Penny for the Guy? Guy Fawkes and the Plot to Kill King James

Remember, remember, the fifth of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot!

I know of no reason why gunpowder treason 

Should ever be forgot!

For children growing up in the United Kingdom, Guy Fawkes night was a hugely fun time. Nestled between the American holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving, it easily eclipses both in popularity in the British Isles.

It can therefore be surprising to British children who find out, when they grow up, that Guy Fawkes night is not that well known outside of their country. Furthermore, the traditions are so embedded in the collective psyche that many don’t even think to ponder on how strange and archaic they are.

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Guy Fawkes is always celebrated with two things: fireworks and a bonfire (it is also called Bonfire Night). And atop the bonfire there is often an effigy, a stuffed mannequin which is burned to a crisp.

This is the “Guy” from Guy Fawkes night, and four hundred years ago he was at the center of one of the most audacious and potentially destructive acts of terrorism ever committed on British soil. Fawkes and his co-conspirators tried to blow up the British Houses of Parliament and at a stroke, kill the King of England and his entire government.

And they almost succeeded.

A Popish Plot

The year is 1603, and Queen Elizabeth I, one of the greatest monarchs in English history, is dying. Famously the Queen never married, and as her death approached she steadfastly refused to name an heir.

Half a century before, Elizabeth’s father Henry VIII had famously taken control of the English Church from the Vatican. He had dissolved the monasteries which dotted the English countryside and taken their wealth for himself, and he had proclaimed himself the head of his own church: the Protestant Church of England.

Despite a Catholic interlude in the 1550s after Henry’s death and the death of his son, when his daughter Mary ruled, when Elizabath came to the throne in 1558 she ruled as a Protestant monarch. And despite multiple Catholic plots to murder her she remained so for almost 50 years.

In the months before Elizabeth’s death the Catholics and Protestants both coalesced around their preferred candidates to succeed her. The Catholics Mary had been married to Philip II of Spain and now the Catholics favored his daughter Isabella to succeed.

However Protestants had a better candidate: James VI of Scotland. Although he was the son of Mary Queen of Scots, a prominent Catholic rival to the throne before she was executed in 1587, James was Protestant.

Not only that, he had a family, apparently guaranteeing an ongoing Protestant monarchy. And when Elizabeth died on 24 March 1603 James was proclaimed King to general celebration, the Catholic plotters being presented with a fait accompli and the ruin of their hopes.

Some hoped that James would end Elizabeth’s policy of Catholic persecution, but after a few months it became clear that the new king was unlikely to be sympathetic in this way and new Catholic plots began to materialize. Plots to kidnap or replace James were in motion only months after Elizabeth’s death.

James’s position hardened after his wife received the gift of a rosary from the Pope, until on 24 April 1605 he introduced an act which proposed the outlaw of all English Catholics. In response an English Catholic named Robert Catesby gathered a group of men with a shocking plan: they would kill James and replace him, and they would do so by filling the lower levels of the Palace of Westminster with gunpowder, and then detonating them at the state opening of Parliament.

James was the main target but the attack would have wiped out his Privy Council as well as many of his lords, effectively destroying the English government. In all there were thirteen conspirators, including Guy Fawkes.

The conspirators would have found it surprisingly easy to move the barrels of gunpowder into position. The Palace and Westminster was a sprawling building at the time, and was used by many private individuals and businesses as well as the government.

The conspirators selected an undercroft owned by one John Whynniard, a disused storage area which was directly underneath the House of Lords. Empty and abandoned, it was perfect for their plan and by the end of July 1605 they had managed to hide 36 barrels of gunpowder there, brought in through tunnels.

The trap was set, but the date kept having to be moved. London in summer 1605 was a plague town and the opening of Parliament was pushed back to November 5th. The gunpowder started to decay and more had to be brought in. With the date approaching the plan was finalized, and Guy Fawkes would be the one to light the fuse.

Then something unexpected happened on 26 October, less than two weeks before the planned attack. Lord Monteagle, a member of the House of Lords who would have been in attendance on November 5th, received an anonymous warning.

The letter, which only advised Monteagle not to attend, was circulated amongst James’s Privy Councilors and the King himself was shown it on 1st November. The letter talked of striking a “terrible blow” against Parliament and this, combined with the odd advice to not go to the House of Lords, led to suspicions that the building itself was in danger.

The Lord Chamberlain was tasked with searching the Houses of Parliament “both above and below” on 4th November, the day before the opening of Parliament. Entering the undercroft, they found it used for storage of firewood and were told by a servant who was inside that it belonged to one Thomas Percy.

The investigation having turned up nothing, the searchers reported to the King, but he was unsatisfied with their findings. He ordered them to return and again they found the servant, only this time he was dressed in cloak, hat, boots and spurs and carrying firelighting tools. The investigators had been mistaken: this was no servant but Guy Fawkes, lying in wait to set the fire.

Searching under the firewood the barrels of gunpowder were discovered, and the plot was blown. Fawkes was arrested and the remaining conspirators were hunted down, although it would be years before they were all captured.

This then is the source of the celebrations on Guy Fawkes night. The fireworks are both a celebration of the King’s escape from the plot and a figurative reimagining of the explosion, the bonfire a representation of the burning Parliament building. Guya Fawkes is always burned in the bonfire but in real life he was actually hanged.

Had the plot worked, England could have been a very different place. But, in the end, British children are told to remember, remember the fifth of November not in mourning, but as a warning for what could have been.

Header Image: A Guy Fawkes effigy: Guy Fawkes Night is a celebration of a king’s miraculous escape from being blown to pieces. Source: Terrence Lacon-Childe / CC BY 2.0.