Guy Fawkes
In 1605, Guy Fawkes (also known as Guido - yes, really) and a group of conspirators attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had had a rough time under her reign had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. Alas, he was not, and this angered a number of young men who decided that violent action was the answer.
One young man in particular, Robert Catesby suggested to some close friends that the thing to do was to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so, they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics. Today these conspirators would be known as extremists, or terrorists.
To carry out their plan, the conspirators got hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder - and stored it in a cellar, just under the House of Lords.
But as the group worked on the plot, it became clear that some innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack. Some of the plotters started having second thoughts. One of the group members even sent an anonymous letter warning his friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th. Was the letter real?
The warning letter reached the King, and the King’s forces made plans to stop the conspirators.
Guy Fawkes, who was in the cellar of the parliament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th, was caught, tortured and executed.
It’s unclear if the conspirators would ever have been able to pull off their plan to blow up the Parliament even if they had not been betrayed - some people think the gunpowder they were planning to use was so old as to be useless. Since Guy Fawkes and his colleagues got caught before trying to ignite the powder, we’ll never know for certain.
These days, Guy Fawkes Day is also known as Bonfire Night. The event is commemorated every year with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire.
Some of the English have been known to wonder whether they are celebrating Fawkes’ execution or honoring his attempt to do away with the government.
Robert Catesby was the charismatic leader of the group of conspirators. He had a way with people, and convinced a number of his impressionable friends to go along with the murderous plan which would later be known as the Gunpowder Plot. Even as problems with his plot later arose and some members expressed doubt, Catesby remained convinced that violent action was the only way forward.
Catesby first recruited his close friends and relatives: Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright and Thomas Percy, but the group quickly grew to include Guido Fawkes. Soon after Fawkes, others who joined were Robert Wintour, Christopher (Kit )Wright, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates. Latecomers to the group were John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Francis Tresham, and Everard Digby. In all, there were 13 conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot.
If Robert Catesby was the leader, how did Guy Fawkes become the most famous member of the Gunpowder Plot?
Guy Fawkes was the one who was caught under the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder. For two days, Guido was the only suspect in custody and his name became synonymous with the Powder Treason, as the Gunpowder Plot was known at the time.
But Guy wasn’t in prison alone for long. Soon, many conspirators were either caught outright as they flew from London, or surrenderred shortly thereafter. Some, however, including the ringleader Robert Catesby, were killed in a siege within a few days of the failed attempt.
All the conspirators who were not killed in the siege were imprisonned, tortured, and executed in the most gruesome way (except Jeremy Tresham who fell sick and died while in prison).
As is often the case with confessions made under duress, plotters admitted to everything they knew, and complemented this information with whatever authorities wanted to hear - in hopes to end their ordeal. The result was questionable confessions, at least partly manufactured by authorities for their own purposes. These “confessions” conveniently incriminated two leading English Jesuits (Catholics) - who according to some historians had no involvement in the Plot. Regardless, it allowed the government to justify further anti-Catholic and get rid of at least two problematic Catholic leaders.
All imprisonned plotters were executed publicly in March 1607. They were “hanged, drawn, and quartered”, a brutal practice which authorities hoped would instill terror in other potential traitors.
Did public executions really function as a deterrent? Or did they simply feed the climate of violence that encouraged Catesby and his men to pursue their deadly aims?
For almost 400 years, bonfires have burned
on November 5th to mark the failed Gunpowder Plot.
The tradition of Guy Fawkes-related bonfires actually began the very same year as the failed coup. The Plot was foiled in the night between the 4th and 5th of November 1605. Already on the 5th, agitated Londoners who knew little more than that their King had been saved, joyfully lit bonfires in thanksgiving. As years progressed, however, the ritual became more elaborate.
Soon, people began placing effigies onto bonfires, and fireworks were added to the celebrations. Effigies of Guy Fawkes, and sometimes those of the Pope, graced the pyres. Still today, some communities throw dummies of both Guy Fawkes and the Pope on the bonfire (and even those of a contemporary politician or two), although the gesture is seen by most as a quirky tradition, rather than an expression of hostility towards the Pope.
Preparations for Bonfire Night celebrations include making a dummy of Guy Fawkes, which is called “the Guy”. Some children even keep up an old tradition of walking in the streets, carrying “the Guy” they have just made, and beg passersby for “a penny for the Guy.” The kids use the money to buy fireworks for the evening festivities.
On the night itself, Guy is placed on top of the bonfire, which is then set alight; and fireworks displays fill the sky.
The extent of the celebrations and the size of the bonfire varies from one community to the next. Lewes, in the South East of England, is famous for its Bonfire Night festivities and consistently attracts thousands of people each year to participate.
Bonfire Night is not only celebrated in Britain. The tradition crossed the oceans and established itself in the British colonies during the centuries. It was actively celebrated in New England as “Pope Day” as late as the 18th century. Today, November 5th bonfires still light up in far out places like Newfoundland in Canada, and some areas in New Zealand.
Comments:
Every year On the 5th November in Briton thousands of families celebrate this and for what? Guy Fawkes (or known asGuido Fawkes ) with other members conspirators attempted to blow up Parliament aimed at James 1st and everyone in government because the Catholics were in hardship, and wanted a return to the faith. An icon of “the guy” is used on the bonfire represented by a rugged stuffed figure, dressed in old clothes and to burn at the stake. This figure was originally was one of the pope and later changed to Guy Fawkes.
Are we honouring that fact that he tried to oust the government and James 1st or Are we celebrating that James 1st had survived the assassin an lived because he was saved by the warning of anonymous letter?
http://www.cateringark.co.uk/recipes/Themed/Bonfire/Guy Fawkes.htm