Guy Fawkes Day

November 5th marks the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to blow up the English Parliament and King James I in 1605. On that day, the king planned on opening Parliament.

The plot was intended to be the beginning of a great uprising of English Catholics, who were distressed by the increased severity of penal laws against the practice of their religion. The conspirators, who began plotting early in 1604, expanded their number to a point where secrecy was impossible.

They smuggled about 36 barrels of gunpowder, overlaid with iron bars and firewood, into a cellar under the House of Lords. The conspiracy was brought to light through a mysterious letter received by Lord Monteagle, on October 26, urging him not to attend Parliament on the opening day.

The First Earl of Salisbury, and others to whom the plot was made known, took steps leading to the discovery of the materials and the arrest of Fawkes as he entered the cellar. Other conspirators, overtaken in flight or seized afterward, were killed outright, imprisoned, or executed.

Among those executed was Father Henry Garnett, the superior of the English Jesuits, who was one of the leaders of the conspiracy. While the plot was the work of a relatively small number of men, it provoked hostility against all English Catholics and led to an increase in the harshness of laws against them. To this day, it is the law in Britain that a Roman Catholic can not hold the office of monarch. And the Queen (or King) is still Supreme Head of the Church of England.

Guy Fawkes Day, November 5, is still celebrated in England with fireworks and bonfires on which effigies of the conspirator are burned.

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