The Gunpowder Plot

In 1605 King James I of England (James VI of Scotland, Mary Stuart's son) was on the throne. He was a Protestant and hated Catholics. So, the Parliament desired the severest measures against the Catholics and the king agreed with this. Such a policy towards the Catholics so angered Robert Catesby, a true Catholic and a gentleman of an old family, that he formed a terrible plan known as the Gunpowder Plot.

The aim of the plot was as follows: when the King, lords and commons should gather together at the next opening of the Parliament, they should be blown up with a great number of gunpowder. Catesby first recruited his close friends and relatives: Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright and Thomas Percy, but the group quickly grew to include Guy Fawkes. The small core of conspirators felt Guy would be a strong addition. Soon after Fawkes' addition, others who joined the group 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.

The conspirators found a house to let, which had a common wall with the Houses of Parliament. They wanted to undermine the wall. They also hired another house which they used as a storehouse for wood, gunpowder and other stuff. After all preparations the plotters began to dig a tunnel. They brought enough food for them not to go out and they dug and dug, but the wall was too thick, so they worked day and night. And Guy Fawkes stood guard all the time. Unfortunately, they had to stop their work as James I had prorogued the Parliament.

In the beginning of February, 1605 they started their digging again. But everything was in vain, so they changed their plan: they left six barrels of gunpowder in the house, covered them with fagots and coals and departed till September. The Parliament was to sit from the 3d of October to the 5th of November. They hired a ship by which Fawkes was to sail for Flanders after the explosion and kept it in the Thames. Now everything was ready.

But when the 5th of November drew nearer most of the conspirators remembered that they had relatives and friends who would be at the House of Lords that day and they wanted to warn them. Though Catesby said he was ready to blow up his own son, nothing helped. One of them, Tresham, wrote a mysterious letter to his relative, Lord Mounteagle, asking him to keep away from the Parliament.

The ministers understood what this letter meant and decided to let the conspirators alone until the opening of the Parliament. Guy Fawkes, who was a man of iron, went to the cellar every day to keep watch as usual. On the 5th on November Guy was in the cellar as well and when he opened the door to look if everything was quiet, he was seized and bound by a group of soldiers.

They took him to the king first and next day Guy Fawkes was carried to the Tower but he said nothing about the treason. Even after horrible tortures he confessed nothing. For two days, Guido (Guy Fawkes's nickname) was the only suspect in custody and his name became synonymous with the Powder Treason, as the Gunpowder Plot was known at that time.

But Guy wasn't in prison alone for long. Soon, many conspirators were either caught as they flew from London, or surrendered shortly afterwards. Some, however, including the leader Robert Catesby, were killed in a siege within a few days of the failed attempt.

On the 15th of January there was a trial of Guy Fawkes and all the conspirators who hadn't been killed in the siege. They were all found guilty, all hanged, drawn and quartered: some in St. Paul's Churchyard; some before the Parliament House (except Francis Tresham who fell sick and died while in prison).

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