“Remember, remember, the fifth of December. The Gunpowder Treason, and Plot. There is no reason, the Gunpowder Treason, should ever be forgot.” Guy Fawkes Day was yesterday. I’m not exactly sure why the English celebrate it, did they wish he had succeeded, or glad he failed? But anyway, the real problem is, was it really true? Was Guy Fawkes just another one of Robert Cecil’s pawns in his anti-Catholic schemes? The facts to the story are:
On Saturday, October 26, 1605, a mysterious letter was delivered to the Catholic Lord Monteagle, warning him to stay away from Parliament when it convened on November 5. The letter was badly written, with no punctuation and no capital letters. Lord Monteagle immediately took the letter to Robert Cecil, who stated that he feared some kind of Catholic violence against Parliament, since a Catholic nobleman had been warned not to attend. So Cecil ordered a search of the cellars of Parliament, and on November 4 found a Yorkshire soldier-of-fortune named Guy Fawkes standing guard over barrels of gunpowder, and he was quickly arrested. King James I was terrified of gunpowder because of the way his father had died. He ordered the torturing of Guy Fawkes. On November 8, Fawkes finally confessed under torture and named others involved. Cecil announced that Catholics had been plotting to blow up Parliament when the king and his two sons were there, put his Daughter Elizabeth on the throne, and bring her up as a Catholic. Fawkes and others were executed, and the English people have since celebrated every November 5.
However, many historians believe that Robert Cecil organized the whole plot precisely to turn James solidly against Catholics. Here is the evidence:
How could the plotters get gunpowder when it was a government monopoly? Why had Cecil recently refused to allow an investigation into missing stores of powder in the Tower of London? How did the plotters get access to the house next to Parliament (from which they had tunneled into the cellars of Parliament), since it belonged to a government official (who conveniently died on November 5)? Why were two leading conspirators immediately shot instead of being taken alive? The Government claimed it did not know the identity of the conspirators until Fawkes confessed under torture on November 8, yet why were a number of conspirators arrested on November 5? Why was the assembly of Parliament postponed from February (when the plotters weren’t yet ready), to November (when they were)? Even at the time, some observers thought the whole thing was a government frame-up. The result was exactly what Cecil wanted, as James turned unalterably against Catholics and increased the laws against them.
Now, what do you think? And if you are English, why do you celebrate Guy Fawkes Day? Please, join the discussion at the Kongregate forums.
NOTE: I got all of my facts from my history book, Christ the King, Lord of History by Anne W. Carroll.
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1 comment:
Hiya Teddy.
I'm English, and basically it's a commercialised holiday to let shops sell fireworks(Christmas, Easter anyone?). Watching and lighting fireworks is fun, especially for little kids, but there's always some morons from my school who think it's a good idea to throw them at people or whatever.
-Pie
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