Gunpowder Plot (1605)

The Gunpowder Plot is the most infamous crimes in English legal history. If it had been successful, the Catholics would have wiped out virtually the entire ruling class in one fell swoop.

Background to the Gunpowder Plot

The Catholic problem had begun way back in the 1520s, during the reign of Henry VIII. Up until that time, the English Catholics had all followed the rule of Rome, but Henry had declared himself the head of the church, so he could divorce his troublesome wife – Catherine of Aragón. This made Protestantism the nation’s chief religion.

The power of the church and monasteries were steadily eroded by the State, and anyone who dared to rock the boat was trod upon themselves. Catholicism in the 16th-century was therefore a very dangerous pastime.

Successive Kings and Queens swayed the pendulum back and forth in favour of their pet religion; Henry’s successor, for example, carried on the work of his father, but Queen Mary I attempted to restore the State to Catholicism.

When Elizabeth I ascended the throne in 1558, she swung the tide the other way. The attempted Spanish Armada of 1588 made matters even worse, as every Catholic was now considered a potential traitor in collusion with the Spanish. By the 1580s, Catholics found themselves in a dangerously small minority, and it was getting smaller every year. The only way they could state their case was through the barrel of a gun.

When James I ascended the throne in 1603, it seemed for a time that things would improve. His wife, Queen Anne of Denmark, was herself a Catholic, but as the months went by the persecution continued. The only light in sight was the presence of his nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth. They immediately planned to wipe out the ruling class, and install her on the throne.

The Plan

Previous Catholic plots in 1603 – called the Main Plot and Bye Plot – had all been uncovered before completion, so security was paramount. Secrecy was handled by a man called Robert Catesby, who enlisted the help of just eleven others: Thomas and Robert Wintour, Christopher Wright, Thomas Percy, John Grant, Ambrose Rokewood, Robert Keyes, Sir Everard Digby, Francis Tresham and Catesby’s servant, Bates. The explosion was to be handled by a man called Guido Fawkes (later known as Guy). Their first meeting was on the 20th May 1604, in a place down the Strand.

The idea was splendidly simple. An undercroft was up for rent directly below the Houses of Parliament; so all they had to do was wait for the State Opening of Parliament and blow the place to kingdom come. All of the ministers and the King would be wiped out in a flash.

Providence seemed to be on their side when an undercroft came up directly below the House of Lords, the exact room where they would all be seated. So Guy gathered together as much gunpowder as he could find, and started stacking it up in barrels. He had roughly 2.5 tonnes in place by March 1605, thirty-six barrels in total, under a blanket of winter fuel – enough to blow out all the windows in a one mile radius.

Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes was a demolitions expert, and had fought in the Spanish army under the Archduke Albert of Austria. He swiftly rose up the ranks, and held a post of command when the Spanish took Calais in 1596. It was here that he learnt the ins-and-outs of demolition, so he was the perfect man to carry out the plan.

The idea was for him to flee to Europe as soon as the deed was done, and with his connections on the continent he could drum up support for a Spanish invasion. The other conspirators would wait for news in the Midlands, whereupon they would ferment a revolution and install Princess Elizabeth on the throne.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November

Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, but a fatal flaw had opened up the previous week. It seems that one of the gang, Francis Tresham, had started to feel a little guilty about killing Catholics in the chamber. So he sent a letter to Lord Monteagle, warning him to stay away.

Monteagle received the letter on the 26th October, and immediately became suspicious. He passed it on to the Secretary of State, Robert Cecil.

The conspirators were told of the letter the following day, but after visiting the undercroft and seeing nothing untoward, vowed to carry on anyway.

On the following Monday afternoon, the Lord Chamberlain searched the cellar and came upon the large pile of ‘winter fuel’. Fawkes, who masqueraded under the name of Mr John Johnson, claimed that the wood belonged to his master, Thomas Percy. But he seemed a very bad and desperate fellow, and was reported to the King.

The following night they searched the cellar again, this time led by Sir Thomas Knyvett. He found the barrels at once, and Fawkes was immediately arrested. The gunpowder, matches and touch paper on his person was enough to raise considerable alarm, and he was carted off to the King.

Trial of the century

Fawkes was not shy in coming forward, and upon entering the King’s bedchamber admitted to the whole plot straight away. When James asked him why he did it, he said he wanted to blow the Scots back to Scotland and, referring to the Catholic’s sorry situation in England, exclaimed that a dangerous disease require a desperate remedy.

Fawkes was taken straight to the Tower of London where he was tortured for more information. After holding out for three days he gave up the names of his co-conspirators, who were rounded up and caught.

A trial was hastily convened for the 27th January 1606, and on the 31st they were taken to the Old Palace Yard and hung, drawn and quartered.

Aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot

If the conspirators had hoped to further the cause of Catholicism in England, then it backfired spectacularly. The boot came down hard and stayed on their face for 200 years.

The Gunpowder Plot is still remembered up to the present day. James I made the 5th November a day of thanksgiving all over the nation, and people light bonfires and set off fireworks.

Tradition also dictates that the Yeoman of the Guard still search the undercroft before the State Opening of Parliament. Ironically, that very croft in which Fawkes stored his powder was itself damaged by fire in 1834, but the lantern he carried can still be seen at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.