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Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, Spying and shoot-outs, treachery and torture, not to mention gruesome deaths. What more could a good story want. And the story of Gunpowder Plot has all of these. It all started in the year 1603, which marked the end of an era. Queen Elizabeth had reigned for 45 years, and was now lying on her death bed. Her expected successor was James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Queen of Scots who had been executed in 1587 on Elizabeth's orders. This made the English Catholics very excited. They had been severely persecuted ever since the Pope had excommunicated Elizabeth in 1570. Then, in 1588, there was the little matter of the Spanish Armada, which had made matters worse. To the Tudor queen, all Catholics were potential traitors. They were forced to attend Protestant services instead of going to Mass. Anyone who failed was punished with heavy fines. It was suggested that James would be more friendly to Catholics than the dying Queen had been. His wife, Anne of Denmark, was a Catholic, and James himself appeared to be sympathetic towards them. The Earl of Northumberland sent one of his staff, Thomas Percy, to act as his agent in Scotland. His reports back implied that this sympathy was real. And sure enough, on his accession, the new king, now James I of England, ended the persecution of the Catholics. The Catholics now started to come out of the woodwork, and more were to be seen acknowledging their religion. But they started putting demands to the king. James was not amused. Then, in July 1603, two small Catholic plots were discovered, which did not help the situation. Although most Catholics were horrified, all were tainted by the threat of treason. Things got worse. At the Hampton Court Conference of January 1604. James, in an attempt to satisfy the Puritans, expressed hostility against the Catholics. He publicly announced his "utter detestation" of Catholicism, and all priests and Jesuits were expelled and the fines for attending mass reintroduced. Most English Catholics were prepared to swallow the fines and live their double lives as best they could, but Robert Catesby was a devout Catholic who did not like this passive approach at all. His father had been imprisoned for harbouring a priest, and he himself had left university without a degree in order to avoid taking the Protestant Oath of Supremacy, as was required of all graduates. He wanted to do something about it, and so started to recruit a small band of men who thought likewise. The first meeting of the conspirators was on 20th May 1604 at the Duck and Drake inn in the Strand. With Catesby were his friends Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright and Thomas Percy. The fifth person present was a Yorkshireman - Guy Fawkes. Fawkes had left England in 1593, aged 23, as a converted catholic and fought for Catholic Spain in its war against the Dutch. In this war he learned all about the use of explosives - especially the arts of sapping and mining, necessary knowledge for anyone wishing to blow up buildings. At this meeting they worked out a way of blowing up the Houses of Parliament which involved leasing a small house in Westminster where they could store gunpowder, installing Fawkes as caretaker under the name of John Johnson. (In those days it seems that anybody who was a nobody was called John Johnson.) Unfortunately for them, Parliament kept getting postponed, and, inevitably, more people became involved in the plot. Over the following year the number of plotters gradually increased to ten. Robert Keyes, Robert Wintour, John Grant and Kit Wright were all relatives, by blood or marriage, to one or more of the original five conspirators. The tenth was one of Catesby's servants, Thomas Bates. In March 1605 the conspirators took out a lease on a cellar which lay directly underneath the House of Lords. Gradually, during the next few months they moved in 36 barrels of gunpowder, enough to blow everything and everyone sky high. Then Guy Fawkes went to Flanders hoping to whip up some support for their plan. Not a good idea. He failed. Unfortunately he was spotted by English spies who reported back to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, James' first minister. It was Cecil who made the link between Fawkes and Catesby. Catesby knew nothing of this, and over the next two months he recruited Ambrose Rookwood and two wealthy personages who owned a lot of horses, namely Francis Tresham and Sir Everard Digby. The horses were essential for the planned uprising. Tresham was Catesby's cousin by marriage, and was also the brother-in-law of two Catholic peers, the Lords Stourton and Monteagle. This brought the number of conspirators up to thirteen. With only weeks to go, the final details were planned. Digby was to start an uprising in the Midlands, which is where the horses came into the picture. Fawkes was given the job of lighting the fuse, and he would then escape overseas to Flanders. Once in Europe, Fawkes would plead the plotters' cause to continental governments in an attempt to secure their passive acceptance, even support. The plotters had everything ready. And then things started to go wrong. On the night of 26th October, Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter which warned him not to attend the opening of Parliament on 5th. November as "Parliament would receive a terrible blow on that day and that those killed would not see who had done it to them." Monteagle, remember, was the brother-in-law of Francis Tresham, one of the last conspirators to be recruited, and it was probably Tresham who wrote the letter. Monteagle took the letter to Robert Cecil, and he decided to do nothing until the last minute in the hope of reaping richer rewards. Thomas Ward, one of Monteagle's servants, warned the plotters of the letter, so, on 4th November, Percy paid a call on his patron, the Earl of Northumberland, to sniff out any potential danger. He smelled nothing. All seemed well, so they ignored the warning and pressed on with the plan, which involved Robert Catesby, Jack Wright and Thomas Bates setting off for the Midlands. But all was not well. With parliament due to assemble, Salisbury ordered the Palace of Westminster to be searched. During the first search a suspiciously large amount of firewood in a certain cellar was spotted. Another search was made around midnight. This time Fawkes was discovered. When arrested, he would only give his name as 'John Johnson', but as Catesby's name had already been linked with the house and the cellar, a warrant for his arrest was issued immediately. The plotters who had remained in London immediately set off for the Midlands. Rookwood was the fastest, covering 30 miles in two hours on a single horse, an achievement which enabled him to catch up and warn the others. Once the two parties had met, they all rode on towards Warwickshire. Meanwhile, James I, on hearing of his narrow escape, ordered that a large bonfire should be lit in celebration. As this bonfire of thanksgiving was burning, 'John Johnson' was being interrogated. On the following day, since he had not admitted anything, James gave permission for the use of torture. Even so, Guy Fawkes said nothing for another two days. In the Midlands, the plotters, now wanted men, stole some horses from Warwick Castle and rode to Holbeche House in Staffordshire. Once there, they discovered that the powder for their guns was useless, having been soaked by rain, so they laid it in front of the fire to dry. Not a good idea. No doubt Guy Fawkes, if he had been there, would have advised against this. Unfortunately for them, he was otherwise engaged. When the powder went off, John Grant was blinded and unable to fight in the inevitable confrontation. This came quickly in the form of 200 men led by the High Sheriff of Worcestershire, who arrived at Holbeche House on the morning of 8th November. The battle was short. Catesby, the Wrights and Percy died from their wounds; Thomas Wintour, Rookwood and Grant were captured. The other five escaped. But not for long. By December, only Robert Wintour was still free. Bates, under interrogation, had admitted mentioning the details of the plot to a Jesuit priest in the confessional. Now that the Jesuits were implicated in the 'Powder Treason', the powers that be set about finding them, ransacking scores of Catholic homes in the process. But what happened to all of the conspiratorial band? Francis Tresham died in the Tower in December from some illness or other. Robert Wintour was finally caught in the New Year. On 27th January 1606 the trial of seven of the conspirators began. Westminster Hall was crowded as spectators crowded in to hear the speech of the Attorney General, Sir Edward Coke. Salisbury had told him to say it was all the fault of the Jesuits before describing the traditional punishment for traitors: hanging, drawing and quartering - that is, they would be hanged until half-dead, upon which their genitals would be cut off and burned in front of them. Then, while they were still alive, their bowels and heart would be removed. Finally their heads would be cut off and their bodies dismembered, the various body parts being hung up on public display to be eaten by birds as they decomposed. Digby, who had pleaded guilty, was tried after the others. Not surprisingly, all eight were found guilty of high treason. Digby, Robert Wintour, Bates and Grant were executed on 30th January, 1606, with Thomas Wintour, Rookwood, Keyes and Fawkes dying the next day. And it didn't stop there. Some small fry were tortured in the Tower and the Earl of Northumberland was imprisoned there until 1621. One person came out of the whole affair smelling of roses, and that was Lord Monteagle. For passing the letter he had received to Lord Cecil he was awarded an annuity of around £700 per year. Bill Hutchings |
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