Gunpowder Plot

5 November 1605

Conspiracy to blow up the houses of Parliament and King James I at the opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605. It was contrived by a number of fanatical Roman Catholics, with Robert Catesby at their head, and seems to have been brought to a head by the revival in 1604 and 1605, of measures of repression against the Catholic faith in England. It is known that Catesby was conceiving a plan in May 1603, and in January 1604 some details were arranged between himself, Robert Winter, and John Wright. They were later joined by Guy Fawkes, Thomas Percy, Thomas Winter, John Grant, Ambrose Rokewood, Robert Keyes, Sir Everard Digby, Francis Tresham, and Thomas Bates, a servant of Catesby's while two Jesuit priests, Greenway and Garnet, apparently knew of the plot's existence, though they were probably not actually involved in it.

In May 1604 the conspirators hired a house adjoining the House of Lords, and in December began to excavate a tunnel from its cellar. In March 1605 they obtained possession of a vault under the House of Lords, and stored in it 36 barrels of gunpowder. In May they separated to make arrangements for the carrying out of the plot after the explosion. The plot was discovered through an anonymous letter sent to Lord Monteagle, a Catholic peer, warning him to stay away from Parliament on 5 November. On 4 November a thorough search was made, and Guy Fawkes was arrested at his post in the cellar and tortured to reveal the names of his fellow conspirators, who were subsequently executed. The discovery of the Gunpowder Plot deepened national hatred against Catholics in general, and increased the severity of the penal laws against them. The ceremony of searching the vaults of Parliament at its annual opening is a legacy of the Gunpowder Plot. The plot made a deep impression on the country; from then 5 November has been commemorated as 'Guy Fawkes' night by the lighting of bonfires, in which 'guys' are burned, and by firework displays.

© JM Dent/Historybookshop.com

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