Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Remember, Remember the 5th of November (Encore)

Starting point is 00:00:00 The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily. In 1605, members of the Catholic resistance in England hatched a plot that would have completely changed the political landscape of the country. They wanted to blow up the entire parliament and the king on November 5th, which they thought would return a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters got caught, and their demise has been celebrated for the last 400 years. Learn more about Guy Fawkes Day, the gunpowder plot, and why the 5th of November is still remembered on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night.

Starting point is 00:01:00 And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. To understand what brought about the gunpowder plot, we need to back up about 70 years. Henry VIII was the King of England, and his wife, the Spanish and very Catholic, Catherine of Aragon, wasn't able to provide him a son and heir. Actually, she had three sons and three daughters, but none of them survived more than a month, save for her daughter Mary. In order to have the son he wanted, he petitioned the Pope to get his marriage annulled so he could get married again. The Pope was having none of this, so in 1534 he did what any monarch would do in a similar situation,

Starting point is 00:01:41 he started his own religion with himself at the head. So he got married again. And again, and again, and again, and again. When Henry created the Church of England, he made being Catholic a treasonable offense, confiscated all church property, and there were many executions. After he dies, his daughter Mary eventually takes a throne, who is Catholic, and she restored Catholicism as a state religion, and she executed many Protestants. Then Mary dies, and she's replaced by her half-sister, the Protestant Elizabeth, who once again makes the Church of England the official religion, and makes it compulsory to both Catholics and other Protestants alike. Most of those other Protestants became what we call the Puritans.

Starting point is 00:02:23 Elizabeth is on the throne for a very long time, 44 years, and during that time Catholics are forced to practice their religion underground. She dies in 1603, and the next in line was the Scottish King James VI, who was also a Protestant. Initially, James wasn't as dramatic as Elizabeth or Henry before him. He had a Catholic wife, and he was more lenient towards Catholics. However, this quickly began to change. James had tried to juggle different demands from different groups, and he tended to favor the Puritans over the Catholics. There was a plot discovered against James in mid-1603 called the bi-plot, where a group of Catholics and Puritans conspired to kidnap James and take him to the Tower of London. In February 1604, James denounced his utter detestation of Catholicism, kicks out all the priests, and once again cracks down on the Catholics.

Starting point is 00:03:09 It was in this environment that the gunpowder plot was hatched. The Catholics didn't want to just sit around and hope for change or keep taking it on the chin. They wanted to do something. The organizer of the gunpowder plot was a Catholic named Robert Catsby. Catsby had been persecuted under Elizabeth and dropped out of university to avoid taking an oath to the Church of England. His plan was pretty simple. At the opening of Parliament, when the king would be in attendance, they would ignite a whole bunch of gunpowder below the House of Lords and blow up the king, his ministers, senior bishops with the Church of England, and everyone in parliament.

Starting point is 00:03:44 Then, according to the plan, with the death of James, his eldest daughter Elizabeth, who is eight years old, would be placed on the throne, brought up Catholic, and married off to another Catholic. Catsby, by all accounts, was a very charismatic guy and managed to recruit several other people into his plot. Catsby first recruited Thomas Wintour. Wintour was a well-traveled polygot and scholar. During their first meeting, Wintour also brought Jack Wright, who was one of the best. swordsmen in England. Catsby outlined his plan and there was initial resistance, but he supposedly told them, quote, let us give the attempt, and where it faileth, pass no further, end quote. Catsby wanted to get the support of Spain, so he sent Wintour to the Netherlands, which at the time

Starting point is 00:04:25 was controlled by Spain. Wintour found out that Spain really wasn't interested in helping blow up the king in parliament, which would be an act of war, but rather was interested in pursuing peace at that time. While in Flanders, he met an English Catholic who had been fighting for Spain during the eight-year war, which was a Dutch revolt against Spain. His name was Guy Fox. If you know anything about the gunpowder plot or November 5th, you probably know the name Guy Fawkes. He's the one the day is named after, yet surprisingly enough, he wasn't the mastermind of the conspiracy. Fox and Wintour returned to England to tell Catsby that Spain wasn't interested. Their conspiracy was then joined by Thomas Percy, who was a friend of Catsby and Wright's brother-in-law. The first meeting with all five men

Starting point is 00:05:08 took place on May 20th, 1604, at the Duck and Drake Inn in London. It was there, the five took an oath of secrecy. They thought they had until February of 1605 to get everything ready, as Parliament was adjourned, and that's when it would be coming back. In June, Percy was appointed to the King's Guard. This gave him an excuse to get a home in central London, so he got a place in the heart of Westminster not far from Parliament. The plotters would use this building to store gunpowder. Fox created an alias of John Johnson to serve as the caretaker of the House. In December, 1604, they received the news that the opening of Parliament had been pushed back from February to the 3rd of October. In March, they got lucky and managed to rent out the undercroft of the House of Lords.

Starting point is 00:05:49 It was actually part of another building, but it was perfect for their planned. Undercroft areas were like sellers and mostly used for storage. A few more people were led in on the plot during this time, Robert Wintour, John Grant, and Christopher Wright. Wright and Wintour were brothers of the other plotters, and Grant was the brother-in-law of Wintour. In July, they quietly moved 36 barrels of gunpowder purchased on the black market under the House of Lords. They then found out that the opening of Parliament was delayed yet again, and it was put off to November 5th this time. By late August 1605, the gunpowder that had been brought in in July had gone bad, so they had to bring in more gunpowder and some firewood to conceal it.

Starting point is 00:06:29 By October, the final details were being planned. Fox would be the one to light the fuse. he would then get away by taking a boat across the Thames River. A revolt would simultaneously take place to the Midlands, which would be used as a diversion to capture Princess Elizabeth. Fox would then find his way to mainland Europe to talk to the Catholic heads of state to explain what happened. Also in October, Catsby brought in his cousin, Francis Tressum, into the conspiracy. Tressum is of interest to this story for one reason.

Starting point is 00:06:58 On October 26, just 10 days before the event was to take place, William Parker, the fourth Baron of Montego, was delivered an anonymous letter warning him to avoid the opening session of Parliament on November 5th. While it has never been firmly established who sent the letter, we do know one thing. Baron Montego was the brother-in-law of Francis Tressum. This letter was the undoing of the whole conspiracy. Baron Montego notified the authorities, who then notified the king on November 1st. He suspected giving the wording of the letter that explosives might be involved.

Starting point is 00:07:30 The authorities conducted a search of the area in and around the House of Lords on the evening of November 4th the night before Parliament was to open. They searched the Undercroft and found Fox there amongst a pile of wood. Vox gave his name as John Johnson and said that he worked for Thomas Percy. The authorities left to file their report. The king, however, insisted that they check again, so later that night they went back and again found Fox. This time they searched him, and they found several fuses and a watch. He was also dressed for traveling with boots and spurs. After searching the firewood more closely, they found 36 barrels of gunpowder.

Starting point is 00:08:06 Fox was taken into custody and was brought before the king in the morning of the 5th. He initially claimed that he had acted alone, and his mission was to blow up parliament. Meanwhile, word of his arrest had gotten out and the other conspirators fled London. On November 6th, King James had given permission to use torture on Fox to get him to talk. Torture could only be approved in England at the time by the king. Fox was taken to the Tower of London, and by the next day he had spilled the beans on the whole thing. The other conspirators made their way up to the Midlands to try and execute the other part of the plot, which was to spark an uprising and capture the princess.

Starting point is 00:08:40 Noah had wanted anything to do with them, including their own family members who didn't know about the plot and didn't want to be found guilty of treason. They holed up in a home in Staffordshire and found that their black powder was wet, so that evening they put it out in front of the fireplace to dry. In one of the most ironic twists of this whole affair, the gunpowder exploded with a spark from the fireplace blinding one of the conspirators. Two hundred of the king's men showed up the next day, and in the ensuing fight, Catsby and Percy were killed. In the aftermath, eight conspirators were executed in a most gruesome way. They were hung, castrated, disemboweled, and then beheaded and quartered.

Starting point is 00:09:16 Fox managed to actually jump from the gallows, killing himself in the fall. In the end, the plot resulted in things being made far worse. for Catholics in England than they were before. More restrictions were put in place on Catholics, and it really wasn't possible to openly practice Catholicism in England for the next 200 years. In January 1606, Parliament passed the observance of 5th November Act 1605, also known as the Thanksgiving Act, which made November 5th a holiday. It was typically celebrated with church bells, sermons, and bonfires, and informally it became known as Guy Fawkes. People began creating effigies of Guy Fawks, which were simply called a guy, which would be burned on the bonfires of

Starting point is 00:09:55 November 5th. Fireworks also became a popular way of celebrating. The effigies, known as guys, became the basis of generically calling any man a guy. The official holiday was rescinded in 1859, but it remained celebrated unofficially to this day. It's not as popular as it once was, and it's lost its anti-Catholic sentiment, but people will still light bonfires and have fireworks demonstrations. The tradition spread to other British colonies, but it never had quite the same fervor that it did back in the old country. Even in America, it was celebrated in a few places in New England in the 19th century, although they usually burned effigies of people like Benedict Arnold or other politicians that they didn't like. As celebrations go, Guy Fawkes Day is a really odd one, in that it's dedicated to

Starting point is 00:10:40 the hatred of a single person, and it's a hatred that has lasted for 400 years. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. Associate producers are Peter Bennett and Cameron Kiefer. I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who supports the show on Patreon. Your support helps me put out a new show every day. And if you're interested in Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise, Patreon is currently the only place where it's available. And if you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and get notified of future episodes

Starting point is 00:11:12 and projects, please join my Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Remember, Remember the 5th of November (Encore)

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