Gunpowder Treason and Plot

I had always heard of Guy Fawkes and was dimly aware he was some VIP in history. However, I'd never run across him in any of my studies either in school or out. It's understandable now why this is so; he wasn't part of Modern European history and I'd just never studied James I.

Of Henry VIII I am quite familiar with and of Elizabeth I have a lesser degree of familiarity. The history of English royalty is far from my forte. I am definitely aware of the overall idea of Catholics and the separation of church and state and the related events that occurred in Henry VIII's and Elizabeth I's reigns. What I had almost no knowledge of was what happened next. And this is where Guy Fawkes comes in.

As is always the case with history, the events were much more complicated and interesting than I will describe. There was some confusion over who would succeed Elizabeth I and she wouldn't announce a successor. But things went surprisingly smooth right after her death and James I came into power. He carried on the anti-Catholic sentiments the two previous rulers had had. A couple of years passed while Catholics in England became more and more upset with James I. There were many plots to try to kidnap him and his family and make them promise to be nicer to the Catholics in England, but none of them worked.

Then, a bunch of Catholics (13 overall in the end) got together and decided to blow up the House of Lords with all the Lords and the king inside it. This would certainly intimidate the high and mighty ones (since the idea was that all the lords would be in the building when the explosion happened) and the Catholic plotters hoped to gain some official tolerance towards Catholics by then placing James I's Catholic daughter Elizabeth (who was nine years old at the time) in power.

Oh, and just so you know, almost all of this is garnered from wikipedia along with other websites (brittannia, about.com, bonfirenight.net) and I still don't understand things like how such an anti-Catholic king could have a Catholic daughter. Apparently he discovered his wife had received a gift of a rosary from the Pope but I don't know if this means she was merely a tolerant individual or if she was Catholic herself. For now, I'm only focusing on understanding the gist of the Guy Fawkes story. If anyone wants to enlighten me, by all means go ahead - I'll probably end up finding out soon enough, just not right now.

An anonymous letter was sent to one of the lords who was Catholic (they didn't want him to be there when the building blew up) warning him of the plot. It didn't say the exact date but it did describe the intention of the plotters. It was easy to deduce when to be on alert since the House of Lords was going into session in just a few days after the letter was shown to the king.

On the night before the House of Lords session, soldiers searched the building and caught Guy Fawkes in the cellar next to 36 barrels of gunpowder. Guy Fawkes chose to maintain that his name was John Johnson (yeah, very original, like "John Doe") and it took a few days of torture before he started revealing his real name and details of the plot. The other plotters were eventually captured, including a strong attempt to blame some Jesuit priests for being in on it (good for anti-Catholic politics), and a couple months later the plotters were hanged, drawn, and quartered, including Guy Fawkes who managed to snap his neck when he was hanged so he didn't suffer the following actions customarily given to traitors.

And why am I reading about the Gunpowder Treason Plot? What does it have to do with my novel? Well, it has absolutely nothing to do with my novel. The "why" is that today happens to be the day, four hundred and five years ago, that Guy Fawkes was caught. I wouldn't have known this if I hadn't spotted a tweet from Neil Gaiman> which said:

Remember, remember the fifth of November: Gunpowder, Treason and Plot. Perhaps I will have a very small bonfire here tonight, just because.

I wondered what the heck he was talking about. So I looked it up.

And now, I will end with a copy of the Gunpowder Plot poem.

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

Gunpowder treason and plot.

We see no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot!

Guy Fawkes, guy, t'was his intent

To blow up king and parliament.

Three score barrels were laid below

To prove old England's overthrow.

By god's mercy he was catch'd

With a darkened lantern and burning match.

So, holler boys, holler boys,

Let the bells ring.

Holler boys, holler boys,

God save the king.

And what shall we do with him?

Burn him!

Of course, I have seen the movie "V for Vendetta" but it was only once awhile ago and the references to the actual historical event I completely missed. Sometimes, I'm a little thick in the head. I mean, V wears the Guy Fawkes mask, and he quotes part of the poem, and he's trying to do what Guy Fawkes failed to do and blow up the English Parliament. His reasons are different and it's set in a futuristic England which is a totalitarian state, but *still* I feel like I should have known. Alright, I'm gonna scuttle off and actually get some things done ... work on website, get a higher nanowrimo wordcount, and such.