Gunpowder, Treason and Plot
Only an anonymous tip-off prevented England losing her sovereignty as well as her King.
1605
King James I 1603-1625
Only an anonymous tip-off prevented England losing her sovereignty as well as her King.
1605
King James I 1603-1625
The Gunpowder Plot was an attempt to assassinate King James I and his entire government on the 5th of November, 1605. Had it succeeded, it would have ended English sovereignty and made England and Scotland junior partners to the great Catholic states of Europe.
UNDER Elizabeth I and then James I, Roman Catholics in England were fined, imprisoned, or even executed for refusing to acknowledge the English monarch as Head of the Church.
Robert Catesby and his twelve co-conspirators planned to assassinate James, and set his daughter Princess Elizabeth,* aged just nine, on the throne, convinced that the public would welcome reunion with Rome.
The day was set for the 5th of November, 1605. Guy Fawkes smuggled thirty-six barrels of gunpowder into the undercroft beneath the House of Lords, but on the night of the 4th he was discovered, following an anonymous tip-off.
James attached great importance to the affair, and the celebration of the anniversary of his deliverance was enshrined in law until 1859.
It is still celebrated today, on the 5th of November. An effigy of Guy Fawkes is burned on a bonfire, fireworks are let off, and parkin* is shared out — though the origins of ‘Bonfire Night’ are now largely forgotten.
Elizabeth’s significance for British history goes far beyond her unwitting role in the Gunpowder Plot. See The Winter Queen.
A kind of gingerbread. See Delia Smith’s recipe at the Daily Mail.