When
Mary,
Queen of Scots fled
to England in 1567, her thirteen-month-old son James
was
crowned king of Scotland. With his Catholic
mother
in England, James was brought up as a Protestant.
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 5 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. Guy
Fawkes,
because of his munitions experience in the Netherlands, was given
the task of creating the explosion.
Francis
Tresham 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 the gunpowder and
Guy Fawkes, one of the men involved in
the plot. He was tortured and he eventually gave the names of his
fellow conspirators.
The conspirators left London
and agreed to meet at Holbeche House in Staffordshire. News of their
hiding place reached the Sheriff of Worcester and on 8th November
the house was surrounded by troops. The men refused to surrender and
gunfire broke out. Over the next few minutes, Robert
Catesby, Thomas
Percy, Christopher
Wright
and John
Wright were killed.
Everard
Digby was the
only one of the conspirators to plead guilty. He gave several reasons
for his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot.
This included his Roman Catholic beliefs,
his friendship with Robert
Catesby and the
king's broken promises in regard to religious toleration.
Francis
Tresham
was arrested on
12th November. In the Tower of London he
wrote a full confession about his involvement in the Gunpowder
Plot. However, many people believed he was working as a double
agent for Robert Cecil.
Everard
Digby, Robert
Wintour and Thomas
Bates, were executed
on 30th January, 1606. Digby was hanged for only a short period and
was still alive when he was disembowelled. The following day Guy
Fawkes and Thomas
Wintour were
hanged, drawn and quartered.
In
recent years some historians have begun to question the traditional
story of the Gunpowder Plot. Some have argued that the conspiracy
was really devised by Robert Cecil and
Lord Monteagle. This version claims
that Cecil blackmailed Robert
Catesby into
organising the plot. It is argued that Cecil's aim was to make people
in England hate Catholics. For example, people were so angry after
they found out about the plot, that they agreed to Cecil's plans to
pass a series of laws persecuting Catholics.
It has also been pointed
out that James I gave Lord
Monteagle an annuity of £500 for life, plus lands worth
a further £200 per year. Rumours soon began circulating that
Monteagle had arranged for Francis
Tresham to be poisoned while being held captive
in the Tower of London.
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)
Thomas
Wintour was
arrested on 8 November, 1605. After being tortured in the Tower
of London, Wintour confessed to planning to blow up Parliament.
(23 November 1605)
Mr. Catesby... said he
had a plan to deliver us from all our troubles and - without any foreign
help - to replant again the Catholic faith... He said his plan was
to blow up the Parliament House with gunpowder... He asked me if I
would give my consent. I told him "Yes".
(3)
Everard
Digby,
letter sent to Robert
Cecil
while in captivity.
If
harsh measures are taken (against Roman Catholics) within a brief
time there will be massacres, rebellions and desperate attempts against
the King and State. It is hoped that the King that now is would have
been at least free from persecuting, as his promise was before coming
into his Realm, and as divers his promises have been since his coming,
saying that he would take no soul money nor blood.
(4)
Everard
Digby statement
in court
on 27 January 1606.
I request that all my property
might be preserved for my wife and children... I also request that
I be beheaded instead of hanged.
(5)
James
Oliphant, A History of England (1920)
Some of the Roman Catholics,
in the hope of bringing about a violent change... tried to blow up
King and Parliament with gunpowder... After this it was necessary
to adopt sterner measures with the Roman Catholics.
(6)
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.
(7)
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.
Engraving of the execution
of those found guilty of the Gunpowder Plot (1606)
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
