Interesting read about Guy Fawkes on V site

There is an interesting article about Guy Fawkes and his failed attempt to blow up the British Houses of Parliament in the early 1600's.

Guy Fawkes (also known as Guido Fawkes), only son of Edward Fawkes and Edith Blake, was born a Protestant on April 13th, 1570 in Stonegate, Yorkshire, in the north of England. In his preliminary interrogation at the end of 1605, Guy Fawkes claimed to have converted to Catholicism at the age of 16. It is thought he left England for Flanders in 1593 or 1594, where he enlisted in the Spanish army as a gunpowder packer working with explosives. He left the Spanish armed forces on February 16th, 1603, to make a trip to Spain to muster Spanish support for an invasion of England on Queen Elizabeth's death, which never transpired.

King James I (a Protestant and the first sovereign to reign England, Ireland and Scotland simultaneously) took over the throne of religiously intolerant England on March 24 1603, and it was soon felt he was not at all sympathetic to bettering the Catholic's status in England - there were severe penal laws against the practice of the Catholic religion in England at the time. Disappointment with his new King is one of the possible reasons Guy Fawkes felt the need to take action against him. Sources disagree as to whether the plot was to actually destroy the Houses of Parliament and influence a Catholic uprising, or to kill King James (who had not kept his promise to stop the persecution of Catholics) and in the ensuing chaos place a more Catholic friendly royal on the throne.

For Easter 1604 Guy Fawkes was back in England, when he met up with Thomas Wintour, whom Guy Fawkes would eventually confess to having conceived of the Gunpowder Plot. However, it is felt that Robert Catesby was more likely the leader of the gunpowder plot due to his Catholic connections. Initially there were only five conspirators, all from the nobility but for Guy Fawkes: Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy, John (aka Jack) Wright, Thomas Wintour and Guy Fawkes. They met at an inn called the Duck and Drake on the Strand in London in May 1604 where they made an oath together in regards to the gunpowder plot, which was sanctified with a mass and administration of the sacraments by a Priest. It was at that point that Guy Fawkes assumed the identity of John Johnson and said he was a servant of Thomas Percy.

Plans for the plot began around Michaelmas 1604 with Thomas Percy renting a tenement building from which the conspirators were to tunnel to the cellars underneath the Houses of Parliament. Eight more conspirators were sworn into the plot in order to help with necessary preparations, making a total of thirteen: Robert Keyes, Robert Wintour, John Grant, Kit Wright, Thomas Bates, Ambrose Rookwood, Francis Tresham and Sir Everard Digby. However the tunnel idea was eventually abandoned, due to the work being so difficult and water from the Thames continually flooding the space, or possibly because a cellar became available. Sometime in March 1605, Thomas Percy used his connections to rent a cellar beneath the Houses of Parliament, and Guy Fawkes was assigned the task of filling the room with 36 barrels of gunpowder that he hid under iron bars and faggots. Guy Fawkes also made a trip to Flanders to replace some of the gunpowder that had begun to spoil.

One of the problems with the explosion was that it would potentially kill Catholics in the Houses of Parliament at the time, so on October 18th, 1605, Guy Fawkes met with Robert Catesby, Thomas Wintour and Francis Tresham to discuss how certain Catholic peers could be warned and thus removed from the explosion. A warning letter was delivered to Lord Monteagle, a former Catholic supporter, on October 26th that stated he should not attend the opening of Parliament, currently set for November 5th, 1605. (It is thought that Francis Tresham sent this letter.) Lord Monteagle passed the letter on to the king's chief advisor, Robert Cecil, and although the conspirators found out about the letter, they did not cancel their plans, convinced that the government knew nothing. (Some believe the Gunpowder Plot was the efforts of Robert Cecil to persuade the more Catholic-tolerant King James that the Catholics could not be trusted and that he should not repeal any laws against them.)

It seems that Guy Fawkes was completely ignorant of the existence of the Monteagle letter. On Wednesday October 30th he inspected the cellar again to ensure that the gunpowder was still hidden and ready for the explosion. As late as November 3rd, 1605, the conspirators met and were sure the authorities were not cognizant of their plans. All, but for Guy Fawkes, made plans to leave London. It was Guy Fawkes's task to watch the cellar and fire the gunpowder the moment Parliament opened. He was to leave for Flanders the instance he had done this.

The Lord Chamberlain, Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, accompanied by Lord Monteagle and John Whynniard made an inspection of the cellars under the Houses of Parliament on the afternoon of Monday November 4th. They found "John Johnson" watching over a large pile of faggots that he said belonged to his employer Thomas Percy. The men felt that Guy Fawkes seemed to be rather shifty in appearance and described him as "a very bad and desperate fellow." This information was reported to King James and the cellars were again inspected around midnight the same night led by Sir Thomas Knyvett, a Westminster magistrate and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber. The pile of faggots was searched and the gunpowder was revealed, and Guy Fawkes, who was found to be carrying a watch, slow matches and touchwood, was arrested.

The Privy Council met in King James's bedchamber early on the morning of November 5th, where Guy Fawkes was also brought in. The only information he gave was that his name was John Johnson and he was a servant of Thomas Percy. In a letter dated November 6th, 1605, King James ordered gentle torture of Guy Fawkesâ€¦ proceeding to the worst. Guy Fawkes succumbed to the torture (most likely the manacles and the rack) on November 7th, giving his real name and that the plotters were merely five men. On November 8th he gave the details of the plot and on November 9th he named his fellow conspirators upon hearing that some had already been arrested.

The conspirators' trial began on Monday January 27th, 1606. Essentially it was a trial in name only, where the plotters plead not guilty, although a guilty verdict had already been handed down. Execution of the conspirators began on January 30th, 1606, with Sir Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant and Thomas Bates, who were all executed at the west end of St. Paul's Church. On Friday January 31st, 1606, the hanging, drawing and quartering of Guy Fawkes, Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood and Robert Keyes took place in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster "in the very place which they had planned to demolish in order to hammer home the message of their wickedness." Thomas Wintour was first, then Ambrose Rookwood and Robert Keyes, and finally Guy Fawkes.

It has been calculated that Guy Fawkes' 36 barrels (2500 kg, 5511 lbs) of gunpowder could have devastated over a 490 meter (1608 feet) radius. The explosion Guy Fawkes planned would have been powerful enough to destroy not only the Houses of Parliament, but also Westminster Hall and Westminster Abbey, with even Whitehall suffering damage. That would mean that Guy Fawkes had more than 25 times the amount of gunpowder than he really needed, and we have to assume he knew what he was doing, having spent so many years in the army. Other sources believe that the gunpowder had spoiled and would not have made an explosion at all.

The ultimate result of the Gunpowder Plot was to provoke hostility against all English Catholics, leading to even harsher laws against them (a semblance of religious equality did not come until 200 years later). To this day it is law in Britain that a Roman Catholic cannot hold the office of monarch, and the Queen is still Supreme Head of the Church of England. Also to this day, the Yeoman of the Guard searches the cellars beneath the Houses of Parliament before the session begins each November. However the actual cellar Guy Fawkes used for gunpowder storage was damaged by fire in 1834, then totally destroyed during the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in the 1800s.

The night the Gunpowder Plot was foiled it is believed that bonfires were lit across London in celebration. There are no accurate records of when "guys" (lifesize dolls made from found materials) first became a bonfire feature but is believed to be while James I was on the English throne (from March 24th, 1603 to his death on March 27, 1625). Then after the reign of Charles II (1685) children began making human effigies from straw and wood called "guys" and took them through the streets chanting "Penny for the guy" to get money with which to buy fireworks. It is thought the "guy" wasn't thrown into the fire until sometime in the 1700s and was not only representative of Guy Fawkes, but also of the Pope and the Devil. The "guy" usually has an evil looking face, sometimes wearing a brightly colored mask.