Guy Fawkes

• www.history.com Guy Fawkes Day: A Brief History

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes later converted to Catholicism and left for the continent, where he fought in the Eighty Years' War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformators. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England but was unsuccessful. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England.

Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the drawing and quartering that followed.

Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, which has been commemorated in England since 5 November 1605. His effigy is burned on a bonfire, often accompanied by a firework display.

Remember

Remember the Fifth of November Remember, remember! The fifth of November, The Gunpowder treason and plot; I know of no reason Why the Gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot! Guy Fawkes and his companions Did the scheme contrive, To blow the King and Parliament All up alive. Threescore barrels, laid below, To prove old England's overthrow. But, by God's providence, him they catch, With a dark lantern, lighting a match! A stick and a stake For King James's sake! If you won't give me one, I'll take two, The better for me, And the worse for you. A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope, A penn'orth of cheese to choke him, A pint of beer to wash it down, And a jolly good fire to burn him. Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring! Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King! Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!

Gunpowder Plot Conspirator. The Gunpowder Plot was hatched by disillusioned Catholics, upset with the new King James who had pledged, but failed, to ease restrictions and punishments for practicing Catholics. After assassinating the King by blowing up Parliament during its opening session, the conspirators planned to kidnap the child Princess Elizabeth and install her on the throne as a Catholic Queen. The plot was foiled a few days before it was due to be carried out when authorities received an anonymous letter informing them of the plot. An early member of the conspiracy and a former military man with explosives experience, Fawkes' role in the plot was to collect, place and guard the gunpowder barrels under the Houses of Parliament and to actually set the explosions off. He assumed the identity of "John Johnson", servant of co-conspirator Thomas Percy, and was installed in an apartment leased by Percy adjacent to Parliament to organize the explosives which he later placed in a storage cellar, also rented by Percy, under the Parliament buildings. Although the leader of the conspiracy, Robert Catesby, was aware that authorities had been tipped off about the plot on October 26th 1605, Fawkes was never told and remained in place at Parliament guarding the explosives. On November 4th he was found in the cellar by the Lord Chamberlain, who was not satisfied with his explanation when challenged as to his presence, and he was arrested later that day when the gunpowder was discovered. During his imprisonment and trial he was unrepentant, and his confession was wrought from him only under torture. He refused to name his fellow conspirators until word reached him that they were all either dead or in custody. While he may have appeared lacking remorse, being described in one report as "the greatest devil of them all", it is apparent from contemporary accounts that his fanatacism was borne of a genuine belief that the plot would free English Catholics from the bonds resultant from following an illegal faith. Although he pled not guilty at his trial, a guilty verdict had already been handed down and he was executed by the traditional method of hanging, drawing and quartering. He has no grave; in keeping with custom for executed traitors, his body was placed on public display outside the Tower of London, after which the remains would have been thrown into the Thames River and lost forever. Prior to his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot, he was a respected military man and commander, fighting for ten years in the Spanish Army for the Catholic cause. It was during his time in Spain that he adopted the name "Guido" in place of his original birth name. He was generally held to be a brave soldier, an honest and pious man and a loyal friend. Although not the leader of the conspiracy, it is he who has become the modern face of the Gunpowder Plot, remembered in poems and songs and the English tradition of "Penny for the Guy", in which children display an effigy of Fawkes, usually carried door-to-door, to raise money to buy fireworks symbolizing the thwarted explosion of Parliament.

Guy Fawkes himself, meanwhile, has undergone something of a makeover. Once known as a notorious traitor, he is now portrayed in some circles as a revolutionary hero, largely due to the influence of the 1980s graphic novel “V for Vendetta” and the 2005 movie of the same name, which depicted a protagonist who wore a Guy Fawkes mask while battling a future fascist government in Britain.

Bio by: Mount Hope NY

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 5 2019, 11:59:34 UTC