We are talking fireworks here. A display that was set to take place in Scotland, as usual on bonfire night. That’s November 5th and the annual celebrations commemorate the foiling of a plot to blow up the British Parliament hundreds of years ago.

Back in 1605 a gang of conspirators planned to blow up Parliament because they were unhappy that the new king, James 1st, wasn’t planning to give catholics better treatment. Today they would be called terrorists or extremists.

A man called Guy Fawkes was the leader and his plot was betrayed by fellow conspirators who had second thoughts about blowing up so many innocent people. Guy Fawkes was caught in the act of preparing the gunpowder. He was tortured and executed and ever since there have been bonfires which burn an effigy of him – and fireworks are let off too.

The annual celebrations in Oban, Scotland are a big event, keenly anticipated. $4000 worth of fireworks had been bought and were due to be let off in a fantastic display that would last 30 minutes.

But disaster struck. There were fireworks alright but the pleasure was all too brief. The excitement had only just got started when it was all over. Anything sound familiar?

Whole load shot – prematurely

What happened was that the $4000 worth of fireworks went off prematurely. What should have lasted at least 30 minutes – was all over in 30 secs and ended in a limp finish.

A sad sad story but one that happens all too often . . . Whether it was inexperience, too much excitement, poor technique – we don’t know.

But the good news is the local council is having another go. More fireworks have been bought and more care will be taken. Let’s hope everything goes with a bang. A longer lasting bang . . .

One premature happening may be forgiven – but not two!

Jack o’Lantern: Image via Wikipedia

“Oh, it’s nobbut th’mischief neet,” as we Northerners say in our local parlance. The custom has existed for centuries, unchanged until now, in Northern towns like Doncaster, Bradford and Liverpool.

The origins of Mischief Night remain as shrouded as a corpse. The earliest records of Mischief Night are from the 1790s, from Middleton, Lancashire and St John’s College, Oxford. In those days, the night was 30 April, not 31 October. Later, the Night was moved to 4 November as more people moved to the cities. There are court records from the 1820s which demonstrate a leniency towards the pranksters, even in regards to arson! It was the one night that youth, that is young men, were free to settle grudges by way of pranks like uprooting fences, trampling gardens and setting livestock loose. When Yorkshire and Lancashire folk immigrated to North America during the Industrial Revolution, the custom came with them, albeit tempered by morality and decorum. The “mischief” part became the threat of a “trick” and the “treat” part arrived.

Mischief Night is still celebrated in the North and the Midlands of England. Eggs (flour, tomato sauce, shaving foam and toilet paper) will be thrown, gates will be removed, dustbins will be tipped over, honey will be smeared on doorknobs, doors will be knocked and fled from and the police will be on patrol. Mischief Night is still celebrated on the 4 November, the night before Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes in Yorkshire, where it is also called “Miggy Night” or “Mischievous Night”, “Tick-Tack Night”, “Corn Night”, “Trick Night” and “Micky Night”. In Liverpool it is called “Mizzy Night” and is celebrated on 30 October.  

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2008/10/28/mischief-night-crackdown-100252-22130316/

http://web.archive.org/web/20070319092943/http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/content/articles/2005/10/17/mischief_night_feature.shtml

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/nov/02/2

White Mischief Night, London: Image by gruntzooki via Flickr

This all started as they bought a house next door to parliament,and started plotting. Guy Fawkes was actually given the job of watching over the barrels of gunpowder. The group of men led by Catesby left Fawkes overnight with the gunpowder barrels. Upon the morning soldiers found Guy Fawkes hiding amoung the barrels. He was arrested and taken to the tower of london. Fawkes was then questioned and tortured until he eventually told all . When King James discovered the men wanted to blow up parliament and kill him, he was releived to be alive. So much so he ordered that on november the 5th people of england should burn bonfires to celebrate him not being blown up! Guys were thrown onto the bonfire in distaste of what the group of men had planned, with Fawkes being the one who had been caught they named the figures after him.

Fireworks which date back almost 2,00 years and began in China,started being used as a reminder of the gunpowder hidden in parliaments cellars, and what could of happened if Robert Catesby and his men had been successful. And this is why we celebrate bonfire night today!

After King James ordered a search of the parliament buildings and the cellars under them, Guy Fawkes was discovered in the cellar the plotters had leased, along with the barrels of gunpowder they’d hidden under piles of wood and coal. He was hauled before members of the King’s Privy Council who questioned him. He gave his name as his alias John Johnson, but didn’t deny his intention to blow up the House of Lords and the King, or as he put it, “to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains” (a reference to King James I being King of Scotland before he’d also inherited the throne of England).

King James ordered that “John Johnson” be taken to the Tower of London, to be tortured with increasing severity until he revealed the names of all the conspirators. He held out for the first two days, but on 7th November he admitted to the existence of other plotters and the next day he revealed five names. On 9th November he gave up further information, and dictated a full confession which was written down and which he then signed. The document still exists and it is sobering to see the shakiness of Fawke’s signature, which shows the severity of the torture he had been put to.

By late January 1606 seven other plotters had been rounded up and they were all tried together with Guy Fawkes in Westminster Hall on the 27th January. They were all found guilty of high treason and were sentenced to die a horrible death: to be hung by the neck but to have their genitals cut off and burned in front of them whilst they still lived, then to have their internal organs cut out, and finally to be quartered (to have their limbs and head severed). The limbs would then be taken to different cities across England to be publicly displayed as a warning to others against committing treason.

Guy Fawkes escaped the full horror of that death as he managed to jump off the platform the gallows had been built on, breaking his neck, though he was still quartered post mortem.

And so he died, 405 years ago today. But he lives on in the 5th November Bonfire Night celebrations still held everywhere across Britain, and in the effigy of him that is burned atop the bonfire, though the anti-Catholic aspects of the celebration have long since been forgotten by most.

This series continues with an article about the fate of some of the other conspirators who managed to flee London: http://socyberty.com/holidays/terrorists-flee-london-the-flight-and-fate-of-the-other-gunpowder-plotters/

If that’s the case, then why exactly do we celebrate this act of terrorism with bonfires and firework displays? Surely we wouldn’t celebrate terrorism, particularly not in the aftermath of 9/11? The truth is, sadly, that November 5th has long since ceased to actually be anything about Guy Fawkes, and is associated solely with fireworks that have become increasingly more powerful and expensive. How many children these days make ‘guy’ and call out ‘penny for the guy’? Very few, if any. They might learn the old rhyme: “Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot,” but largely the gunpowder treason has been forgotten, or at least lost in the commercialisation of bonfire night.

As a York girl, I’m unashamedly proud of my city’s link to Guy Fawkes. I used to work in a bookshop in Stonegate that was reputed to be the birthplace of Guido, and passed every day the Guy Fawkes hotel. Strangely, considering the connection to Guy Fawkes, York City Council choose not to provide a free public bonfire and firework display for its residents. Perhaps that’s just as well. It would, I suppose, be remiss of the city elders to celebrate one of its most famous citizen’s terrible downfall!

Cover of Bonfire Night (Special Days)

I feel as though I must state at this point that I love fireworks. I always have. Ever since I was a little boy, I was transfixed as coloured lights exploded across the black night sky. The idea of having sparklers in the garden was enough to convince me to tidy my room every day for a month (when I was a boy you understand!) Every year, we went through the same ritual on November 5th, not a day before, not a day after. My father would set up the fireworks at the bottom of the garden while my mother, brother and sister would stand expectantly by the back door of the house. Then, by torchlight, the display would begin. Looking back, it was always woefully brief but woud be followed by the sparklers then baked potatoes for all.

I never thought much about how much fireworks cost until I was all grown up. I’d never realised the investment they were. Have you seen the prices these days?!

Wikipedia

Image via

That could be hundreds of pounds worth of firework you’re looking at up there. For a few seconds pleasure. It’s as unsatisfying as eating fast food! In these days of cost-cutting and having our credit well and truly crunched, I’ve had to take the painful decision not to buy any this year. This was not taken lightly, I feel as though I’m betraying my 9-year old self just by thinking it!

However, there is hope. A way for me to get my firework fix and support my local area at the same time. I say this to everyone out there who’s been going through the same dilemma as me recently, as well as the thousands of people who already do this: Go to a public display. Support organised events in your area. Many of them are run by the local councils and benefit local charitable organisations as well. Plus, and this is the real kicker for me: You get far more bang for your buck. For a couple of pounds, I can watch a 20 or 30-minute long display often with music and other things too. Not only that, it’s safer and there’s no mess for me to clear up the next day. And added to that, I can still have the sparklers and baked potatoes when I get home. Bliss. 

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

So whatever you do and wherever you get your firework fix this year, stay safe and have fun.

Despite their straitened circumstances it had still been possible to send the young Robert to Oxford University. However, he failed to graduate because of his refusal to take the Oath of Supremacy, and he completed his education in Catholic France. He returned to England some years later as a committed and militant Catholic activist. In 1593, he married Catherine Leigh, a Protestant, which went some way to restoring the family fortune.

Dashing and charismatic, Robert Catesby induced an intense loyalty in his friends. He was described at the time as being 6 ft tall and well proportioned, grave in manner but attractively so, and handsome of countenance.

During the 1590’s, he took great risks in sheltering a number of high-profile Jesuit Priests including Father’s John Gerrard and Henry Garnet. Jesuits were banned from preaching, holding services, or providing Holy Communion in England. If caught they could expect to be executed, as could those sheltering them.

On 6 February, 1601, he marched with the Earl of Essex in his rising against Queen Elizabeth. Fighting valiantly with sword in hand through the streets of London, he was captured in what turned out to be a disorganised rout. Deemed a foot soldier and not a major conspirator he escaped execution. But the episode taught him that regimes could be opposed by force if necessary.

Robert Catesby

Catholics in England breathed a huge sigh of relief when Queen Elizabeth died in early 1603. The new King, after all, was the Scottish James VI, the son of the much-revered Catholic martyr, Mary Queen of Scots. They hoped, at the very least, for relief from the punitive measures imposed on them by the old regime, and was not James married to a Catholic, and had he not spoken of greater religious tolerance? They were to be sorely disappointed. James was an unequivocal Protestant and came down on hard on all forms of religious dissent, particularly Catholic requsancy. He increased their fines, expelled Catholic priests, and in what seemed the final straw, introduced a Bill to Parliament that would make all Catholics excommunicates. As excommunicates they would no longer be able to make their wills or dispose of their goods, no one would be obliged to repay debts to them, and they would no longer have the protection of the law. They had become effectively enemies of the State.

Catesby decided to act. He sent for his cousin, Thomas Wintour, and told him of the Gunpowder Plot. The people he believed wished to see the old religion restored. They would gather together loyal fellow Catholics, they would seek the blessing of the Jesuits, and they would do God’s work.

The Gunpowder Plot

Catesby’s plan was a simple one: He would blow up King James, Queen Ann, Henry, the Prince of Wales, and 4 year old Charles (the future Charles I) and everyone else present at the State opening of Parliament on 5 November, 1605. To facilitate this act of mass-murder he had rented a basement beneath the Parliament building and over time filled it with 36 barrels of gunpowder, more than enough to destroy the Parliament building twice over. Responsibility for its care and ultimately the lighting of its fuse fell to a heavily built soldier of fortune and Catholic fanatic, Guido (Guy) Fawkes. In the ensuing chaos following the explosion, Catesby and his fellow conspirators would return to their midlands base and rouse their fellow Catholics to rebellion. In the meantime a flying squad was to be sent to kidnap the young Princess Elizabeth (raised by her mother she was believed wrongly as it turned out, to be more sympathetic to their cause) and place her on the throne. The entire plan had a feeling of desperation about it, but Catesby was convinced of its ultimate success. After all, he had God on his side.

The plotters now managed to rent a cellar immediately beneath the Parliament Building this would greatly increase the effectiveness of the explosion. Guy Fawkes, posing as John Jackson, a servant of Catesby’s, busied himself moving the gunpowder into the cellar. Carefully he hid the barrels behind stacks of wood used for fuel. But the gunpowder would never be used the fuse would never be lit, for they had been betrayed.

That Dark and Doubtful Letter

Late in the evening of 26 October, 1605, a mysterious man delivered a letter to the London home of the Catholic Lord Monteagle. Strangely, rather than read it himself, Monteagle had the letter read out to him. It contained a warning not to attend the State opening of Parliament. It read:

“My Lord, out of the love I bear for some of your friends I have care for your preservation. Therefore, I would advise you tender some excuse to shift your attendance of this Parliament for God and man have concurred to punish the wickedness of this time”.

Monteagle immediately took the letter to Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, James I’s Secretary of State. The plot was discovered, or at least, revealed. Who had sent the letter? Who had betrayed Catesby and his friends? There are, any number of candidates. The most likely, or so it seemed at the time, was Sir Francis Tresham, a latecomer to the plot, and a cousin of Monteagle. He had previously shown himself lukewarm in his support, and later claimed at his trial that he had tried to get the plot postponed. Catesby certainly believed him responsible. Questioned by Catesby and Thomas Wintour, Tresham pleaded his innocence. Catesby was all for doing him great harm. Tresham was begging for his life, and he succeeded, but only just. It now seems likely that Tresham was indeed innocent. It now seems possible that the letter may well have been concocted by Monteagle himself. Assuredly aware of the plot through his Catholic connections no one benefited more from its revelation. Previously imprisoned for his role in the Essex rebellion and a former recusant he was now lauded as the saviour of the Nation, and rewarded with a £2000 a year pension and a further £500 from rents. Whoever was to blame, the plotters had ceased to be the hunters and were now the prey.

The Gunpowder Discovered

Guy Fawkes was captured just after midnight on 5 November. A thorough search of the cellar revealed all the hidden barrels of gunpowder. Unable to explain his presence in the cellar and denying all knowledge of the gunpowder, Fawkes was placed under arrest. Interviewed personally by the King, Guy Fawkes stuck to his story, that he was John Jackson, a servant of Robert Catesby. But after being brutally tortured he eventually revealed all. When later an appalled King asked him how they could countenance killing the four year old Charles, Fawkes replied, “the nature of the disease requires so sharp a remedy.”

The Conspirators

The Flight from London

Those plotters still in London fled as fast as their horses would carry them. As planned they met up in the Midlands. The second phase of the plot had been to seize the Princess Elizabeth. This was now abandoned. Despite Catesby’s assurances that the people would still rise up it soon became apparent that the plot was unravelling. Riding through the countryside they tried to rally support. They were met at best with indifference, but more often with open hostility. To the cry of “For God and Country”, came the reply “around here we are for God, Country, and King James”. At the home of Sir John Talbot, whom they believed to be a supporter, they were turned away with the words, “This is more than my life is worth. I pray get thee hence”.

Having failed to rally any significant support the plotters descended upon the home of a friend and supporter, Stephen Lytleton, Holbeche House in Staffordshire. Meanwhile Catesby continued to insist that the people would rally in their support once their aims became clear. In the meantime, he suggested they fortify Holbeche House to resist a siege. But no pressure was applied for the plotters to remain together. Sir Francis Tresham and Robert Keys had already departed, Robert Wintour was in hiding, and Sir Everard Digby was roaming the countryside uncertain what to do. Only personal loyalty to the charismatic Catesby and a resignation to their fate kept the other plotters together.

On 6 November, an unfortunate accident scuppered any chance they may have had of fortifying Holbeche to resist a siege. During their flight they had accrued munitions which had then been soaked in a downpour. In an effort to dry it as quickly as possible it had been placed in front of the fire, where a stray spark ignited it. In the explosion, Catesby, Sir Ambrose Rokewood, and Henry Morgan were injured. Lord John Grant was horribly mutilated, it being said his eyes had been burned out.

At 11.00 am on 7 November, Holbeche House was surrounded by Sir John Walsh, the High Sheriff of Worcester, and 200 men. It was evident all was lost. When Tom Wintour asked “Why are we here?” he was answered with the words, “We are here to die”. In the ferocious fire fight that followed, Jack and Kit Wright were shot and killed in the courtyard. Catesby, Wintour, Rokewood, and Sir Thomas Percy returned fire from the house. As the troops broke down the door, Tom Wintour remained at his friend Catesby’s side. He had already lost the use of his right arm and feared he would be taken. Catesby said to him, “Stand by me, Mr Tom, and we will die together”. Sir Thomas Percy now took his own life. As the troops broke in, Rokewood and Wintour were wounded and taken. Catesby had also been wounded, fatally. The house was by now ablaze. As he crawled away into another room, Catesby found a picture of the Virgin Mary, and clutching it to his breast he died.

Sir Everard Digby, who had been wandering aimlessly around the countryside, was finally cornered hiding in a trench. On hearing the shouts of his jubilant pursuers “Here he is! Here he is!” He mounted his horse and replied, “Here I am. What then?” He then rode his horse, cavetting, an advanced form of equestrianism; to the grandest person he could find and gave himself up. Robert Wintour wasn’t captured until two months later.

None of the plotters were to escape. All were to suffer the fate put aside for traitors – to be hanged until choked, suffer live disembowelment, and to be decapitated. Their four quarters then to be put on public display as a warning and deterrence to others.