The Gunpowder Plot

 

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot . . .

 

More than 400 years after the event the Gunpowder Plot and Guy Fawkes are still remembered. The nursery rhyme above continues to remind us why on the night of November 5 bonfires are lit in almost every town and village in Britain, accompanied by a spectacular display of fireworks. But how many people really know why we follow this ritual and burn an effigy, or ‘guy’, on this day each year.

In truth the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was nothing short of a desperate, but failed, attempt by a group of English Catholics to kill James I of England, his family, and as many of the Protestant aristocracy as they could in one attack. This attack was aimed at the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening, at which they hoped to create the most carnage.

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, Catholics in England, who had been persecuted under her rule, had hoped that James I, her successor, would be more tolerant of their beliefs. But much to their horror, James I proved no more tolerant than the previous Queen, and so it was that a band of men, 13 in total, decided that violence was the only answer to make their cause heard.

 

The Conspirators

 

Under the leadership of a man named Robert Catesby, a small group banded together. Among his fellow conspirators were:

 

Guido (Guy) Fawkes
Thomas Wintour
Thomas Percy
Thomas Bates
Christopher Wright
Robert Wintour
John Grant
John Wright
Robert Keyes
Ambrose Rookwood
Sir Everard Digby
Francis Tresham

 

In May 1604, Thomas Percy rented a house that was adjacent to the House of Lords. Their plan was to dig a tunnel underneath the foundations of the House of Lords and plant some gunpowder. Guido Fawkes, or Guy as he has become better known, was an explosives expert with considerable military experience. He had been introduced to Robert Catesby by a man named Hugh Owen. Although their plans to blow up the Houses of Parliament were known by a Jesuit priest, Father Henry Garnet – as he had learned of the plot through confession – he felt bound not to reveal their activities to the authorities. Despite his pleadings and protestations, the plot went ahead, but Garnet’s opposition to the plan still did not prevent him from later being hanged, drawn and quartered for treason.

For a while the group of men laboured away digging a tunnel to come out underneath the Houses of Parliament. However, the men were not used to such physical exercise and their progress was exceptionally slow. During the summer of 1604 London was hit by a particularly severe bout of the plague, and as a result the Opening of Parliament was suspended until 1605. By Christmas Eve the men had still not dug their tunnel anywhere near to the Houses of Parliament, and when they learned that the Opening had been still further postponed to October 3, the plotters decided to take advantage of the time and row the barrels of gunpowder up the River Thames from Lambeth and conceal it in their rented house. It was then that they heard by pure chance, that there was an empty coal cellar coming up for lease in a prime location.

Abandoning their original plan, in March 1605, Thomas Percy, using connections he had in the Royal Court, was able to rent the cellar, which turned out to be directly under the House of Lords. Fawkes, posing as Percy’s servant under the pseudonym ‘John Johnson’, filled the underground storeroom with 36 barrels of gunpowder. He secreted them underneath a pile of coal and wooden sticks that had been stored there for use as fuel when the weather turned cold. The barrels themselves contained more than 800 kg (1,800 lbs) of gunpowder and, had everything gone to plan, not only would it have destroyed the entire Houses of Parliament, but it would have blown out windows in the surrounding area within a 1km (1/2 mile) radius.

Everything was in place, and all the conspirators had to do now was to sit and wait. They decided it would be safer to split up as it would only cause suspicion if they were regularly seen together. So they left London in May and went to their various houses, or to different parts of the country to bide their time. The plan was to all meet up again in September, but once again they learned that the Opening of Parliament was to be postponed further.

Possibly the group of men had made their plans too early, or perhaps it was because of the many delays, but it would appear that their eventual downfall would be one of their own men Francis Tresham, who spilled the beans.

Just ten days before the Opening of Parliament, Lord Monteagle received a letter that read:

 

My lord, out of the love I bear for some of your friends, I have a care for your preservation. Therefore I would advise you, as you tender your life, to devise some excuse to shift of your attendance of this Parliament, for God and man hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this time. And think not slightly of this advertisement but retire yourself into your country, where you may expect the event in safety, for though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow, the Parliament, and yet they shall not see who hurts them . . . This counsel is not to be contemned, because it may do you good and can do you know harm, for the danger is past as soon as you have burnt the latter: and I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you.

 

Although the writer of this letter has never been identified for certain, Francis Tresham was Lord Monteagle’s brother-in-law and was most likely to have been the perpetrator.

Concerned about the contents of the letter Lord Monteagle showed it to Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury and Secretary of State. Thinking at first that it was just a hoax, the Privy Council were slow to have the vaults under the House of Lords searched. Therefore, it wasn’t until the evening of November 4 that the cellar was searched, firstly by the Earl of Suffolk and then, later the same evening, by Sir Thomas Knyvett. Keeping his composure until the end, Guy Fawkes casually let the officials into Percy’s rented cellar. Still posing as Mr John Johnson, Fawkes was searched and found to be carrying a watch, slow matches and touchpaper. It didn’t take long for them to uncover the gunpowder barrels, and Guy Fawkes was taken into custody. Far from denying his intentions, Fawkes stated quite proudly that their sole purpose had been to destroy the King and his Parliament.

Fawkes was taken into the bed chamber of the King, who assembled all his ministers even though it was one o’clock in the morning. During his interrogation, Fawkes never once tried to make a secret of his intentions, and he maintained an attitude of defiance throughout. Later the same morning Fawkes was summoned again and questioned about his accomplices, in particular the involvement of Thomas Percy. When he wasn’t forthcoming, Fawkes was taken to the Tower of London and interrogated further with the use of torture. At this time the use of torture was forbidden unless under direct instructions from the monarch or the Privy Council. In a letter dated November 6, King James I stated:

 

The gentler tortours are to be first used unto him, et sic per gradus ad maiora tenditur [and thus by increase to the worst], and so God speed your goode worke.

 

Fawkes was strong to the end and resisted giving any information until he eventually succumbed to the torture on November 8 by giving the names of his fellow conspirators. He made a full statement about their plot on November 9, and on November 10 he gave a signed confession, although his signature was barely legible due to his terrible state following his sessions on the torture rack.

As soon as Robert Catesby and Thomas Wintour learned that their plans had been foiled, they fled to Warwickshire to meet up with the remainder of the party. Failing to rally any support for their Catholic cause, they only managed to stay in hiding for a few days in the houses of friends and sympathizers. On the third day they were captured in a bloody raid on Holbeche House in Staffordshire. Catesby, Percy and the two Wright brothers were both killed, while Thomas Wintour and Ambrose Rokewood, who had both been wounded in the raid, were taken away to London to be questioned. The remainder were captured a few days later, although Robert Wintour managed to stay at large for about two months, before being captured at Hagley Park.

The conspirators were tried on January 27, 1606, in Westminster Hall. All of the men pleaded not guilty with the exception of Everard Digby, who attempted to defend himself by saying that it was because the King had gone back on a promise regarding Catholic tolerance. The trial only lasted one day and the verdict was never in doubt – guilty as charged. The trial was very popular as a public spectacle and there are records that people paid as much as 10 shillings to attend. Four of the conspirators were executed in St Paul’s Churchyard on January 30 and the following day Fawkes, Winter and a number of others who had been implicated in the plot were taken to the Old Palace Yard in Westminster, where they were hanged, drawn and quartered. Francis Tresham the only one of the original 13 left alive, died while still a prisoner in the Tower of London.

 

Impact of the Plot

 

For the Catholics living in England the Gunpowder Plot truly backfired, as it halted any moves towards Emancipation of the Catholics. It would be another 200 years before the Catholics would receive equal rights.

Of course most people remember Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot by celebrations that take place on November 5, or Bonfire Night as it has now become known. An Act of Parliament was passed to appoint that date in each year as a day of thanksgiving for ‘the joyful day of deliverance’, and this Act remained in force until 1859. Legend says that on November 5, 1605, the people of London celebrated the defeat of the plot by lighting fires and holding street parties. It is still a custom in Britain to let off fireworks and burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes on November 5, and in certain areas, for example Lewes and Battle in East Sussex, there are extensive processions to accompany an enormous bonfire.

The Houses of Parliament are still searched today by the Yeoman of the Guard before any Opening of Parliment, which since 1928 has been held in the month of November. However, this is upheld today due to a rather quaint custom rather than to stop any serious antiterrorist precaution.

The original cellar in which Guy Fawkes placed his gunpowder barrels was damaged by fire in 1834, and it was totally destroyed when they rebuilt the Palace of Westminster in the 19th century. The lantern that Guy Fawkes carried to light his way to the cellar can be seen in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.