The Capture of a Terrorist – Guy Fawkes and The Gunpowder Plot

Every British schoolchild knows of Guy Fawkes and how he tried to blow up the English Parliament, but was caught just in time, and how we celebrate the close escape from death of the King and of Parliament with bonfires and fireworks every 5th of November. But fewer know the details.

Guy Fawkes was born in York, England, in 1570, to a Protestant father but a Catholic mother. This was at a time when refusal to attend Protestant Church of England services was a crime and when Catholics were persecuted (though the extent of this varied and in some places a blind eye was turned to them to the extent that some Catholics even held official posts). When his father died, Guy’s mother remarried to a Catholic and the young Guy seems to have become more and more radical.

After a short time working for Viscount Montagu, Guy Fawkes travelled to the Continent to fight for the Spanish against the new Dutch Republic, a Protestant state that had been a Spanish possession until it rebelled. As Spain was still officially at war with England (although there had been no fighting for several years), Fawkes was committing treason by doing this.

Later, Fawkes approached the Spanish Royal Court for help organising a rebellion in England against the king. He got no direct support but was eventually put in touch with other people plotting to overthrow the king and install a pro-Catholic monarch.

The Gunpowder Plot really got off the ground in 1604 when another of the plotters, Thomas Percy, was appointed to the king’s ceremonial guard (despite being a Catholic) and through being an official was able to become caretaker for a house right beside Westminster parliament that was owned by a member of the King’s court. Guy Fawkes returned to England under the alias of John Johnson with the cover of being Thomas Percy’s servant.

At that time, the undercrofts (cellars) under the parliament building were owned by various nobles and leased out to people with official connections. The conspirators learned that one was becoming available and Thomas Percy managed to get the lease on it. In late 1604 they started moving gunpowder in there, hiding it under firewood and coal. Security was lax, and guards were used to seeing goods and barrels coming and going into these private cellars. By mid 1605 the plotters had 36 barrels of gunpowder concealed underneath the parliament chamber!

Unfortunately for the conspirators, the opening of Parliament was delayed until November because of fears of the plague. When they inspected their stash of gunpowder, some was decaying and had to be replaced, but they still remained undiscovered.

The nail in the plot’s coffin proved to be the scruples of some of the conspirators, who disliked the idea of killing Catholic members of the government along with all the others. One of the conspirators sent an anonymous letter to Lord Monteagle, warning him to stay away, but Monteagle promptly showed it to the King and a search of areas around and under the parliament buildings was instituted early on 5th November.

Guy Fawkes had entered the cellar late on 4th November, ready to light the fuse once Parliament and the King assembled in the chamber above, then escape before the explosion. He was found there by the guards when they carried out their search, along with the stash of gunpowder, and was questioned before being taken to the Tower of London. Under torture, he revealed the names of the other plotters and he and they were eventually tried. Guy Fawkes was executed on 31st January 1606, 405 years ago this day.

For more about his questioning, trial and execution, read my follow-on article: http://socyberty.com/holidays/captured-terrorist-escapes-hanging-the-execution-of-guy-fawkes/