catholic and after his father died and his mother remarried a Catholic gentleman, he was raised a Catholic. As an adult, he fought for Spain in the 80 Years War against France, and afterward became an advocate of a Catholic rebellion in England, going so far as to join a group of rebels led by one Robert Catesby to arrange the assassination of King James. Fawkes has been described as a large man with a red mustache and beard who was gifted in the arts of war.
The conspirators met and discussed the removal of the king by blowing up the Parliament House with gunpowder. The group sought help from Spain, which refused, as it was considered dangerous to assist in the assassination of a monarch. After all, regicide could spread, One of the group, Thomas Percy, was promoted and gained access to a house near Parliament buliding which belonged to the Keeper of the Kings Wardrobe, John Whynniard. They chose Fawkes to assume the role of caretaker and (as later accounts have it) proceded to dig a tunnel from underneath Whynnairds house to the Parliament building, place the gunpowder in the tunnel and detonate it. Accounts state that the conspiators ceased tunneling when they hearsd noises from above and after Fawkes investigated, he found that a widowed tennant was cleaning out an undercroft (underground storage room) that ran directly beneath the Parliament building. The conspirators then leased the room and hid the gunpowder there, under piles of coal and firewood. They had to wait about four months to carry out the plot, however, because the plague had broken out in the city and the reopening of Parilament was delayed while anyone who had the means fled the city for the less infected countryside.
Some of the conspirators were uneasy that a few Catholics would also be caught in the explosion that was to eliminate the Protestant rulers, so some warned Lord Monteagle, a Catholic member, to stay away from Parliament on the fateful day. Monteagle in turn, warned the king who ordered a search of the undercrofts on November 5th. Fawkes was in position with his match to light the fuse when he was discovered and aprehended.
Fawkes was subsequently tortured and slowly revealed the details of the plot and the consiprators names. In the end, seven men were arrested, all were found guilty at trial and all sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, a common fate of traitors at the time. When his turn came to be hanged, Fawkes managed to jump from the scaffold, breaking his neck, thus denying his executioners their verdict. He was, nevertheless, drawn and quartered, then the quarters were sent to the four corners of the kingdom and displayed as a warning to other traitors.
Although he was one of thirteen conspirators, Fawkes has become the symbol of the failed rebellion. In the early 1900s Guy Fawkes was represented as a more symphathetic character, appearing in many penny dreadfuls, the dime novels of the day and, more recently influencing characters in comics and film. The face of Guy Fawkes has come in modern times to be a symbol of rebellion or anarchism.
Guy Fawkes mask
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