5
November 1605 A.D. Gunpower
Plot Discovered
Severance,
Diana. “Gunpowder Plot Discovered.” Christianity.com.
Jul 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1601-1700/gunpowder-plot-discovered-11630055.html. Accessed 6 Jun 2014.
Have you ever heard anyone say,
"He's just an ordinary guy?" Curiously, the word guy has its roots in
a l7th century plot to blow up the British Parliament.
Religion and politics were
inseparable in early England. When Pope Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth
in l570, English Catholics did not like obeying a queen that their pope had
banned from their Church. Some even plotted to assassinate her. During
Elizabeth's reign, her "secret service" uncovered three Catholic
plots to remove her from the throne.
After her death in 1603, small
groups of Catholics believed the disease of Protestantism in England called for
a violent remedy. They made plans to blow up the English House of Lords on the
day Parliament was to meet. Many of the country's leaders would be killed--King
James I, his royal family, the House of Lords, and many from the House of
Commons. With all these leaders dead, the plotters hoped to see England
returned to Catholicism. It would be like the discovery of a plot in America to
blow up Congress at the time the President was giving his annual "State of
the Union" address with all the key government officials in attendance.
Working for more than a year,
the conspirators in the British plot rented a vault under the House of Lords. They
planted 36 barrels of gunpowder which they hid under some firewood, and then
waited to light the match when Parliament opened. But wishing to spare certain
Parliamentary friends, the conspirators dropped warnings. Learning of the plot,
the king's men captured Guy Fawkes skulking near the gunpowder either near
midnight on November 4 or in the early hours of this
morning, November 5, 1605.
Tortured in the Tower of London,
Fawkes soon revealed the whole plot and named his accomplices. Many others also
revealed information. After lighting the fuse, he was to escape in a boat over
the Thames. There was to have been a rising of Catholics in the Midlands and
kidnapping of the King's children. Meanwhile, most of the main band of
conspirators were killed in a shoot out. Afterwards, as is usual in such cases,
Parliament passed even stricter laws against Catholics.
Popular consensus held that the
discovery of Guy Fawkes and his plot was God's Providence protecting England.
The British still ceremoniously search the cellars before opening each session
of parliament, and on Guy Fawkes Day, a national holiday, a dummy of Guy Fawkes
is hanged in effigy. Thus, the English word "guy", has come to mean a
stuffed dummy. In America the word simply refers to an ordinary fellow.
Bibliography:
2. Fraser, Antonia. Faith and Treason; the story of the gunpowder
plot. New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Last updated July,
2007
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