Guy Fawkes

A painting of Guy Fawkes with House of Parliament in the background.

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, was an English soldier and member of a group of Roman Catholics who attempted to carry out the Gunpowder Plot on 5 November 1605.

The Gunpowder Plot was a plan to assassinate the Protestant King James I (James VI of Scotland) and the members of both houses of the Parliament of England, by blowing up Westminster Palace during the formal opening session of the 1605 Parliament, in which the king addressed a joint assembly of both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Fawkes was in large part responsible for the later stages of the plan's execution. His activities were detected before the plan's completion, and following a severe interrogation involving the use of torture and a trial in Westminster Hall before Judge John Popham, he and his co-conspirators were executed for treason and attempted murder. Fawkes's failure (or the attempt) is remembered by Guy Fawkes Night (also known as Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night) on 5 November.

Gunpowder Plot

The Gunpowder Conspirators are discovered and Guy Fawkes is caught in the cellar of the Houses of Parliament with the explosives.

Fawkes's signature immediately after torture (only 'Guido'), and eight days later.

Main article: Gunpowder Plot

Fawkes is famous for his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, which he was placed in charge of executing because of his military and explosives experience. The plot, masterminded by Robert Catesby, was an attempt by a group of English conspirators to kill King James I of England (VI of Scotland), his family, and most of the aristocracy in one swoop by blowing up the House of Lords building in the Houses of Parliament during its State Opening. Fawkes may have been introduced to Catesby by Hugh Owen, a man who was in the pay of the Spanish Netherlands. Sir William Stanley is also believed to have recommended him and Fawkes named him under torture, leading to his arrest and imprisonment for a year after the discovery of the plot. It was Stanley who first presented Fawkes to Thomas Winter in 1603 when Winter was in Europe. Stanley was the commander of the English in Flanders at the time. Stanley had handed Deventer and much of its garrison back to the Spanish in 1587, nearly wiping out the gains that Leicester had made in the Low Countries. Leicester’s expedition was widely regarded as a disaster for this reason among others.

The plot itself may have been occasioned by the realization by English Protestant authorities and Roman Catholic recusants that Spain was in far too much debt and was fighting too many wars to assist English Roman Catholics. Any possibility of toleration by the State was removed at the Hampton Court conference in 1604 when James I attacked both extreme Puritans and Catholics. The plotters realized that no outside help would be forthcoming unless they took action. Fawkes and the other conspirators were able to rent a cellar beneath the House of Lords. They were much relieved to find a cellar for rent, as they had first tried to dig a mine under the building. This would have been difficult, because they had to store the dirt and debris and carry it away in barrels. By March 1605, they had hidden 1800 pounds of gunpowder in the cellar. The plotters then wished to abduct Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth of Bohemia, the "Winter Queen"). A few of the conspirators were concerned, however, about fellow Catholics who would have been present at parliament during the opening. One of the conspirators wrote a letter of warning to Lord Monteagle, who received it on 26 October. The conspirators became aware of the letter the following day, but they resolved to continue the plot after Fawkes had confirmed that nothing had been touched in the cellar.

Lord Monteagle had been made suspicious, however, and the letter was sent to the Secretary of State, who initiated a search of the vaults beneath the House of Lords. Peter Heywood, a resident of Heywood, Greater Manchester, was reputedly the man who snatched the torch from the hand of Guy Fawkes as he was about to light the fuse which would have detonated kegs of gunpowder. Fawkes was arrested in the cellar in the early morning of 5 November. He was tortured over the next few days, after special permission to do so had been granted by the King. Eventually he revealed the names of his conspirators, who were either already dead or whose names were known to the authorities. Some had fled to Warwickshire where they were either killed or captured. On 31 January, Fawkes and a number of others implicated in the conspiracy were tried in Westminster Hall, and after being found guilty, were taken to Old Palace Yard in Westminster and St Paul's Yard, where they were hanged, drawn, and quartered.

Literature

Many popular contemporary verses were written in condemnation of Fawkes, aside from the most famous and still-well-known verse asking us to "Remember, remember". John Rhodes produced a popular narrative in verse describing the events of the plot and condemning Fawkes.

Fawkes at midnight, and by torchlight there was found

With long matches and devices, underground

The full verse was published as A brief Summe of the Treason intended against King & State, when they should have been assembled in Parliament, November 5. 1605. Fit for to instruct the simple and ignorant herein: that they not be seduced any longer by Papists. Other popular verses were altogether more "godly" and in celebration of the fact that England had been saved from the Guy Fawkes conspiracy. John Wilson published, in 1612, a short song on the "powder plot" with the words:

O England praise the name of God

That kept thee from this heavy rod!

But though this demon e'er be gone,

his evil now be ours upon!’

A popular nursery rhyme about the plot reads:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

The gunpowder, treason and plot,

I know of no reason why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth was finished in 1606, shortly after the dismantling of the plot. It is widely believed that Shakespeare wrote it in an effort to appease King James, who could trace his family back through the Scottish Kings to Banquo's line. Shakespeare’s name may have possibly been drawn as one of the conspirators, similar to the way Cicero was depicted in the Bard's own play Julius Caesar. In 1606, his daughter Susannah was listed as one of the residents of Stratford refusing to take Holy Communion, suggesting that the family had some Catholic sympathies. However, it is likely that Shakespeare wrote this play as an overture of loyalty in the suspicious climate following the plot. Many of the themes of the play are connected with the plot. The Catholic and Jesuitical doctrine of equivocation is referenced in the play and the demonic ideas portrayed by the three witches and Hecate plays into the idea prevalent at the time that the Devil had a hand in earthly things like treason and plot.

The conspiracy was commemorated by the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the City of London on November 5 for years after by a sermon in St Paul's Cathedral. The popular accounts of the plot supplemented these sermons, some of which were published and survive to this day. Many in the city left money in their wills to pay for a minister to preach a sermon annually in their own parish.

Fawkes was later celebrated in poetry. The Latin verse In Quintum Novembris was written c. 1626. John Milton’s Satan in book six of Paradise Lost is very Fawkesian in inspiration. The Devil invents gunpowder to try to match God's thunderbolts. Post-Reformation and anti-Roman Catholic literature often personified Fawkes as the Devil in this way. Puritan polemics to popular literature all sought to associate Fawkes with the demoniacal.

In 1842, William Harrison Ainsworth wrote an historical novel called Guy Fawkes, which portrayed Fawkes, and Catholic recusancy in general, in a sympathetic light and began to challenge the official depiction of the plot.

The story of Fawkes inspired Alan Moore's 1982 dystopian graphic novel of a fascist Britain, V for Vendetta, which was adapted into a 2006 film. The story revolves around the main character, V, who wears a stylized Fawkes mask. In the story, V plans to blow up the abandoned Parliament buildings on a future 5 November as his first move to bringing down the nation's fascist tyrannical dictator, whose physical appearance is loosely based on James I. The film demonstrated that Fawkes is still linked with chaos and anarchy in the popular imagination just as he was in the sixteenth century, though in many modern depictions Fawkes is given heroic qualities.

In popular culture

The practice of referring to people as "guy" or "guys" began shortly after Fawkes was made famous by the Gunpowder Plot. In 18th century England, the term was originally used to refer to an effigy of Fawkes, which would be paraded around town by children on the anniversary of the conspiracy.[1] The term "guy" has gradually come to be used for all males, though "guys" is often used for groups of any gender.

A common phrase is that Fawkes was "the only man to ever enter parliament with honourable intentions."(www.famouspeople.co.uk) (This phrase may have originated in a 19th-century pantomime, and was commonly seen on anarchist posters during the early 20th century. The Scottish Socialist Party became embroiled in controversy when they resurrected the poster with humorous intent in 2003.)

Fawkes appears in the 2002 list of "100 Greatest Britons", sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public. The list ranks him alongside John Lennon, David Beckham, Aleister Crowley, Winston Churchill and Johnny Rotten. He was also included in a list of the 50 greatest people from Yorkshire.

In Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native, the residents of Egdon Heath celebrate Bonfire Night.

In film and television

• V for Vendetta, a near-future version of the Guy Fawkes story, is a comic book series created by Alan Moore in 1982. The Wachowski brothers produced a 2006 movie adaptation of the popular comic, directed by James McTeigue. V, the main character, portrayed by Hugo Weaving, wears a Guy Fawkes mask.
• Richard Linklater's 1991 film Slacker mentions Guy Fawkes in one scene.
• In an episode of the Beavis & Butt-head spin-off Daria, Daria is contacted by a leprechaun and Cupid (St. Patrick's Day and Valentine's Day, respectively). The two request Daria's help in bringing the other "holidays" back to "Holiday Island." Among the holidays is Fawkes, who is portrayed as a mohawked, leather jacket-wearing punk.

In music

• Fawkes is documented in many film newsreels (see the archives of British Pathé and Movietone). The discovery of the plot, the celebration, and Fawkes are mentioned in many popular songs and ballads. Notably, on the vinyl version of The Smiths' album Strangeways, Here We Come, the words "Guy Fawkes was a genius" are carved near the centre of the record.
• On John Lennon's 1970 solo album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Lennon sings "Remember, remember, the 5th of November" on the song "Remember". The lyrics are followed by the sound of an explosion.
• The UK-based band Pitchshifter makes reference to Fawkes, most specifically in the song "Un-United Kingdom" where the singer shouts "We could all learn a thing or two from Guy Fawkes".

In literature

A popular British rhyme is often quoted on Guy Fawkes Night, in memory of the Gunpowder Plot:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

The gunpowder, treason and plot,

I see of no reason why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent

To blow up the King and the Parliament.

Three score barrels of powder below,

Poor old England to overthrow:''

By God's providence he was catch'd

With a dark lantern and burning match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Hip hip hoorah!

(traditionally the following verses were also sung, but they have fallen out of favour because of their content)

A penny loaf to feed the Pope.

A farthing o' cheese to choke him.

A pint of beer to rinse it down.

A faggot of sticks to burn him.

Burn him in a tub of tar.

Burn him like a blazing star.

Burn his body from his head.

Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.

Hip hip hoorah!

Hip hip hoorah hoorah!

T.S. Eliot also makes reference to Guy Fawkes in his poem The Hollow Men.

See also

• Everard Digby co-conspirator.
• Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival
• Dunchurch
• Juan de Jáuregui, a Spanish merchant who unsuccessfully tried to assassinate William I of Orange in 1582.
• Lewes Bonfire
• Guido Fawkes (blogger)

External links

• Guy Fawkes
• A biography on Guy Fawkes from the Gunpowder Plot Society
• Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night
• Guy Fawkes Day Sayings and Chants, an extensive set of rhymes, often known as Bonfire "prayers" or "chants" which vary by community and location.
• Guy Fawkes and the Theatre
• Site of the Center for Fawkesian Pursuits
• British parliament's Web site to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the plot
• Parliament (Official Site) FAQ on Gunpowder Plot
• Britannia on Fawkes
• York in the time of Guy Fawkes, a walking trail exploring the Gunpowder Plot and its historical context
• Ideas for Catholics to commemorate Guy Fawkes Day--with fireworks
• Tories fire rocket at SSP for backing Guy Fawkes, the 2003 poster controversy
• History, Activities and Greeting Cards for the day
• Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot