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san4uzel · Joined: 16 Nov 2006 Posts: 71 Location: British

Guy Fawkes

Fawkes was born on 13 April 1570 in Stonegate, York, the only son of Edward Fawkes (died 1579) and Edith Blake. His mother had given birth to a daughter, Anne, on 3 October 1568 who died seven weeks later on 14 November. Fawkes's mother bore two more daughters, Anne (born 12 October 1572) and Elizabeth (born 27 May 1575).

Guy Fawkes's father, Edward Fawkes, was a descendant of the Fawkes family in Farnley. He was either a notary or proctor of the ecclesiastical courts and later an advocate of the consistory court of the Archbishop of York. Edward's wife, Edith Blake, was descended from prominent merchants and aldermen of the city. Edward Fawkes died in 1579, and his widow remarried in 1582, to a Catholic, Denis Bainbridge of Scotton. The family were known to be recusants, resisters of the authority of the Church of England, and it is probable that his stepfather's influence contributed to Guy’s affiliation to Catholicism.

Guy was originally baptised in the church of St. Michael le Belfrey on 16 April 1570. The entry in the church register reads 'Guye Fawxe sone to Edward Fawxe [baptised] the xvi day of april'. Guy himself wrote his name 'Guido' - the latin version of his name, but was probably always 'Guy' in life. He was raised a Protestant Anglican. He attended the Free School of St Peter's in York called "Le Horse Fayre". The school had been founded by Royal Charter of Philip and Mary in 1557. Fawkes's schoolfellows may have included John and Christopher Wright, both of whom would be among the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot, and Thomas Morton, who became Bishop of Durham. During Fawkes's time at St Peter's Free School he was under the tutelage of John Pulleyn, kinsman to the Pulleyns of Scotton and a suspected Catholic who, according to some sources, may have had an early effect on the impressionable Fawkes. Fawkes converted to Catholicism around the age of 16, according to his admission of recusancy at the preliminary interrogation that followed his capture.

In 1592, Fawkes sold the estate he had inherited from his father. In 1593, after briefly serving as a footman for the 2nd Viscount Montague, he enlisted in the army of Archduke Albert of Austria in the Netherlands. He fought against the Protestant United Provinces in the Eighty Years' War with the armies of Catholic Spain. It was during this time that Fawkes adopted the name Guido, the Spanish form of Guy. He served for many years as a soldier, gaining considerable expertise with explosives, which is the most likely reason that conspirators Winter and Catesby recruited him.

The Netherlands were then in possession of the Castilian Philip II of Spain, Duke of Burgundy, and a foreigner to the Dutch. The Dutch associated Spain and Philip's rule with the Catholic inquisition, which he had tried to impose on his territories in the Low Countries. Fawkes arrived at a time when the death of the Duke of Parma and mutinies by Spanish mercenaries had left the Catholic military force in the Netherlands paralysed, and Maurice of Nassau, the stadholder in five provinces from 1584 till 1625, son of William of Orange, had led successful campaigns against Spanish positions.

In 1596 Fawkes was present at the siege and capture of Calais. By 1602 he had risen only to the rank of ensign. There is some evidence that Fawkes was in considerable poverty around this time. He may have visited Spain in the early 1600s to request Spanish help in returning England to Catholicism.

Gunpowder Plot

Fawkes is notorious for his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was probably placed in charge of executing the plot 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, his family, and most of the aristocracy by blowing up the House of Lords in the Palace of Westminster during the State Opening of Parliament. 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 day 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.

Our best primary source for the details of the plot itself is the account known as the "King's Book" or: "James I The Kings Book-A True and Perfect Relation of the Whole Proceedings Against the Late Most Barbarous Traitors. Robt. Barker,Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty, British Museum 1606." Although this is a government account, and details have been disputed, it is generally considered to be an accurate record of the history of the plot, and the imprisonment, torture and execution of the plotters.

A contemporary sketch of the conspirators. The Dutch artist, Crispijn van de Passe the Elder, probably never met any of the conspirators, but the sketch has become well-known nonetheless.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 themselves. Fawkes and the other conspirators rented a cellar beneath the House of Lords having first tried to dig a tunnel under the building. This would have proved difficult, because they would have had to dispose of the dirt and debris. By March 1605, they had hidden 1800 pounds (36 barrels, or 800kgs) of gunpowder in the cellar. The plotters also intended 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 warning letter 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 in the early morning of 5 November. Peter Heywood, a resident of Heywood, Lancashire, was reputedly the man who snatched the torch from Guy Fawkes’s hand as he was about to light the fuse to detonate the gunpowder. Fawkes was tortured over the next few days, after the King granted special permission to do so. James directed that the torture should be gentle at first, and then more severe. Sir William Wade, Lieutenant of the Tower of London at this time, supervised the torture and obtained Fawkes's confession. For three or four days Fawkes said nothing, let alone divulge the names of his co-conspirators. Only when he found out that they had proclaimed themselves by appearing in arms did he succumb. The torture only revealed the names of those conspirators who were already dead or whose names were known to the authorities. Some had fled to Dunchurch, Warwickshire, where they were killed or captured. On 31 January, Fawkes and a number of others implicated in the conspiracy were tried in Westminster Hall. After being found guilty, they were taken to Old Palace Yard in Westminster and St Paul's Yard, where they were hanged, drawn, and quartered. Fawkes, however, managed to avoid the worst of this execution by jumping from the scaffold where he was supposed to be hanged, breaking his neck before he could be drawn and quartered ("The King's Book.",1606.)

Reaction

Many popular contemporary verses were written in condemnation of Fawkes. The most well-known verse begins:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder, treason and plot,
I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot. (For the full lyrics see Guy Fawkes Night)
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 of a more religious tone and celebrated 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!’
The Lord Mayor and aldermen of the City of London commemorated the conspiracy on November 5 for years after by a sermon in St Paul's Cathedral. 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.

The Fawkes story continued to be celebrated in poetry. The Latin verse In Quintum Novembris was written c. 1626. John Milton’s Satan in book six of Paradise Lost was inspired by Fawkes—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. From Puritan polemics to popular literature, all sought to associate Fawkes with the demoniacal.

Guy Fawkes Ghost is now meant to huant the area around the houses of parliment where he was caught !