Guy Fawkes Day, otherwise known as Bonfire Night, is an annual celebration that takes place on November 5, commemorating the day in 1605 when the Gunpowder Plot, to kill King James I of England, was foiled.
King James VI and I, who reigned as King of Scotland from 1567 and King of England and Ireland from 1603 until his death in 1625, ruled the three kingdoms with the Union of Crowns. He was the son of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, who was infamously beheaded by her first cousin once removed Queen Elizabeth I of England. Despite the fact that both his parents were Roman Catholics, James I was raised as a Protestant and was unsympathetic to the plight of English Catholics facing persecution.
James’s predecessor, Elizabeth I, had been somewhat tolerant of Catholics so long as they remained loyal to her and discreet in their worship. Having been backed into a corner, English Catholics were extremely hopeful that the reign of the new king, a child of Roman Catholics, would be more supportive of them. However, Robert Cecil, chief minister to Elizabeth I, stayed on in his post to serve James I. Cecil was a staunch Protestant who viewed Catholics with extreme hatred and distrust, believing them to be potentially traitorous because he thought their allegiance would be to the Pope in Rome and not to the English monarch. He played on James’s belief in the Divine Right of Kings, a political doctrine espousing monarchical absolutism because it was believed monarchs’ authority derived from God, to convince him that the Pope was a rival. The idea that his power and authority may be challenged was a prospect that James would never tolerate.
James publicly condemned Catholicism in 1604 and continued Elizabeth’s repressive policies. He ordered all Catholic priests to leave England and even instituted measures such as fines for those who refused to attend Protestant services. Eventually, a plot was hatched by a motley group of Catholic dissidents to do away with the King. Primarily orchestrated and led by Robert Catesby, the plan was to blow up the Houses of Parliament during a state opening. If executed correctly, King James I, the queen, family members and prominent government leaders, would all be blown up by explosions of lit gunpowder.
The date of the assassination was set for November 5, 1605. In the days leading to the attack, the conspirators rented a cellar located underneath the House of Commons. Guy Fawkes, the most famous of the conspirators nowadays, believed that James I was a heretic who would ultimately drive out all his Catholic subjects. He was tasked with lighting the fuse on the 36 barrels of gunpowder before escaping across the River Thames by boat. Eventually, Fawkes was to reunite with the other assassins who were starting an uprising in the English Midlands and kidnapping James’s daughter Princess Elizabeth. The final stage of the plan would be to install Elizabeth as a puppet queen and quickly marry her off to a Catholic, definitively restoring Catholicism to the English monarchy and the country as a whole.
The plan was foiled on October 26, when an anonymous letter was sent from someone aware of the details and date of the plot to a relative, warning them not to attend Parliament on November the 5th. A search was conducted of the Parliament and Fawkes, discovered amongst the stores of gunpowder, was taken into custody. Tortured and questioned under duress, he confessed the names of his co-conspirators. Some were killed resisting arrest and others went to trial along with Guy Fawkes. All were found guilty and convicted of high treason and in January 1606, the conspirators were hanged, drawn and quartered.
More recently, Guy Fawkes Day, also popularly known as Bonfire Night, is a celebration that is marked across the United Kingdom. The Gunpowder Plot, as the assassination attempt became known, continues to inspire the popular tradition of setting off fireworks and building bonfires. Effigies of Guy Fawkes are burned, children display their effigies and ask passers-by for a “penny for the guy”, families and friends gather for food and festive events, there are parades, there is music and there are chants of “remember, remember the fifth of November.”
By: Andrea Douglas