Reading practice 48
SOCIAL SCIENCE: The Gunpowder Plot
Remember, remember the 5th of November; The gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot. This famous children's poem speaks directly to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in which a group of Roman Catholic co-conspirators attempted to blow up Westminster Palace during the formal opening of Parliament10. King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) was in attendance to address the joint assembly of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The failed bomb plot certainly could have killed the King and potentially the rest of the English Legislature: it would have been a near-complete removal of the aristocracy. Guy Fawkes was instrumental in the final stages of the plot, but was apprehended just prior to completing his work. Shortly thereafter, Fawkes and his co-conspirators were put to death for treason and attempted murder. It has been said by many—quite tongue-in-cheek—that Guy Fawkes was the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions.
The plot, masterminded by Robert Catesby, had surprising origins. He and Guy Fawkes, along with several other Roman Catholics were thought to be denouncers of the king's own Church of England1. Consequently, they risked civil and criminal penalties. In realizing that Spain, at the time a great Catholic world power, was involved in too many wars to help the cause of English Catholics, Catesby decided that unless something was done from within, nothing would likely change.
Luck smiled upon the plotters when they stumbled upon a cellar for rent beneath the House of Lords; the original plan, to dig a mineshaft2 beneath Westminster, proved remarkably difficult, the rock and debris requiring removal in secret. Being able to rent a cellar under Parliament expedited their efforts immensely, allowing them to fill the cellar with 1,800 pounds of gunpowder.
The one crucial flaw in the plot, though, was that several conspirators had scruples over the potential for harm to other Catholics likely to be in attendance during the opening address. One of the men wrote a letter of warning to Lord Monteagle, a fellow Catholic, who received it on October 26. Learning about the letter the following day, several conspirators wished to abort the plan, yet the decision was made to continue when Guy Fawkes confirmed that nothing within the cellar had been discovered. Despite Fawkes' confidence, Lord Monteagle took the letter seriously, and tasked the secretary of state with completing a search of all spaces beneath Westminster. Early in the morning on November 5, Fawkes was apprehended in the cellar. Over the next few days, he was tortured until he confessed the identities of the other individuals who contributed to the plot. On January 31, 1606, each man convicted of treason was taken to Old Palace Yard to be hanged, drawn, and quartered6—this most exotic3 form of execution was intended as a lesson to the public: treason would not be tolerated under any circumstances.
Currently, on November 5 of each year, British children burn effigies of Fawkes and recite the renowned poem as a way of remembering this influential figure of the past. Guy Fawkes Day serves as a chilling reminder to everyone, not just the British, that if pressed hard enough, an individual will press back. No brutal threat can stop the most committed believer from rising in defense of his beliefs.8
