Remember the 5th of November: A cultural touchstone in Britain, Guy Fawkes night, Bonfire night or Fireworks night is celebrated every November 5th. An opportunity to remember when an ambitious and devious plot was foiled in 1605. A Catholic conspiracy to blow up the Parliament, killing King James, his whole family and the entire political class in one explosion was narrowly averted after an anonymous tip off. The plotters were brutally tortured and executed but the elite instigated an obligatory annual night of thanksgiving that has become a lasting tradition in British culture. Find out all you need to know about the plot and how the personality of Guy Fawkes has become an international icon, through the comic book and film V for Vendetta and the mask of his face becoming the symbol of anonymous protest.
It’s November 5th 1605, a member of parliament rushes along a corridor in the Palace of Westminster clutching a note, he is hurrying to warn the King that later this same day he will be murdered.
Goodness, this sounds like the plot of a Hollywood film.
Well, you’re not wrong and plot is certainly the appropriate word. This real life story of treason,
torture, revolution and execution was later used as the basis for the film ‘V for Vendetta’ and is more commonly known as ‘The Gunpowder Plot’.
Wait, I know that one, that’s the guy with the Anonymous mask?
You are on form today, yes that’s the one and again, great choice of vocabulary. That mask is actually based on the face of the most well-known plotter, Guy Fawkes.
Who is he?
Glad you asked, because that is why we are here today, to talk about this man, his life, legacy and
impact on history.
Urgh...is this going to be another one of those “men of history” conversations, because, frankly, I
think I would rather be dragged down the street then relentlessly hanged until almost dead, have my genitals cut off and flambéd in front of me before I have my internal organs removed and....
You have no idea how much this story is going to be right up your wheelhouse
Like a mixed metaphor?
We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it. So, Guy Fawkes was born in York to a Catholic family...
Hey, why do you have to characterise him by his religion?
This is why you need to pay attention in history, look, after the decision of Henry VIII to not keep his breeches shut tight, and Anne Boleyn, the original Beyonce, told him “put a ring on it”, there was a degree of tension...
Between Katherine and Anne and Henry...
Well, most of Europe and then almost exclusively Scottish football fans, but, that, is another
conversation
For another day..?
Yup, Sooooooo, anyway, Catholics, protestants,,,big tension, like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Cola Cao,
Nesquik, tortilla with or without cebolla, can you put chorizo in paella, you know the stuff,
The Gordian knots of human existence, I understand.
So, back in the early 1600s, it was very much a cola cao-nesquik time. Look, context is important, so let’s remember in 1588 Spain had launched the Armada at England to force it back under Catholic rule and then the “virgin” queen killed her cousin and died without having children so England made a swift call to Scotland and asked their King if he wanted to be King of England as well.....
So there were two Kings?
No...just the one, James the First and Sixth.
Pardon? So, two Kings?
No, that’s just one guy, he was James First of England and James Sixth of Scotland.
I see, James, I mean Jimmy, was a popular name in Scotland then? Right ya are hen
That’s probably correct, anyway there was a Catholic fan club in England consisting of a handful of nobles who would get drunk and say things like “you know what’s wrong with this country? Too many protestants.” And so, based on that shared enthusiasm for religious change they hatched a plot.
Elites manipulating the fabric of society to reflect their personal preferences, as we say in current year, ‘imagine my shock.’
Well, let’s not get political, yet. So, this group of Nobles wanted to assassinate all the politicians and the King in one clean operation that would great reset English society in their favour.
How on earth would you great reset an entire society? Some kind of health scare?
Careful. Well, this is the genius of ‘the plot.’ The nobles had discovered that below the houses of
parliament there were a series of cellars, which were quite rank, damp from the water of the Thames seeping through the walls and full of rats, so not very desirable but still, available for rent.
If you wanted to convert one into a prestige living space or store some vegetables or something?
Much more nefarious than that, Parliament was opened every year by grace of the King or Queen, which meant all the politicians gathered and the King would attend to perform the opening ceremony. An all in one opportunity. The nobles saw this opportunity and rented a cellar directly below the building, the plot was to fill that space with barrels of gunpowder and at the right moment, light the fuse.
Boom?
Shak a lak! I mean, it was devious, and genius. Blow up the lot of them, “Clear them out”. MPs,
Lords of the realm, the entire royal line, it would have been the ultimate decapitation hit, he had enough gunpowder to lay waste to the entire estate, a blast radius of...
You sound breathlessy enamoured with this plan, I mean,...
This is the utter genius of the event, it is the ultimate what if, counter factual narrative inflection
point, I mean it is just so, so, so...
Audacious?
I was going to say bonkers, but, yeah, that works.
But this is all hypothetical, I suspect you are going to tell me how it all went wrong...
Well, it’s funny you should say that because then it all went horribly, torturously wrong. Flashback to that chap running down the corridor with a note in his hand, Lord Monteagle had received an anonymous letter warning him to take the day off.
Because things were going to get a bit explosive.
Exactly, he took the note directly to the King. King Jimmy however, was quite convinced of his
power and thought it laughable that anyone would attempt something so absurd. Monteagle begged him to at least investigate so the King grabbed a nearby gentleman Thomas Knyvett and demanded he go into the dark, rat infested cellars below, to satisfy the Lord’s paranoia. The gentleman was less than thrilled to be sent on what he considered to be a fools errand. So he went in search of his ale brewing, beast of a buddy Edmund Doubleday...
Ed – Tom remind me again why we need to be traipsing around the undercroft at night?
Tom – The King’s got spooked, worried about some plot to blow up the houses of parliament during his speech tomorrow
Ed – Gerroff..
Tom – I know, I mean, that would need, well, at least a tonne of gunpowder...
Ed – A tonne and a half, fella, there is no way anyone is getting that much gunpowder on the estate, someone would notice...
Tom – Look, its almost certainly nothing, but we might get another cushdy title out of it,
Ed – I already manage the distillery and library and you are the warden of the royal mint, what you angling for now?
Tom – Well I always thought a knig...wait a moment, who is that?
Ed – Who? Where?
Tom – That fella coming out of that cellar? What is he doing here? Get him!
Ed – Me?
Tom – Yeah, you work out more than me
Ed – Urgh, Oi! You come here.....he’s grabbed my sword hand Tom
Tom – Use your other one, stab him!
Ed – Nah, I got a better idea, gonna throw him on the floor upside down!
Tom – Boom! Nice move! You tie him up and search him, I’ll see what he was doing. There just seems to be some coal and firewood in here, oh, hang on, wait a moment. Blimey!
Ed – What is it Tom?
Tom – Um, we better wake them up...
Ed – Who?
Tom – Everyone!
Ed – Why? Oh! Blimey!
Tom – I’d say there is about a tonne of explosives there
Ed – I reckon more like tonne and a half, cheeky beggar!
Guy – Oh Bollocks!
So he was busted, caught red handed. A slap on the wrist for a first offence?
Well he was taken immediately to the King’s chambers to explain himself, he gave a false name of John Johnson and remained defiant. When asked what he planned to do he responded "to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains".
A die hard to the end it would seem. I suppose this annoyed the King?
Actually he was rather impressed with the prisoners defiance and after getting no results in the first 24 hours, he signed the warrant to use torture to get the names of the rest of the conspirators.
They made him listen to Reggaton and eat his vegetables?
Well, the King ordered his men at the Tower to start with the gentler of methods escalating to the
most arduous. He was subjected to the manacles and then the rack and within two days he had confessed all the names. The extent of the torture inflicted is reflected in his signature, which when applied to the final confession is clearly the handwriting of a broken man.
So the rest of the plotters were swiftly arrested then?
Well, it is a pitiful story, they found doors closed in their faces across the country and were on the run. While trying to light some gunpowder to get a fire going in the bitter cold, a stray spark ignited the powder engulfing the group in flames. They were eventually pinned down in a dramatic shoot out at Holbech House in Staffordshire. Burnt, injured, some possibly even blinded, four were captured. The suspected ring leader, Thomas Catesby was killed in the shoot out.
This is starting to sound like a Marvel movie.
They were then held in the Tower for ten agonising weeks, suffering torture as they were pushed to reveal any further information about foreign powers behind the plot.
I imagine there was a parade of foreign governments and state officials falling over each other to distance themselves from such outrageous allegations
You got it, the plot was down to protestant heretics or atheists.
Nothing to do with us Jimmy, I swear...
Exactly
So there must have been a trial
Of sorts. In January 1606 the star chamber convened....
I’m sorry, the Star Chamber? And you’re certain this isn’t the plot to a Marvel movie?
Real life, I’m afraid. The Star Chamber was a court created to originally ensure fair enforcement of laws against powerful people, as ordinary courts might hesitate to convict. In fact, it became synonymous with oppression and arbitrary use of power and rulings made far removed from public scrutiny.
Good old Lady Justice. They were found guilty weren’t they?
Yup, and the punishment for treason was, in those days, to be hung, drawn and quartered,
This is going to be a bit grizzly isn it?
Not half! The process was explained to them as part of the sentencing “Each of the condemned
would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground. He was to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both". His genitals would be cut off and burnt before his eyes, and his bowels and heart then removed. Then he would be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of his body displayed so that they might become "prey for the fowls of the air"
Ergh, that has put me right off my haggis. What did Guy say when he was presented with his future castration and dismemberment?
It is thought he would have muttered something along the lines of ‘Oh Bollocks’ but this is
unconfirmed. A punishment and a deterrent I, for sure. The remaining conspirators were executed in the grizzly fashion described, although one, Robert Keyes tried to avoid the horrendous process of being castrated and disembowelled alive by jumping from the gallows while in the noose. The idea being that he would break his own neck. Sadly, he survived his attempt at suicide and was taken to the quartering block for his fate.
Desperate stuff.
Yes, but, our main man, Guy Fawkes, despite being broken by the torture did succeed in breaking his neck in a similar attempt to avoid the horror.
So a huge plot to eliminate the power elite of the country averted and everything back to normal
Well, not quite. It clearly rattled the power elites so they made a law that every November 5th the
people had to gather in the local church and listen to a short proclamation of thanks that the plot had been foiled. This law was repealed in 1859 but the evening had developed into a community gathering by then. People would gather around a large bonfire and drinking and unruly behaviour became the norm
English people drinking? Imagine my shock.
I know right? In fact the night had become such a fundamental part of the ordinary peoples cultural calendar that even during the puritanical republic period in England, which saw even Christmas cancelled, November 5th remained untouched.
When I was younger you would see kids asking for a penny for the guy, what was that all about?
People would burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes on the bonfire and raise money for the effigy in the
weeks before the event. We have references to the well established tradition as early as 1790. In fact the name Guy then entered the English language as a person dressed in unusual clothes and now just as a synonym for a man.
But people don’t really burn Guy Fawkes effigies these days do they?
Well some places still observe that tradition, but in general, the event has become a pressure valve for political and social tension. People burn effigies of current day unpopular leaders or even famously in 1998 David Beckham, after he was sent off in the England World Cup defeat to Argentina.
So what started as a ritual to enforce the power of the state has become an expression of anger against the power structure?
Yes, and it seems what Oliver Cromwell could not achieve has finally been done in the name of
public health and austerity. In the immediate post COVID world, many local councils have cancelled Bonfire night events to avoid the gathering of large crowds or simply because they do not have the money to pay for it.
Most people know about this all through the film V for Vendetta these days. If I say “Remember,
Remember the 5th of November” people think I am quoting that film.
Yes, and the mask the character wears in the film, a likeness of Guy Fawkes, has become a symbol of resistance to oppression and is recognised as such.
Curious that the man has become the idea that survived the ravages of history.
Yes, as the English like to say “Guy Fawkes, the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions”
We have alternative resources on the gunpowder plot, including a previous podcast discussion, class worksheets, an article on the plot and a further article on the anonymous mask in culture.
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