Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

Remember, remember the Fifth of November, begins the British folk verse—the gunpowder, treason and plot. The source of the ditty, and the annual British celebration of Guy Fawkes or Bonfire Night, harkens back to November 5th, 1605, when a group of Catholic conspirators attempted to eradicate England’s Protestant-led government, by blowing up the House of Lords.

The Gunpowder Plot

As the legend goes, Parliamentarian Lord Monteagle, the brother-in-law to one of the conspirators, received an anonymous letter advising him not to attend the November 5th opening session of Parliament, and when he alerted authorities, royal officials Sir Thomas Knyvet and Edward Doubleday found Guy Fawkes hiding in a basement under the Parliament building.

A brief search ensued, resulting in the discovery of 36 barrels of gunpowder. Now known as the Gunpowder Plot, Fawkes was tortured without mercy, until he revealed the names of his co-conspirators, including organizer Robert Catesby, an English Catholic whose father had been persecuted by Queen Elizabeth the First for refusing to conform to the Protestant Church of England.

The Treason

As Fawkes continued to rat out his co-conspirators, the police learned that the plotters had rented a nearby cellar that extended under the House of Lord’s building, where they had hoped to plunge dead legislators onto its earthen floor. Over the next several weeks, Fawkes’ co-conspirators were killed or captured, followed by hasty trials for the survivors, who were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

On January 31st, 1606, as he ascended the gallows for his execution, Fawkes jumped headlong from the ladder, where he broke his neck and died. Shortly after his passing, Parliament extended repressive restrictions on the nation’s rebel Catholics, including the elimination of the right of Catholic men to vote.

Guy Fawkes Night

Parliament then established November 5th as a day of public thanksgiving, leading to the annual British tradition of Guy Fawkes Night, where English revelers indulge in an evening of pyrotechnic gluttony, setting off fireworks and burning effigies of Fawkes, in a noisy celebration that, at least in London, anyway, still rattles the nerves of World War Two senior citizens, who survived Germany’s near-nightly bombing raids on the city.