Guy
Fawkes, the son of a Edward Fawkes, was born in York
in 1570. Edward Fawkes was a proctor of the ecclesiastical courts
and advocate of the consistory court of the Archbishop of York. As
a child Fawkes attended St. Peters School in York
with John
Wright and
Christopher
Wright.
Fawkes was brought up as a Protestant
but
was converted to Roman
Catholic after
reading about the way Henry
VIII had
persecuted religious dissents.
In
1592 married Maria Pulleyn. The following year Fawkes went to the
Netherlands where he enlisted in the Spanish army under Archduke Albert
of Austria. He also helped the Spanish capture Calais in 1596. Later
he travelled to Spain in an attempt to persuade the king to send Catholic
troops to invade England.
When
Elizabeth
I died
in 1603 without children, Mary's son, was next in line to the throne.
As James
was
a Protestant, Parliament was also in favour of him becoming king.
The Roman
Catholics in
England were upset that there was going to be another Protestant monarch.
They also became very angry when James passed a law that imposed heavy
fines on people who did not attend Protestant church services.
In
May 1604, Robert Catesby devised the
Gunpowder
Plot,
a scheme to kill James
and
as many Members of Parliament as possible. At a meeting at the Duck
and Drake Inn Catesby explained his plan to Guy Fawkes, Thomas
Percy, John
Wright
and Thomas Wintour. All the men agreed
under oath to join the conspiracy. Over the next few months Francis
Tresham,
Everard Digby, Robert
Wintour, Thomas Bates and Christopher
Wright also agreed to take part in the overthrow of the king.
After
the death of James
in
the explosion, Robert Catesby planned
to make the king's young daughter, Elizabeth, queen. In time, Catesby
hoped to arrange Elizabeth's marriage to a Catholic nobleman. It was
Everard Digby's task to kidnap Princess Elizabeth from Coombe Abbey.
Catesby's
plan involved blowing up the Houses of Parliament on 5th November.
This date was chosen because the king was due to open Parliament on
that day. At first the group tried to tunnel under Parliament. This
plan changed when Thomas Percy was able
to hire a cellar under the House of Lords.
The plotters then filled the cellar with barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes,
because of his munitions experience in the Netherlands, was given
the task of creating the explosion.
One of the people involved
in the plot was Francis
Tresham. He was worried that the explosion would kill his
friend and brother-in-law, Lord Monteagle.
On 26th October, Tresham sent Lord Monteagle a letter warning him
not to attend Parliament on 5th November.
Lord Monteagle became
suspicious and passed the letter to Robert
Cecil, the king's chief minister. Cecil quickly organised a thorough
search of the Houses of Parliament. While searching
the cellars below the House
of Lords they
found Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder. Fawkes claimed he was John Johnson,
the servant of Thomas
Percy.
Fawkes was tortured and
admitted that he was part of a plot to "blow the Soctsman (James)
back to Scotland". On the 7th November, after enduring further
totures, Fawkes gave the names of his fellow conspirators.
Guy Fawkes was found guilty
of treason and executed along with Thomas
Wintour, on 31st
January, 1606. The two men were both hanged, drawn and quartered.
Crispen van de Passe, The
Gunpowder Plot Conspirators (c.1606)
(1)
Guy
Fawkes was arrested on the 4 November, 1605. After being tortured
in the Tower of London, Guy Fawkes confessed to planning to blow up
Parliament. (17 November 1605)
Catesby
suggested... making a mine under the upper house of Parliament...
because religion had been unjustly suppressed there... twenty barrels
of gunpowder were moved to the cellar... It was agreed to seize Lady
Elizabeth, the king's eldest daughter... and to proclaim her Queen.
(2)
Philip
Sidney, A History of the Gunpowder Plot (1905)
Guy Fawkes refused to name
his friends... he was speedily put to torture... he was compelled
to confess... The conspirators met their fate with courage, considering
the terrible nature of their punishment. Tied to separate hurdles,
they were dragged, lying bound on their backs, through the muddy streets
to the place of execution, there to be first hanged, cut down alive,
drawn, and then quartered.
(3)
R.
Crampton, The Gunpowder Plot (1990)
If Guy Fawkes case came
up before the Court of Appeal today, the... judges would surely...
acquit him... First, no one has ever seen the attempted tunnel. Builders
excavating the area in 1823 found neither a tunnel nor any rubble.
Second, the gunpowder. In 1605, the Government had a monopoly on its
manufacture... The Government did not display the gunpowder and nobody
saw it in the cellars. Third, these cellars were rented by the government
to a known Catholic agitator... Fourth, the Tresham letter. Graphologists
(handwriting experts) agree that it was not written by Francis Tresham.
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