Penny for the Guy!
These were the words group of small boys and girls yelled at me when I was growing up in a small town in Bedfordshire in England where my father was a family doctor. They pushed a wheelbarrow containing a rough looking fellow made of straw and a piece of linen, a somewhat bedraggled fellow resembling a displaced scarecrow.
“Penny for the guy” they insisted.
The money they collected went to a giant firework display on that 5th of November night followed by a huge bonfire on which their Guy would be roasted.
Who was this Guy and why was he so universally hated that a celebration of his conflagration had persisted for 400 years? Fortunately I was able to find a wonderful; explanation in
A Child’s History of England
by Charles Dickens
.
The origin of Guy (Guido) Fawkes Day
The seeds of the strange festival can be ascribed to the violent disputes between Protestants and Roman Catholics at the commencement of the Reign of James I of England. It began when Henry VIII separated from the Pope to obtain as divorce and marry Anne Bolin. A large proportion the English became Protestants decrying Popish doctrines. This was all reversed in Queen Mary’s reign following the demise of Henry She was known as Bloody Mary as during her 5 years in office in 1553 to 1558 she put Jane Grey, Hooper, Ridley, Latimer, Cramner, and many more to be burnt alive.
In 1603 (after the Death of Queen Elizabeth), there was remained a group of Roman Catholics who were afraid of Protestant reaffirmation and the new possible laws against them under the newly enthroned James I. Robert Gatesby was one of these. He formed his desperate scheme known as the
Gun Powder Plot.
The scheme was that when the King, Lords and Commons were assembled at the opening of Parliament to blow them up with a massive charge of dynamite.
Assembling the Conspirators
Gatesby was able to collect a keen team of desperate men, for this enterprise included Thomas Winter, a Worcestershire man and who went to the Netherlands to try to engage Spanish ambassador in the scheme. In this he was not successful. However he did engage a certain Guido Fawkes who came to England and became the key man in this dastardly exercise. Two other members Thomas Percy and John Wright joined the group. They all met in secret in a lonely house in Clement’s Inn in London. Gatesby went over the plan and then they moved to the garret where a Jesuit priest blessed them.
The Plan
The idea was to rent a house next Parliament and dig away underneath an adjoining wall to enter, whence to place the explosive charge in Parliament.
They succeeded in renting a suitable house in Westminster next to Parliament as well as another in Lambeth where they stored their dynamite and other explosives and they set to work digging.
Christopher Wright dug day and night supervised by Guy Fawkes but made slow progress. In 1605 when they were joined by three others John Grant, Robert Winter, brother of Thomas and Gatesby’s servant Thomas Bates it was slow work.
Change of Plan
Tired of their digging the team hired a cellar directly under the House of Lords and planted six hundred and thirty barrels of gunpowder hidden under a pile of faggots and coal. The king had prorogued Parliament several times and was due to open it on November 5th 1605. This would be the time for action!
By November 1605 all was going according to plan. New conspirators included Sir Edward Baynsham of Gloucester, Francis Tresham of Rutland who were rich and offered their houses for the conspirators to use after Parliament had been blown up. They also hired a ship in which Fawkes would sail to Flanders.
The Historic Day
Human nature has its soft spots. Whilst Guy Fawkes had no qualms about any his friends or members of his family being blown up,Tresham did have feelings about his friend Lord Mounteagle, his brother-in-law, who was sure to be in the house at the time of the explosion and would be blown apart. He sent him a mysterious letter to keep away from the opening of Parliament “
since god and man had concurred to punish the wickedness of the times
.” He urged him to keep away from the opening of Parliament
.
The letter did not remain secret Tresham may have warned others beside Lord Mounteagle but no immediate action was taken against the conspirators.
On the afternoon of November 4th Fawkes was visited by the Lord Chamberlain and Lord Mounteagle in the basement of the House of Lords.
“Who are you?” they asked
“I am Mr Percy’s servant looking after his store of his store of fuel.”
“Your master has laid a pretty good store!”
Out the visitors went and Fawkes thought all was safe. He retired to his cellar to emerge at two o’clock in the morning from his lair. He opened the door cautiously to look around he was instantly seized by party of soldiers led by Sir Thomas Knevett. Fawkes was carrying a watch and some slow burning matches. He was wearing boots with spurs .He was taken to the King’s bed chamber and later to the Tower to be tortured for a confession.
Some of the conspirator got away on horseback. The Wright brothers, Rockwood, Gatesby, Percy rode to Halbeach in Warwickshire, where they shut themselves up in a house. They were all shot whilst defending themselves, except Digby and Christopher Wright who were ‘taken.’
Guy Fawkes Trial was held on 15th January 1606 together with other conspirators He was found guilty and to hanged, drawn and quartered - some at St Paul’s churchyard, some at Ludgate – Hill some before Parliament.
This is the story of the gunpowder plot which threatened to destroy the English Parliament four hundred years ago, and which we are going to celebrate this week.
BJSG
