Guy Fawkes

English conspirator

• Born: April 13, 1570
• Birthplace: Stonegate, York, England
• Died: January 31, 1606
• Place of death: Westminster, England

Guy Fawkes was a key conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot, a secret attempt to destroy the English king and Parliament. Discovery of the plot intensified Protestant suspicions of Catholics and led to a period of reduced tolerance of Catholicism in England.

Early Life

The parents of Guy Fawkes (fawks), Edward Fawkes and the former Edith Jackson, came from different religious backgrounds. The Fawkeses were conventional Protestants, many of whom held public-service positions. The Jacksons, however, were classified as recusants, or Catholics who refused to join the Church of England. During the reign of Elizabeth I, recusancy was a punishable crime. During Guy’s early childhood, the Fawkeses were not openly Catholic. After the death of his father, when Guy was eight, his mother married Dennis Bainbridge, who was also a recusant.

Guy was soon sent to St. Peters Catholic School in York, an experience that reinforced the Catholic influence he now received at home. His friends at school included John and Christopher Wright, who were also destined to become involved in the Gunpowder Plot . These friends, other classmates, and teachers undoubtedly influenced the boy throughout his years at school, and he eventually became a devout Catholic and highly critical of the government persecution of Catholics. For a mere youth such as Fawkes to renounce the official Protestantism of England required considerable moral and physical courage, qualities that he displayed throughout his life.

After he left school, Fawkes assisted his stepfather for several years with the management of his estate in the Yorkshire countryside. There, Fawkes probably first met Thomas Percy, the future instigator of the Gunpowder Plot. During the 1590’s, Fawkes embarked on a military career. He became a soldier of fortune in the Spanish army of the Netherlands, not an uncommon practice for English Catholics of the period. By all accounts, he was an exemplary soldier, displaying not only courage and loyalty but also great piety. These qualities, in addition to his experience with explosives, led to Fawkes’s involvement in the conspiracy. During several military campaigns, Fawkes had become acquainted with the use of gunpowder and its effectiveness for destroying defensive walls and buildings. The leaders of the Gunpowder Plot knew that the participation of someone with this practical knowledge was crucial if the plot was to be successful.

While abroad, Fawkes grew more and more discontented with the English persecution of Catholics, a view that was fostered by many of his military comrades and leaders. By early 1600, Fawkes left his regiment to work as a steward for Sir William Stanley, a former regiment commander who shared Fawkes’s hatred of Elizabethan attitudes toward Catholics. Stanley worked hard to improve conditions for the Catholics and sent Fawkes to Spain in 1601 and again in 1603 to seek miliary aid from King Philip II. These missions proved to be unsuccessful, leaving only civil anarchy as a means to redress the grievances of the disheartened English Catholics.

Life’s Work

Fawkes is best remembered for his role in the Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy by a small group of English Roman Catholics who were discontented with the policies of King James I . Their plan was to blow up the king, his ministers and family, and the entire executive government during the opening of Parliament on November 5, 1605. After the destruction of the monarchy and the government, the conspirators hoped, an uprising by English Catholics would follow and enable them to take over the country.

Under Elizabeth I , persecution of Catholics was widespread. Executions and imprisonments were not uncommon in extreme cases. The introduction of recusancy laws, which fined people for failure to attend Anglican church services, was also extremely unpopular among English Catholics. Some individuals were forced to pay thousands of pounds in recusancy fines over the years. The accession of James I to the throne in 1603 brought hopes of greater tolerance for Catholics. Two years earlier, Thomas Percy, who was to become one of the plot’s leaders, had even persuaded James, then king of Scotland, to put in writing his intentions to relax Elizabeth’s persecution of the Catholics. Once seated on the English throne, however, James broke his promise, to the disappointment and anger of most Catholics.

The broken promise and a general dislike of the accession of the Scottish king to the English throne were important reasons that the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy was initiated. The leader of the plot was Robert Catesby, who, having seen his family persecuted under Elizabeth, was quite willing to seek violent revenge on the Protestant government. In March, 1604, Percy and Thomas Winter were told of the plot to blow up Parliament. At first, they were shocked by the plan; eventually, though, they came to the conclusion that violence was the only way to bring about government concessions for Catholics.

Returning to England from the Netherlands in May, Winter brought with him Fawkes, who he believed would be an asset to the plans because of his military experience. Later that month, the conspirators rented rooms near Parliament House. The conspiracy had grown to include John and Christopher Wright, Robert Winter, and John Grant; in the following year, Ambrose Rokewood, Francis Tresham, and Sir Everard Digby were added to help finance the operation.

The conspirators’ plan to dig a tunnel to the House of Lords and place a large quantity of gunpowder near the government’s meeting site, where it could be detonated when Parliament was in session was fraught with problems from the start. With the exception of Fawkes, who had some experience in mining operations, the conspirators were members of the gentry with no experience of digging. Consequently, they found their task to be very physically challenging. Money was also a problem; the addition of Rokewood, Digby, and Tresham improved the conspiracy’s finances, but the full details of the plot were not revealed to all of them.

Although the opening of Parliament was delayed many times, the workers began to despair of the tunnel. In February, 1605, however, they learned of a cellar for rent under the House of Lords. They abandoned the tunnel and rented the cellar, supposedly for the storage of coal and wood. By April, they had succeeded in storing some twenty barrels of gunpowder in the cellar. The conspirators disbanded and arranged to meet later in the year to discuss the final steps of the plot.

While the conspirators waited for Parliament to commence, several began to have second thoughts. Catesby, however, managed to convince most of the conspirators to continue with the plot as planned. He also acquired horses and weapons, which he stationed in small groups throughout the West Midlands. These were to be used in the uprising he believed would follow once the plot had been executed.

When Tresham learned the full implications of the plot and discovered that his brother-in-law, Lord Monteagle, would be a victim of the explosion, he was shocked. Unable to convince Catesby to seek a less violent means of achieving their political goals, Tresham decided to reveal the plot by warning his brother-in-law not to attend the opening of Parliament. On October 26, Monteagle held a dinner party at his home. During the evening, a messenger delivered an anonymous letter to him, which he instructed to be read allowed. The letter warned of a plot to blow up Parliament, although no names of conspirators were mentioned.

It has been suggested that both Tresham and Monteagle conceived the idea of the “anonymous” letter and believed that by having it read in public, it would alert the government to the plot without involving Tresham as a conspirator. It was Tresham’s hope that once alerted to the plot, the government would intercede and prevent the tragedy from occurring. In addition, Tresham believed, news that the plot had been discovered would reach his fellow conspirators, and they would abandon their plans and have time to flee to safety abroad.

Between October 26 and November 4, little action was taken by the authorities. It was only during the few days prior to November 5 that most of the conspirators decided to abandon the plot and flee. When the authorities eventually searched the cellar containing the concealed gunpowder, they met a man named Johnson, who claimed to be Thomas Percy’s servant. According to Johnson, his master was using the area for coal storage. Moments before midnight on November 4, the cellar was visited again by authorities. This time, the concealed gunpowder casks were discovered, and Johnson was arrested. Johnson was interrogated over several days. He was subjected to torture, and he eventually revealed his true name: Guy Fawkes.

Shortly after Fawkes was discovered, the king appointed a commission to investigate the Gunpowder Plot. The commission was composed of the attorney general, Sir Edward Coke, and seven privy councillors. Over a period of about two weeks, Fawkes eventually provided most of the details of the plot, including the names of the conspirators. By this time, many days of torture had reduced the strong and willful Fawkes both physically and emotionally. Even without Fawkes’s early cooperation, the identity of many of the conspirators was probably suspected. Many of them, including Catesby, Percy, Grant, Thomas Winter, and Christopher Wright, were well-known as Catholic sympathizers, and warrants were issued for their arrest.

Around the time of Fawkes’s arrest, the remaining conspirators had participated in what they hoped would be the outbreak of rebellion in other parts of the country. The fighting was short-lived, however, and many of the conspirators were killed, including Catesby, Percy, and both the Wrights. Thomas Winter was wounded and arrested with the others shortly thereafter. Those who survived, including Fawkes, were tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and executed at the end of January, 1606.

Significance

Studies of the Gunpowder Plot have been hindered by a 1619 fire that destroyed many of the Privy Council’s records. It has been suggested that the plot was instigated by members of the government in an attempt to discredit the Catholics and that Fawkes may have been simply a “fall guy” for the government. While the existence of a real plot is generally not disputed, the extent of government involvement has long been debated.

Doubt has also been cast on the reliability of Fawkes’s testimony under torture. Historically, tortured prisoners have often confessed guilt even for crimes of which they have been innocent. Despite such doubts, the Gunpowder Plot’s revelation caused English Protestants to become yet more suspicious of Catholics and reinforced resentment toward them. The unpopular recusancy law was also enforced more rigorously. Since 1606, November 5 has been a day of public thanksgiving in Great Britain; commonly known as Guy Fawkes Day, it is celebrated with fireworks and bonfires.

Bibliography

Carswell, Donald, ed. The Trial of Guy Fawkes and Others: The Gunpowder Plot. Reprint. Holmes Beach, Fla.: Gaunt, 1995. Reproduces the transcript of the trial of Fawkes and other conspirators for treason. Includes illustrations.

Edwards, Frances. Guy Fawkes: The Real Story of the Gunpowder Plot? London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1969. An easy-to-read account of the plot, with emphasis on the role played by Fawkes.

Fraser, Antonia. Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot. New York: Doubleday, 1996. Draws a parallel between the Gunpowder Plot and instances of modern terrorism.

Gardiner, Samuel R. What Gunpowder Plot Was. New York: AMS Press, 1969. Examines the historical evidence for the plot and discounts the possibility of high-level government involvement.

Garnett, Henry. Portrait of Guy Fawkes. London: Robert Hale, 1962. Deals with Fawkes’s life before, during, and after the plot. Contains an interesting collection of reproduced historical documents related to the incident.

Haynes, Alan. The Gunpowder Plot: Faith in Rebellion. Stroud, Gloucestershire, England: Sutton, 1997. Portrays Fawkes as more of a fall guy than an equal conspirator. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, index.

Nicholls, Mark. Investigating Gunpowder Plot. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. Examines how King James and his Privy Council approached the investigation of the plot. Contains a useful bibliography.

Toyne, S. M. “Guy Fawkes and the Powder Plot.” History Today 1 (1951): 16-24. A delightful summary of the events leading to the plot and the reasons behind the conspiracy.

Wormald, Jenny. “Gunpowder, Treason, and Scots.” Journal of British Studies 24 (1985): 141-168. Attempts to explain why the conspirators resorted to violence to address their grievances.