BONFIRE TREASON

"Remember, remember the fifth of November
         Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
       I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
           should ever be forgot."

 

Emissary and flare, Perfidy and torture, followed by dreadful deaths… the gunpowder slot had it all.

The gunpowder slot was a failed attempt to blow up the House of Lords, so as to kill King James I and his leaders.

                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Between 1533 and 1540, England witnessed several religious tensions. Roman Catholics struggled in a society dominated by the newly separate and increasingly protestant churches of England. When Queen Elizabeth I took the throne of England she passed strict laws against Roman Catholics. In 1603, after 45 years on the English throne, the transition of power following Elizabeth's death went smoothly to king James IV of Scotland, son of Mary, the queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth’s cousin. The Catholics in England were upset that there was going to be another Protestant monarch. Catholicism became marginalized, King James passed laws that imposed heavy fines on people who did not attend protestant church services.

In 1605, the greater religious tolerance under the king made a devout Catholic, Robert Catesby to plan the gunpowder slot. He was accompanied by his friends Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright, Thomas Percy a and Guy Fawkes. Over the next few months Francis Tresham, Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, Thomas Bates and Christopher Wright also agreed to take part in the overthrow of the king. They hired a house which had cellar under the Parliament building. The plotters filled the cellars with barrels of gunpowder to blow up the parliament along with the king. Fawkes, who had 10 years of military experience fighting in the Spanish Netherlands in suppression of the Dutch Revolt, was given charge of the explosives.

The conspiracy was revealed to the authorities by Francis Tresham, one of the plotters  who in order to save his friend lord Monteagle, sent a letter warning him not to attend Parliament on 5th November. Monteagle immediately exposed the letter to Robert Cecil, the Secretary of State. On the morning of 5^th November while searching the House of Lords, the soldiers arrested Guy Fawkes hidden in cellar guiding the gunpowder, enough to reduce the House of Lords to rubble. He was brutally tortured and he eventually unveiled the names of his fellow conspirators. Most of the plotters fled to London as they learnt of the plot’s discovery. Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy, Christopher Wright and John Wright refused to surrender so they were shot and killed. The other conspirators were convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Francis Tresham died while still a prisoner in the Tower of London. It has often been claimed that his death was arranged to cover up his complicity in the uncovering of the plot. 

In celebration of his survival, King James ordered the people of England should have a great bonfire on the night of 5^th November.

Some historians have argued that the conspiracy was actually devised by Robert Cecil and Lord Monteagle. This version claims that they blackmailed Robert Catesby into organizing the plot. It is argued that Cecil's aim was to make citizens of England to hate Catholics.

In England, on 5^th of November, the event is still commemorated by special sermons and other public events like ringing of bells, fireworks and burning effigies on bonfires.

SONIKA RAJPUT,

CO-COORDINATOR,

IBC.