Gunpowder Plot

in English history, an attempt to blow up the House of Parliament. It was arranged by a desperate knot of Catholic gentlemen, whose motive was partly political, partly religious. They caused barrels of powder to be conveyed by way of the Thames to the cellar under Parliament House. Guy Fawkes, a Yorkshire soldier of fortune, who had seen experience in Flanders, was engaged to explode the powder. This he was to do on the night of November 5, 1605, at the opening of Parliament, when King James was expected to be present. The leaders of the conspiracy, under pretense of a hunting party, were to be in a forest near at hand. They designed to seize upon the king's children and to obtain help from abroad to subvert the house of Stuart and place a king of their own political faith on the throne. The plot failed, however. One of the conspirators could not refrain from warning a relative, Lord Monteagle, to remain away from the opening of Parliament. Search was made. The powder was discovered. Fawkes was arrested as he was entering the basement with a lighted match in his hand. He was put to the torture and forced to disclose the names of his employers. Catesby, Tresham, and other leaders were hunted down like wild animals. Such as were not killed in the chase were executed with their tool Fawkes on the thirty-first of January following. For many years the anniversary of this date was observed by the burning of a Guy Fawkes in effigy. A grotesque figure of straw was pelted and hooted at to the London mob's content, then soaked with oil and set on fire. When, in after years, attempts were made in Parliament to remove the political disabilities of the Catholics, that is, to allow them to vote and hold office, the mere mention of the Gunpowder Plot was sufficient to rouse the ire of the country gentry of Protestant England and block the progress of legislation. To this day ere Parliament sits the yeomen of the guard, in their gorgeous scarlet and gold Elizabethan uniforms, go through the venerable farce of searching the Parliament House vaults for explosives.