What was the Gunpowder Plot? 

Guy Fawkes Night on November 5th is ultimately a celebration of a failure. And to understand the how, when, where and why of this event, we need to look back to 72 years before Guy Fawkes and his band of conspirators began to lay the barrels of gunpowder.

In 1533, Henry VIII split the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church, allowing him the chance to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. This began a long decline in the status of Catholics in Britain. This issue was made worse by his daughters: Mary, a Catholic herself, turned the tables and launched mass persecution against the Protestants. This was immediately reversed by her sister and successor, Elizabeth.

This Catholic/Protestant conflict would persist down the years, and was inherited by King James I in 1603. He was somewhat more reserved in his persecution of the Catholics than his predecessor Elizabeth had been. He began to draw back the persecution, but, as a Protestant, was still a target of Catholic assassination attempts. These plots caused him to reinstitute harsher measures, and set the stage for the now infamous Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

And yet, the story of this Plot does not begin with its modern figurehead: Guy Fawkes. Instead, it was Robert Catesby who masterminded the initial plan. He called a meeting on 20th May 1604 of his four friends, Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright, Thomas Percy and Guy Fawkes. Knowing that Parliament was sitting very soon, and that the King, his wife (who was, rather ironically, a Catholic) and his son would all be present, they began to discuss plans to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

Shortly after this meeting, they leased a small house in the centre of Westminster and successfully got Guy Fawkes employed as a caretaker under the alias of John Johnson. The first hindrance to the plot was the fact that Parliament ended up being postponed until 5th November 1605. However, this only meant that the conspirators could grow in number, doubling their total by the time the day came around.

Practical preparation for the attack began early, as, in March 1605, they rented a ground-floor cellar close to the house they’d acquired for Fawkes. This cellar was directly underneath the House of Lords, and for the next few months, they filled this cellar with 36 barrels of gunpowder.

As October came around, everything seemed ready. Guy Fawkes had headed to France to garner international support from Britain’s enemies, and another of the conspirators was ready to lead an uprising in the Midlands.

But, on 26th October, everything started to go wrong. An anonymous letter was delivered to the Catholic peer, Lord Monteagle, warning him of the plot and telling him to avoid Parliament. This letter was delivered to the Earl of Salisbury, who, determined to save the King, began to put into motion a plan to catch the conspirators. He ordered Westminster to be searched, and in doing so, found both a suspicious amount of firewood in a cellar, and Guy Fawkes himself. Immediately, he was arrested and the other conspirators fled to the Midlands.

Fawkes began to be interrogated. Meanwhile, his co-conspirators in the Midlands raided Warwick Castle, but, thinking that it would be difficult to defend, they headed to Holbeche House in Staffordshire. When they arrived, they found that their gunpowder was soaked, and, as is the most logical course of action, placed it in front of the fire to dry.

Rather unsurprisingly, this didn’t end too well. It was to be the only gunpowder explosion of the entire plot, and it tore through the house, blinding one of the conspirators.

Very quickly, the King’s men, led by the High Sheriff of Worcestershire descended upon them, defeating them in a futile and short-lived battle. Catesby and two others died of their wounds, three were arrested and five others escaped, before being caught by the end of December.

By now, King James had allowed the use of torture on Guy Fawkes, although this failed to garner any useful information. The torture and interrogation continued until 27th January 1606, when the trails began. All of the conspirators were found guilty of High Treason, and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered.

And so, it is this grand failure that we celebrate today, with bright, colourful firework explosions, and huge bonfires, almost mocking the attempt of the plotters, using the same materials with which they had tried to kill the King, to celebrate their undoing.