Gun Powder Plot History
THE GUN POWDER PLOT AND GUY FAWKES
The history and story of the Gunpowder Plot is a very complex one and was basically the culmination of fifty years or more of religous strife between the English Protestant Church and the old Roman Catholic Church under Pope Paul IV + Pope Paul V.
The history that follows is as basic as I can get it if records are to be believed, The whole truth and nothing but the truth of the Gunpowder Plot will never be known, no more than Princess Diana`s Death!
The position of Roman Catholics in England at the start of the seventeenth century was an unenviable one. The enormous upheavals of the Reformation, pioneered by King Henry VIII for his own marital purposes, the burning of the Protestant Martyrs had exposed them not simply to persecution, but to charges that through their loyalty to the Pope in Rome they were potential traitors.
No wonder a plan of sorts was concieved and like any other story , the truth gets mixed up as it filters through the crowd and remember back then , the public were very scared of authorities and the church and were very gullible . I have my own views of which I will put on here one day once I have done some more reseach . What follows is probably the most accurate to what most writers write of the planned events for the 5th November .
When King James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603, there seemed to be some hope of religious toleration. However, within only two years, these hopes had faded and a desperate plot involving wholesale murder was hatched: The Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
The conspirators who hatched the Gunpowder Plot, or Powder Treason - Robert Catesby, their leader, Thomas Winter, brothers John and Christopher Wright, their brother-in-law Thomas Percy, Francis Gresham, Guy Fawkes and about eight others - were all said to be devout Roman Catholics, but even more important, they were desperate (For What?)
When King James VI of Scotland became James I of England in 1603, there seemed to be a chance for a greater measure of religious tolerance. The penal laws against Catholics were, in fact, relaxed in the first years of James's reign. As more Catholics emerged the king took fright and the laws were reimposed.
Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators of the gun powder plot, was according to many history books caught red-handed guarding several barrels of gunpowder. The leader of the conspiracy however, was not Guy Fawkes but Robert Catesby. Although Guy Fawkes endured hours of torture on the rack he refused to incriminate anyone else. The conspirators confessed under torture and were tried for treason.
THE GUNPOWDER PLOT
Catholic anger and frustration was immense and, in 1605, it led to an extremely ambitious, though possible, conspiracy to blow up parliament at the Palace of Westminster on 5th November, when the king, his queen, his heir, his ministers and MPs were all gathered inside .At one stroke, therefore, the government would be wiped out and the resulting confusion would enable the Catholics to take over England.
KING JAMES I AND HIS WIFE ( QUEEN ) ANNE OF DENMARK
THE GUNPOWDER PLOT PLAN
The actual plan was quite simple. In the spring of 1605, the conspirators rented a cellar that, very conveniently, featured an extension leading right under the Palace of Westminster. There they stored around 20 barrels of gunpowder, for use when parliament met, and went their separate ways.
Eight of the plotters involved in what has become perhaps the most famous attack on the Church and parliament in history: the ambitious, but ill-fated, Gunpowder Plot. Their leader, Robert Catesby is shown here (7) next to Guy Fawkes (6).
The Gun powder plot had important flaws, however. Firstly, some of the conspirators were already known to the authorities as troublemakers. Nine years earlier, in 1596, Catesby, together with John and Christopher Wright, had been arrested as a precaution when the childless Queen Elizabeth I fell ill . If she died, problems over the succession to the throne might easily have led to violence and upheaval. Elizabeth recovered and the three men were released, but suspicions that they meant potential trouble were not easy to dismiss.
The cardinal weakness in the conspiracy lay, however, with Francis Gresham: his brother-in-law, Lord Monteagle, was an MP and was likely to die in the gunpowder plot explosion. Family loyalties won out over Catholic convictions and Gresham effectively revealed all when he told Monteagle not to attend parliament on 5th November.
Monteagle alerted the authorities and the basement of the Palace of Westminster was searched on the night of 4th November. Unfortunately for the plotters, Guy Fawkes was discovered with the gunpowder in the cellar. He was tortured, a routine form of information-gathering at the time, but refused to reveal the names of his co-conspirators.
The Guy Fawkes Gunpowder Plot Confession ?
Click On Image For Enlargement
Guy Fawkes signed 2 confessions ???... One after torture and another 8 days later. The contrast between them is remarkable. The first document shown here is a page from his confession under torture. His weak and shaky signature 'Guido' can faintly be made out. The second document is from a confession signed later in a steadier hand 'Guido Fawkes'.
THE TRAITORS DEATHS
Catesby, John and Christopher Wright and Thomas Percy, with ten other plotters, managed to get away from London, but were pursued for four days until they were cornered at Holbeach in Lincolnshire. In the ensuing skirmish, Catesby, Percy and the Wrights were fatally wounded.
The others were tried for treason and, in 1606, suffered the gruesome death, reserved for traitors: hanging, drawing and quartering. Afterwards an Act of Parliament was passed on January 21st 1606 (3 James I, cap 1), to appoint 5th November in each year as a day of thanksgiving for 'the joyful day of deliverance'. This was by bell ringing, bonfires and etc. The celebrations continue to this day.
GUY FAWKES LAST MOMENTS AND EXECUTION
These Are Large Pages As There Are Copies Of An Original Newspaper Article So Be Patient While It Downloads . Just Click On An Image For Full Size Image
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THE RESULT
The effect of the Gun powder Plot was the exact opposite to what the conspirators had intended. Fear and suspicion of Roman Catholics escalated, and the laws against them, especially the recusancy laws, which imposed fines for not attending Church of England services, were enforced more rigorously than ever before.
Then there was the Popish Plot , which was a fictitious conspiracy that gripped England in an Anti-Catholic hysteria from 1678 until 1681.
Then there was an Act in 1691 called the Bill of Rights declaring the rights and liberties of subjects and settling the succession of the Crown and stands to this day. It cannot be altered in any realm except by that realm's own parliament, and then only by convention. The basic details are below.
Freedom of speech and debates.
Freedom to petition the monarch.
Freedom from taxation by Royal Prerogative.
Freedom from royal interference with the law.
Freedom from the standing army during a time of peace.
Freedom for Protestants to bear arms for their own defence.
Freedom to elect members of parliament without interference from the sovereign.
Click Above Image To See The Act . . ( Be Patient As It Is A Large File )
And finally in 1701 the act of settlement was passed by parliament that forbade any catholic subjects either direct or married to, Any rights to the sucession to the throne and still stands to this day.
Click Above Image To See The Act . . ( Be Patient As It Is A Large File )
In 1834, Fire all but destroyed the original houses of parliament, And probably took the true story of the Gunpowder Plot with it .
Oppression stalked throughout the land,
Invading hearth and home:
Silent and still her chain she wound
Round England's church and English ground;
Men started, trembling, from repose,
And the deep prayer to heaven arose.
The prayer was heard-a foreign fleet
On Britain's coast was moor'd!
But who was there the Prince to greet
As Britain's future lord?
With silent lip, with speaking eye,
And thoughtful brow, he looked on high;
His God was near, his cause to own,
And sent him to a bloodless throne.
Twice perill'd, and twice rescued, Lord
To thee we lift our prayer;
The things which from ou sires we've heard
Thy truth and power declare,
A spirit works-dark, restless, proud;
Rome's thunders roll-dread, deep, not loud;
The might displayed of old, we crave,
Our state, our church, to shield and save.
And smile not, friends, if with glad eye,
I see the village throng,
And watch the bonfire blazing high,
And list the good old song;
I call to mind what God's right hand
Hath done for this our guilty land;
And joy to think that he is near,
Danger to mark, and prayer to hear.
M.A. Stodart
