Microsoft Word - G08 - The Gunpowder Plot.doc

Contents

Introduction 2

Britain In 1605

The Progress of the Plot

Recording In the Commons Journals 3

Trial and Executions

Commemoration of the Plot

Guy Fawkes

Further reading

Useful Website

Contact information

Feedback form

Factsheet G8
General Series

Revised September 2003

House of Commons Information Office

The Gunpowder Plot

The image of Guy Fawkes and his 36 barrels of

gunpowder, in 1605, waiting in the cellars of the

Houses of Parliament to blow up the King and

government, is well known both in the UK and

abroad. This Factsheet looks at the background

to the Gunpowder Plot, the events of November

1605 and how these events are commemorated

today.

This factsheet and links to related documents are

available on the Internet through:

http://www.parliament.uk/factsheets

September 2003
FS No.G8 Ed 3.1
ISSN 0144-4689

© Parliamentary Copyright
(House of Commons) 2003
May be reproduced for purposes of
private study or research without
permission.

Reproduction for sale or other
commercial purposes not permitted.

The Gunpowder Plot

House of Commons Information Office Factsheet G8

Introduction

The Gunpowder Plot refers to the conspiracy, and failed attempt, to blow up the King and
Houses of Parliament in 1605. This factsheet outlines the historical and political context of the
plot and the effect it has had on popular culture in Britain.

Britain In 1605

It should be remembered that, in 1605, King James I had recently arrived from Scotland. In the
reign of his predecessor, Elizabeth I (1533-1603) the Church of England had consolidated its
break with Rome, but Catholicism retained many adherents in England. James must have been
something of an unknown quantity, and among the Catholics there was great disappointment
when it became apparent that, despite initial indications to the contrary, James was going to do
nothing to reverse the religious status quo of the end of Elizabeth's reign, or to permit greater
toleration.

The genesis of the plot is unclear. Generations of historians accepted it as a genuine last
desperate attempt to re-establish the Catholic religion. Others have suspected it to be the work
of a group of ‘agents-provocateurs’, anxious to set up as traitors a band of gullible men, to
discredit the Jesuits. This would have reinforced the ascendancy of Protestantism, from the
wave of popular revulsion, and hatred in James himself. Several commentators have postulated
that the whole plot was conceived by Secretary of State Cecil, and suggested to Catesby, but
there is little evidence to support this.

Whatever the truth of the origins of the plot, it must be accepted that most, if not all, of the
conspirators felt that theirs was an honest attempt to root out heresy and re-establish the true
religion. They would also have been spurred on by a number of executions of Catholics which
had occurred in the autumn of 1604.

In any case, it is clear that five conspirators: Robert Catesby, Thomas Winter, Thomas Percy,
John Wright and Guy (or Guido, the Spanish form of the name) Fawkes, later joined by Robert
Keyes, determined during 1604 to undertake the blowing up of the House of Lords. The
detonation was to take place on State Opening day, when the King, Lords and Commons would
all be present in the Lords Chamber.

The plotters, from a 1605
French print. Whether the
figures depicted bear any
resemblance to what the
plotters actually looked like is,
of course, open to conjecture

The Gunpowder Plot

House of Commons Information Office Factsheet G8

The Progress of the Plot

The conspirators secured the use of part of a house, underneath the Prince's Chamber, occupied
by John Whynniard (see plan on page 7). They drove, or were alleged to have driven, a tunnel,
propped up by wooden piles, to the 12 foot thick foundation walls of the House of Lords.

Immediately underneath the Lords Chamber was a coal cellar leased to a man called Bright; it
was here they intended to make a cavity. At the same time, they accumulated twenty kegs of
powder in a house at Lambeth, planning to ferry them by boat at night to Westminster.
However, Bright gave up his tenancy of the cellar on Lady Day (25 March) and the mining
activities ceased when Thomas Percy stepped in and took a lease on the cellar itself.

Plans were also drawn up to secure the whereabouts of the heirs to the throne, Prince Charles
and Princess Elizabeth, then children, and thus establish an ongoing friendly government to
follow the explosion. During this time, the network of conspirators was of necessity much
expanded; Warwickshire was the home territory of many of them. There is no doubt that the
explosion was definitely planned for 5th November. Fawkes was to light the slow fuses; he was
then to leave by boat and go to the Continent.

The plot was discovered, in the official version, through a mysterious anonymous letter to Lord
Monteagle, a Catholic, warning him not to attend the State Opening. Whether the letter was
genuine, from a fellow Catholic concerned about Monteagle's welfare, or whether it was a forgery
and sent from within government circles, is uncertain.

In any event, on the 4th of November an initial search was made by Lord Monteagle and the
Lord Chamberlain, Lord Suffolk. They discovered Fawkes and the wood and coal Percy had
provided to cover the kegs of powder. Sir Thomas Knyvett, a retainer of the Court, and Justice
for Westminster, then searched the cellar thoroughly with a group of men at midnight, found the
gunpowder, and arrested Fawkes.

Recording In the Commons Journals

It would have been very difficult for the conspirators to keep the plot secret, as so many were
involved, so it is not surprising news of it leaked out. In a kind of parenthesis to the day’s
business, the Clerk of the House, Ralph Ewens (or an assistant), made a marginal note of the
most spectacular event to have occurred in the House to that date.

The famous marginal note begins (in modern English):

This last night, the Upper House of Parliament was searched by Sir Thomas Knyvett,

and one Johnson

, servant to Mr Thomas Percy, was there apprehended, who had

placed 36 barrels of gunpowder in the vault under the House with a purpose to blow
[up] it and the whole company when they should here assemble"

Fawkes is said to have been taken before Cecil (Secretary of State) and King James himself in
the early hours of 5th November. He maintained a scornful attitude, and refused to answer
questions about his co-conspirators. However, their identities were probably no secret, and all
(except Robert Winter) were killed or arrested by 12th November. On 5th November there was

“Johnson” was the alias Fawkes used prior to his confession

The Gunpowder Plot

House of Commons Information Office Factsheet G8

apparently great rejoicing in London; and the following Sunday 10 November was also appointed
a day of thanksgiving. (See commemoration of the plot)

Several conspirators, including the ringleader, Catesby, had fled to the Midlands and been shot
there. Those who remained alive were taken to the Tower of London from 6th November
onwards. All of them were then probably subjected to extensive and cruel torture - much used at
this time, though never officially sanctioned by English law.

Trial and Executions

The trial of the conspirators for high treason took place in Westminster Hall on 27 January 1606
(1605 OS)

. All but one pleaded not guilty, but the verdict was a foregone conclusion, all were

duly convicted and sentenced to death.

The executions took place in two batches. The later recruits and lesser conspirators, Digby,
Robert Winter, Grant and Bates, were to suffer at St Paul's Churchyard in the City on . The
others, Thomas Winter, Rookwood, Keyes and, of course, Fawkes, at Old Palace Yard (

i.e.

near

the present St Stephen's Entrance), Westminster on 31 January.

The executions were attended with all the bloody barbarity (including castration, disembowelling
alive etc) that the mediaeval punishment for treason, hanging drawing and quartering,
demanded. This law later fell into disuse but was not repealed until 1814. The heads and other
portions of the conspirators' bodies were set up at various points in Westminster and London. A
Jesuit priest, Henry Garnett, was also implicated and tried for concealment of treason because
he heard the confessions of the others. He was executed later in 1606.

Commemoration of the Plot

The fifth of November is variously called `Firework Night', `Bonfire Night' or `Guy Fawkes Day'.
An Act of Parliament (3 James I, cap 1) was passed to appoint 5th November in each year as a
day of thanksgiving for `the joyful day of deliverance'. The Act remained in force until 1859. On
5 November 1605, it is said the populace of London celebrated the defeat of the plot by fires
and street festivities. Similar celebrations must have taken place on the anniversary and, over
the years, became a tradition - in many places a holiday was observed. (It is not celebrated in
Northern Ireland).

It is still the custom in Britain on, or around, 5th November to let off fireworks. For weeks
previously, children have been making guys - effigies supposedly of Fawkes - nowadays usually
formed from old clothes stuffed with newspaper, and equipped with a grotesque mask, to be
burnt on the November 5th bonfire. The word `guy' came thus in the 19th century to mean a
weirdly dressed person, and hence in the 20

century in the USA to mean, in slang usage, any

male person.

Institutions and towns may hold firework displays and bonfire parties, and the same is done,
despite the danger of fireworks, on a smaller scale in back gardens throughout the country. In
some areas, such as Lewes and Battle in Sussex, there are extensive processions and a great
bonfire. Children exhibit effigies of Guy Fawkes in the street to collect money for fireworks,
sometimes using the chant:

This reflects the change, in 1752, from the Old Style Julian calendar to the New Style Gregorian calendar in use today.

The Gunpowder Plot

House of Commons Information Office Factsheet G8

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November

Gunpowder

treason

and

plot

We see no reason

Why

Gunpowder

treason

Should

ever

forgot",…..

Followed by “Penny for the Guy”

Fuller versions were used locally. In East Essex for instance, in the 1890s, boys would dress in
cast-off hats and coats covered with old wallpaper torn into shreds. Faces blackened with soot,
they would chant the rhyme quoted above but with the second verse:

"This is the day they did contrive

To blow up King and Parliament alive

Through God's great mercy they were taken

With a slow fuse and a dark lantern

Holler

boys,

holler

boys,

God

Save

the

Queen

Penny

for

the

Guys"

Sir Benjamin Stone took
the Photograph

above of

guys at Windsor in 1903.
Both guys and collectors
are masked

The Gunpowder Plot

House of Commons Information Office Factsheet G8

The Houses of Parliament are still searched by the Yeomen of the Guard before the State
Opening which since 1928 has been held in November. Ostensibly to ensure no latter-day Guy
Fawkes is concealed in the cellars, this is retained as a picturesque custom rather than a serious
anti-terrorist precaution. It is said that for superstitious reasons no State Opening will be held on
5 November, but this is untrue. The State Opening was on 5 November in, for instance, 1957.

Guy Fawkes

There is no doubt that Fawkes, though remembered wrongly as the principal conspirator, was in
fact a minor cog in the wheel.

Born in 1570 at York, he was by upbringing a Protestant. In 1593, he enlisted as a mercenary
in the Spanish Army in the Netherlands, having become a Catholic shortly before that date.
During the course of debates on the Maastricht Treaty of 1991, it was suggested that Guy
Fawkes had spent part of his Spanish Army career in Maastricht. This appears to be a fallacy as
there is no evidence of which we are aware that links him to Maastricht. He was at the capture
of Calais in 1595, where he apparently distinguished himself greatly. He may have been chosen
for his skill in siegecraft, and it was an advantage that, having been abroad for some time, he
was not known in London. During the plot, and for the first part of his interrogation, he used the

alias

of Johnson. Fawkes declared he would have fired the gunpowder when Knyvett discovered

it, had he been present; but he was outside the house at the time the discovery was made.

The cellar in which Fawkes watched over his gunpowder was damaged in the 1834 fire and
destroyed in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in the 19th century.

The Yeomen of the Guard
before the search of the
cellars on February 1

1904. From a photograph
by Sir Benjamin Stone

The Gunpowder Plot

House of Commons Information Office Factsheet G8

Further reading

The Gunpowder Plot: Faith in Rebellion
Alan Sutton
Hayes and Sutton 1994

Treason: Famous English Treason Trials
Alan Wharam
Alan Sutton Publishing 1995

Useful Website

www.gunpowder-plot.org

Contact information

House of Commons Information Office

House of Commons
London SW1A 2TT
Phone 020 7219 4272
Fax 020 7219 5839
hcinfo@parliament.uk
www.parliament.uk

House of Lords Information Office

House of Lords
London SW1A 0PW
Phone 020 7219 3107
Fax 020 7219 0620
hcinfo@parliament.uk

Parliamentary Education Unit

House of Commons
London SW1A 2TT
Phone 020 7219 2105
Fax 020 7219 0818
edunit@parliament.uk

House of Lords Record Office

House of Lords
London SW1A 0PW
Phone 020 7219 3074
Fax 020 7219 2570
hiro@parliament.uk

Parliamentary Bookshop

12 Bridge Street
Parliament Square
London SW1A 2JX
Phone 020 7219 3890
Fax 020 7219 3866
bookshop@parliament.uk

The Gunpowder Plot

House of Commons Information Office Factsheet G8

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