8-4GuyFawkes

Who was Guy Fawkes? What was his Legacy? //Answered prepared by: Emily W.//  Roasting marshmallows on a summer day. Sleeping by the bonfire with the wood crackling and sparks flying into the heaven’s gates. We all know and cherish the summer nights that never seem to end. Around 4,000 miles away, lays the UK. “Bonfire,” which tells a story of one special November day filled with fun activities and one interesting man.

November 5th is called “Bonfire Night,” This is a fun filled day of fireworks, food, and laughter it came to be because of one man. Guido Fawkes, also known as Guy Fawkes. This sharp, iron like, amusing, uncanny man created the day and national holiday. It was the year 1603 when Queen Elizabeth I was dying; the heir to her throne was young James I from Scotland. Now England had copious issues dealing with English Catholics. The issues were insignificant problems that people turned into massive storms. The English Catholics had suffered persecution since 1570, and they all were sick and tired of living double lives. The wishes of the Catholic people came through; King James could alter the ways of their country. King James I became very popular throughout the countries. Many think he was so warm towards Catholics because his wife, Anne of Demark, was a Catholic. It was only fair for him to treat Catholics like her. Recently, Bruce Robinson stated on his webpage, British History: Civil War and Revolution that, “The newly accession king won over many hearts in the public. He first terminated the resistance fines. Awarded important post to Earl of Northumberland and Henry Howard, both Catholic sympathizers.” He took off burdens that the Catholics had to pay for, and allowed high honors to go to Catholics. The public began to reveal themselves, no more hiding a double life, they were again equal. This normal life for the Catholics didn’t last very long though; in the month of July, the number of Catholics exposing themselves increased, irritating King James. The Hampton Court Conference again caused the Catholics to go into hiding; King James expressed his feeling towards the raising Catholics. “He wanted hostility against the Catholics in order to satisfy the Puritans,” Robinson recollected in his website. Leaving their real religion behind, numerous people just faced the facts and took the blow, but five men wouldn’t let parliament push them around. Robert Catesby, Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright, Thomas Percy and last but certainly not least was Guy Fawkes. Now Guy Fawkes had an interesting background, he was from York and served for the Spanish army. He was quite the character. “All five men came together on May 20, 1604, to discuss a plan to blow up the Parliament house with King James inside,” Somerset Fry wrote in their book, King and Queens of England and Scotland. “This was an ambitious plan, so it required some months of planning and recruiting. The first step they had to take was leasing a house within the heart of Westminster,” Robinson described to the readers. Being the men that they were, they found a house smack dab in the middle of the town. Having Fawkes as the caretaker and John Johnson under alias. Luckily Parliament had been postponed to November 5, giving the men more time to prepare. Five men had increased to ten; “more the merry” sounds like a good way to put their plot. In March 1605 the men rented a cellar from John Whynniard. Lucky enough, it lied right underneath the House of Lords. (A.K.A Parliament) They began pushing barrels of gunpowder into the cellar. (Crazy? yes, luck? Of course.) Reaching to 36 barrels in a cramped place, just waiting to be ignited and illuminate the skies. Wanting more and more people to join their group, Fawkes traveled to Flanders, where English spies spotted him. They then reported what they saw of him to Robert Cecil, who reported it to Earl of Salisbury. The Earl then took the news to King James. They made the connection of Catesby and Fawkes not soon later. Still the uncanny men continued to recruit people to help them carry out their mischievous plot. Finally, October arrived; the plan had been set. Fawkes was going to light the fuse, and run away to continental Europe. While that happened, Digby, one of the volunteers, would kidnap the king’s daughter, Princess Elizabeth. They thought that everything would end in their favor, but an anonymous letter was given to Lord Monteagle, warning him to stay clear of the house. “Monteagle thought it would be best to attack the plotters as late as he could,” Robinson later announced in his website. The oblivious men still had no clue that enemies knew about the mid evil plan. Thus, continued to pursue, even though one of Wards servants even warned them not to continue. Unwilling to give into what they thought was false information, they remained in their positions. Wright and Bates went to the Midlands while Fawkes waited in the dank cellar. Salisbury was ready to take action in finding the plotters. He sent people to search the Westminster house finding large stocks of wood. A couple hours later, they found Fawkes where he of course was arrested and taken into custody. Fawkes had been the only one captured, until they found Catesby, Rockwood, Wright, Percy and Bates near Warwickshire, two days later. November 6, King James gave permission to use torture on the men. It took around two months to finally capture all the men. Some torture techniques was hanging, body parts being removed, and soon being dismembered completely. Fawkes was one of the last men standing, well actually sentenced to death.

I must say their plan was a failure, extremely poor planning on their part. The effect was even greater though, for the rest of the century it would be known as blackened age. Many incidents happened that would be blamed because of “Bonfire Night.” Now a days kids use Guy Fawkes as a symbol of “Bonfire Night.” Kids go around saying, “Dime for Guy,” trying to get people to give them money to get materials to make an effigy of Fawkes. You would never think that an insane man could create such uproar in the UK. History can be genuinely crazy, but the demented stuff, is what makes it so enjoyable.

Work Cited: Robinson, John, “British History: Civil War and Revolution.”  [Online][|http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/gunpowder_ro binson_01.shtml]. Accessed March 7th 2009. Plantagent Somerset Pry, “Kings and Queens of England and Scotland.” [Book] Somerset Fry Inc, Published 2006.