E very year, in England, November 5 is celebrated as Guy Fawkes night or Bonfire night. This is to commemorate the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. A year after the failed attempt November 5 was declared a national day of thanksgiving by Parliament. Celebrations are grand with bonfires, fireworks and parades. Effigies of Guy Fawkes are also set ablaze on this day.
Looking back
In England, Catholicism was repressed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. When she died in 1603, King James I succeeded her. Catholics hoped their religion would be restored, but they were disappointed.
In May1604, five Catholic non-conformists — Guy Fawkes, Robert Catesby, Tom Wintour, Jack Wright and Thomas Percy met at the Duck and Drake inn in London. Catesby proposed a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder to end the persecution of Roman Catholics by the English government. They plotted to blow up King James I during the opening of Parliament on November 5, 1605. Eight other conspirators joined the plot and it was named Gunpowder Plot. Together they rented a cellar that extended under the House of Lords, and Fawkes planted the gunpowder. Fawkes with his experience of fighting in Spanish Netherlands during the Dutch revolt and 10 years of military experience was given charge of the explosives. He was to guard the gunpowder and set the fuse on November 5.
On October 26, an anonymous letter was sent to the authorities asking them to avoid the state opening of Parliament, and alerting them of the plot.
Around midnight on November 4, 1605, Fawkes was found lurking in the cellar below the House of Lords by Sir Thomas Knyvet who was deputed to find this group. There were 36 barrels of gunpowder.
The conspirators were all either killed resisting capture or like Fawkes — tried, convicted, and executed. The traditional death for traitors in 17th century England was to be hanged, drawn and quartered in public. But, this proved not to be the fate of 35-year-old Fawkes. As he awaited his punishment on the gallows, Fawkes leapt off the platform. He died from a broken neck but his body was quartered, and his remains were sent to “the four corners of the kingdom” as a warning to others.
