Guy Fawkes was involved in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the British parliament in 1604. He was caught and executed. Britons celebrate Guy Fawkes Day on November 5 to commemorate the thwarted attack. Fawkes was a Catholic who became involved in the plot due to the persecution of Catholics under Protestant rule. He was selected to handle the explosives due to his experience in the Spanish military. The celebrations have occasionally morphed into a celebration of Fawkes himself, with effigy images of him burned on large bonfires.
Guy Fawkes was a British Catholic who is probably best remembered for his role in the Gunpowder Plot, a scheme to blow up the British parliament developed in 1604. Although Guy Fawkes was not the mastermind of this plot, he became closely associated with it because he was caught in the bowels of Parliament hiding explosives on the eve of the planned bombing. In Britain, people celebrate Guy Fawkes Day every year to commemorate the successfully thwarted of this attack.
Fawkes was born in 1570, in an England grappling with religious ideas. The country had radically changed from a Catholic nation to a Protestant nation, thanks to Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I. Many Catholics struggled under Protestant rule; they were tortured, stripped of their rights and generally made to feel unwelcome in the new Protestant country. As a result, numerous groups of Catholics plotted against the crown and Fawkes eventually became involved in such a plot.
Guy Fawkes was at least partially educated, having attended St. Peter’s School as a youth. During this time, he also met a number of Catholic radicals, who may have planted the seeds for his future life. When Fawkes left school, he initially took a service position and then ended up working with the Spanish Army in the Netherlands. His service under Spain earned him the nickname “Guido”, which appears on many of the legal documents relating to his life and death.
In 1604, Guy Fawkes joined a group led by Robert Catesby. Catesha masterminded the gunpowder plot; he realized that a major event in Parliament on 5 November 1605 could present the possibility of destroying the Protestant king, James I, along with most of the Protestant elite, potentially setting the stage for re-establishing a Catholic monarchy and avenging the Catholic British Community.
Fawkes was selected to handle the explosives, as the conspirators believed his experience in the Spanish military made him uniquely qualified. The conspirators sowed about two tons of gunpowder in Parliament, hiding it under a variety of disguises; unfortunately for Fawkes, the Guards of Parliament captured him on the night of the 4th and the plot was foiled. Fawkes was tortured by the authorities in an attempt to get him to reveal the names of his co-conspirators, and was finally executed on January 31, 1606.
November 5 was designated an official holiday by the British to celebrate the averted Gunpowder Plot. Over time, the November 5 celebrations have occasionally morphed into a celebration of Fawkes himself, along with his revolutionary spirit. On Guy Fawkes Day, Britons can participate in raucous social events that include large bonfires on which effigy images of Guy Fawkes are sometimes burned, and have historically produced comedies and pantomimes commemorating the Gunpowder Plot and Guy Fawkes, its member more famous.
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