by Michael King

Created on: January 22, 2010   Last Updated: January 23, 2010

"Remember, remember the fifth of November!". For what other reason could one excuse great fires and burning of effigies in this modern society then ours then a treacherous plot?

The fifth of November commemorates the failed plot by a small group of English Catholics against the King James I of England. The catholics wouldn't accept the rule of the king, so naturally the only course of action was a huge explosion and where better to stage such an explosion the the House of Lords? For this would be two sets of aristocratic enemies removed in one go. Rather then the usual "two birds with one stone" the group were going for around one hundred.

The plan was simple enough, a cellar underneath parliament would be rented by the collective wealth of the group, the famous Guido Fawkes would plant a copious volume of gunpowder underneath the king in their rented cellar, light the fuse and run like hell.

Fawkes was an ex-soldier of ten years, well grounded in the intracies of explosives, not that they really existed at this time and was just about foolish enough to stand in front of thirty six barrels of gunpowder waiting for the clock to strike the time.

The time was set for when the king would take the stage at the re-opening of parliament at the end of the summer recess. A time when every member of government would definitely be attending, leaving the catholics with no established enemies and little resistance to any coup they may follow up the attack with. Though, we never found out the true intentions of the gang, we can guess that they would have tried to establish their leader, Robert Catesby, as the new Catholic King. Denying any knowledge of the plot and essentially providing him with a legal and unopposed acquisition of power, so it would seem.

Fortunately, as one might summise by the relative good state of the House of Lords at this time, the plot failed; discovered by a patrolling guard, who found 36 barrels of high explosive and a fuse a rather suspicious spectacle. From that point on the plot was scuppered and soon enough, the entire gang was executed for high treason.

Nowadays, we deal with the fifth of November slightly more jovially, no executions, no bombs, just large fires, lots of fireworks and a few straw based replicas of Guy Fawkes to burn in the flames. How quaint!

Learn more about this author, Michael King.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.