The conspirators' principal aim was to kill King James, but many other important targets would also be present at the State Opening, including the monarch's nearest relatives and members of the Privy Council. The senior judges of the English legal system, most of the Protestant aristocracy, and the bishops of the Church of England would all have attended in their capacity as members of the House of Lords, along with the members of the House of Commons. Another important objective was the kidnapping of the King's daughter, Elizabeth. Housed at Coombe Abbey near Coventry, she lived only ten miles north of Warwick—convenient for the plotters, most of whom lived in the Midlands.
Plot
Gunpowder Plot
Gunpowder Plot | Plot
To kill King James. Assassinate King James I To blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605. To assassinate King James I.
where did the gunpowder come from in the gunpowder plot
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They were discovered hidden under piles of faggots and coal.
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what was the main aim of this plot?
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The conspirators' principal aim was to kill King James, but many other important targets would also be present at the State Opening, including the monarch's nearest relatives and members of the Privy Council. The senior judges of the English legal system, most of the Protestant aristocracy, and the bishops of the Church of England would all have attended in their capacity as members of the House of Lords, along with the members of the House of Commons. Another important objective was the kidnapping of the King's daughter, Elizabeth. Housed at Coombe Abbey near Coventry, she lived only ten miles north of Warwick—convenient for the plotters, most of whom lived in the Midlands.
Gunpowder Plot | Plot
36 barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of faggots and coal. Fawkes was taken to the King early on the morning of 5 November.
Gunpowder Plot | Discovery
The Gunpowder Plot was a failed assassination attempt against King James VI of Scotland and I of England by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby. The conspirators' aim was to blow up the House of Lords at the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605, while the king and many other important members of the aristocracy and nobility were inside. The conspirator who became most closely associated with the plot in the popular imagination was Guy Fawkes, who had been assigned the task of lighting the fuse to the explosives.
Gunpowder Plot in popular culture | Introduction
The details of the plot were finalised in October, in a series of taverns across London and Daventry. Fawkes would be left to light the fuse and then escape across the Thames, while simultaneously a revolt in the Midlands would help to ensure the capture of the King's daughter, Elizabeth. Fawkes would leave for the continent, to explain events in England to the European Catholic powers. The wives of those involved and Anne Vaux (a friend of Garnet who often shielded priests at her home) became increasingly concerned by what they suspected was about to happen. Several of the conspirators expressed worries about the safety of fellow Catholics who would be present in Parliament on the day of the planned explosion.
Gunpowder Plot | Monteagle letter
Fawkes left the country for a short time. The King, meanwhile, spent much of the summer away from the city, hunting. He stayed wherever was convenient, including on occasion at the houses of prominent Catholics. Garnet, convinced that the threat of an uprising had receded, travelled the country on a pilgrimage.
Gunpowder Plot | Undercroft
The foreign powers largely distanced themselves from the plotters, calling them atheists and Protestant heretics.
Gunpowder Plot | Reaction
Garnet wrote to a colleague in Rome, Claudio Acquaviva, expressing his concerns about open rebellion in England. He also told Acquaviva that "there is a risk that some private endeavour may commit treason or use force against the King", and urged the pope to issue a public brief against the use of force. According to Fawkes, 20 barrels of gunpowder were brought in at first, followed by 16 more on 20 July. The supply of gunpowder was theoretically controlled by the government, but it was easily obtained from illicit sources. On 28 July, the ever-present threat of the plague again delayed the opening of Parliament, this time until Tuesday 5 November.
Gunpowder Plot | Undercroft
Catholicism became marginalised, but despite the threat of torture or execution, priests continued to practise their faith in secret.
Gunpowder Plot | Religion in England
On 20 January the local Justice and his retainers arrived at Thomas Habington's home, Hindlip Hall, to arrest the Jesuits. Despite Thomas Habington's protests, the men spent the next four days searching the house. On 24 January, starving, two priests left their hiding places and were discovered. Humphrey Littleton, who had escaped from the authorities at Hagley, got as far as Prestwood in Staffordshire before he was captured. He was imprisoned, and then condemned to death at Worcester. On 26 January, in exchange for his life, he told the authorities where they could find Father Garnet. Worn down by hiding for so long, Garnet, accompanied by another priest, emerged from his priest hole the next day.
Gunpowder Plot | Jesuits
Measuring devices placed in the chamber to calculate the force of the blast were recorded as going off the scale just before their destruction by the explosion; a piece of the head of the dummy representing King James, which had been placed on a throne inside the chamber surrounded by courtiers, peers and bishops, was found a considerable distance from its initial location. According to the findings of the programme, no one within of the blast could have survived, and all of the stained glass windows in Westminster Abbey would have been shattered, as would all of the windows in the vicinity of the Palace.
Gunpowder Plot | Reconstructing the explosion
Most of the conspirators fled from London as they learned of the plot's discovery, trying to enlist support along the way. Several made a stand against the pursuing Sheriff of Worcester and his men at Holbeche House; in the ensuing battle, Catesby was one of those shot and killed. At their trial on 27 January 1606, eight of the survivors, including Fawkes, were convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
Gunpowder Plot | Introduction
On 15 January a proclamation named Father Garnet, Father Gerard, and Father Greenway (Tesimond) as wanted men. Tesimond and Gerard managed to escape the country and live out their days in freedom; Garnet was not so lucky. Several days earlier, on 9 January, Robert Wintour and Stephen Littleton were captured. Their hiding place at Hagley, the home of Humphrey Littleton (brother of MP John Littleton, imprisoned for treason in 1601 for his part in the Essex revolt) was betrayed by a cook, who grew suspicious of the amount of food sent up for his master's consumption. Humphrey denied the presence of the two fugitives, but another servant led the authorities to their hiding place.
Gunpowder Plot | Jesuits
"By this prearranged manoeuvre Francis Tresham sought at the same time to prevent the Plot and forewarn his friends" (H Trevor-Roper).
Gunpowder Plot | Monteagle letter
The list of traitors' names was read aloud, beginning with those of the priests: Garnet, Tesimond, and Gerard. The first to speak was the Speaker of the House of Commons (later Master of the Rolls), Sir Edward Philips, who described the intent behind the plot in lurid detail. He was followed by the Attorney-General Sir Edward Coke, who began with a long speech—the content of which was heavily influenced by Salisbury—that included a denial that the King had ever made any promises to the Catholics. Monteagle's part in the discovery of the plot was welcomed, and denunciations of the 1603 mission to Spain featured strongly.
Gunpowder Plot | Trials
The programme explores through partial dramatization the plot itself, and the persons involved. It also answers the question of whether the plot would have actually worked: the Houses of Parliament would have been completely obliterated, and most of the windows in nearby Westminster Abbey would have been shattered. The first hurdle to overcome was the actual recreation of the 17th-century Houses of Parliament. As the buildings were demolished to expand the current structures, Simon Carter, the Parliamentary Curator provided drawings of the original structures for the recreated structure to utilise using 650 tonnes of concrete. Explosives expert Sidney Alford helped to determine that thirty-six barrels containing one cubic ton of gunpowder were used in the plot.
The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend | Synopsis
Measuring devices placed in the chamber to calculate the force of the blast were themselves destroyed by the blast, while the skull of the mannequin representing King James, which had been placed on a throne inside the chamber surrounded by courtiers, peers and bishops, was found far from the site. According to the findings of the programme, no one within 100 metres of the blast would have survived, and all windows within a large distance of the palace would have been shattered, including the stained glass windows of Westminster Abbey. The power of the explosion would have been heard at least five miles away, and seen from much further.
The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend | Synopsis
The Gunpowder Plot was an attempt by a small party of provincial English Catholics to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, thereby killing James I and his court, as the prelude to a revolt during which a Catholic monarchy would be restored to the English throne. It was after the failure of the plot that the fugitives took shelter in Holbeche House, owned by Stephen Lyttelton. They had taken supplies from Warwick Castle on 6 November and weapons and gunpowder from Hewell Grange on 7 November, but the powder became damp in the rain.
Holbeche House | Gunpowder Plot
His defence was in vain; his arguments were rebuked by Coke and Northumberland, and along with his seven co-conspirators, he was found guilty by the jury of high treason. Digby shouted "If I may but hear any of your lordships say, you forgive me, I shall go more cheerfully to the gallows." The response was short: "God forgive you, and we do."
Gunpowder Plot | Trials
The following day, Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, and Guy Fawkes were hanged, drawn and quartered, opposite the building they had planned to blow up, in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster. Keyes did not wait for the hangman's command and jumped from the gallows, but he survived the drop and was led to the quartering block. Although weakened by his torture, Fawkes managed to jump from the gallows and break his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the gruesome latter part of his execution. Steven Littleton was executed at Stafford. His cousin Humphrey, despite his co-operation with the authorities, met his end at Red Hill near Worcester.
Gunpowder Plot | Executions
Inside, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of firewood and coal.
Thomas Knyvet, 1st Baron Knyvet | Gunpowder plot
However, on the eve of the planned explosion, Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding the explosives the plotters had positioned in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and arrested. As the government searched for Fawkes's accomplices, Grant and the others engaged in a futile mission for support for the uprising. They stole horses from Warwick Castle, and further supplies from Hewell Grange, before stopping at Holbeche House. The plotters laid in front of the fire some of the gunpowder they had collected, to dry out, but a stray spark ignited the powder, and in the resultant conflagration Grant was blinded.
John Grant (Gunpowder Plot) | Introduction
Father John Gerard was secreted at the home of Elizabeth Vaux, in Harrowden. Vaux was taken to London for interrogation. There she was resolute; she had never been aware that Gerard was a priest, she had presumed he was a "Catholic gentleman", and she did not know of his whereabouts. The homes of the conspirators were searched, and looted; Mary Digby's household was ransacked, and she was made destitute. Some time before the end of November, Garnet moved to Hindlip Hall near Worcester, the home of the Habingtons, where he wrote a letter to the Privy Council protesting his innocence.
Gunpowder Plot | Reaction
Robert Wintour and other conspirators devised a plan to blow up the new Scottish Protestant King James I at the Wintour's home at Huddington Court. Robert Catesby, the main figure behind the Gunpowder Plot, was from Northampton, but most of the plotters were from Worcestershire's Catholic families.
History of Worcestershire | Gunpowder Plot
The failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was a conspiracy among a group of Roman Catholic gentry to re-establish Catholicism in England by assassinating the Protestant King James I and replacing him with a Catholic monarch. To this end, they placed large quantities of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords, which one of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, would detonate during the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605. If successful, the explosion would have destroyed the Palace, killing the King, his family and most of the aristocracy. However, the plot was discovered and most of the conspirators were either arrested or killed while trying to evade capture.
Palace of Westminster | Incidents
When the Gunpowder Plot was discovered, Oldcorne was at Hindlip Hall, his base for fourteen years. In December, he was joined there by Nicholas Owen, Henry Garnet and Ralph Ashley who were hiding because they were under suspicion of involvement. Hindlip was searched in January but the four were not discovered: Garnet and Oldcorne were in one hiding place while the two lay brothers were in another. Their conditions were poor, and after eight days they surrendered. Oldcorne was arrested with Garnet by Sir Henry Bromley and held briefly at the castle at Holt in Worcestershire before being taken to the Tower of London.
Edward Oldcorne | Aftermath of the Plot
By coincidence, on the same day that Garnet was found, the surviving conspirators were arraigned in Westminster Hall. Seven of the prisoners were taken from the Tower to the Star Chamber by barge. Bates, who was considered lower class, was brought from the Gatehouse Prison. Some of the prisoners were reportedly despondent, but others were nonchalant, even smoking tobacco. The King and his family, hidden from view, were among the many who watched the trial. The Lords Commissioners present were the Earls of Suffolk, Worcester, Northampton, Devonshire, and Salisbury. Sir John Popham was Lord Chief Justice, Sir Thomas Fleming was Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and two Justices, Sir Thomas Walmsley and Sir Peter Warburton, sat as Justices of the Common Pleas.
Gunpowder Plot | Trials
As Catesby added three more to the conspiracy, the last few details were worked out; Fawkes was to light the fuse that would set off the explosion, and then escape to the continent, while the others would incite the Midlands uprising, and capture James's daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Thus, as the plot moved closer to fruition, on Monday 4 November Grant and a friend were to be found in Dunchurch at the Red Lion inn, with the newly recruited Everard Digby and his "hunting party". The group attended a Mass the next morning, before moving on.
John Grant (Gunpowder Plot) | Plot
On November 5, 1605, a group of conspirators led by Robert Catesby attempted to destroy the English Parliament on its State Opening by King James I. They planned in secret to detonate a large quantity of gunpowder placed beneath the Palace of Westminster. The gunpowder was procured and placed by Guy Fawkes. The group intended to enact a coup by killing King James I and the members of both houses of Parliament. The conspirators planned to make one of the king's children a puppet monarch and then restore the Catholic faith to England. The conspirator leased a coal cellar beneath the House of Lords and began stockpiling gunpowder in 1604.
History of terrorism | Gunpowder Plot
A dissident Catholic, Guy Fawkes, was discovered in the cellars of the parliament buildings on the night of 4–5 November 1605, the eve of the state opening of the second session of James's first English Parliament. He was guarding a pile of wood not far from 36 barrels of gunpowder with which Fawkes intended to blow up Parliament House the following day and cause the destruction, as James put it, "not only ... of my person, nor of my wife and posterity also, but of the whole body of the State in general". The sensational discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, as it quickly became known, aroused a mood of national relief at the delivery of the king and his sons.
James VI and I | Gunpowder Plot
The explosion would have been seen from miles away and heard from further away still. Even if only half of the gunpowder had gone off, which Fawkes was apparently prepared for, everyone in the House of Lords and its environs would have been killed instantly. The programme also disproved claims that some deterioration in the quality of the gunpowder would have prevented the explosion. A portion of deliberately deteriorated gunpowder, of such low quality as to make it unusable in firearms, when placed in a heap and ignited, still managed to create a large explosion. The impact of even deteriorated gunpowder would have been magnified by its containment in wooden barrels, compensating for the quality of the contents.
Gunpowder Plot | Reconstructing the explosion
Bates and Keyes were captured shortly after Holbeche House was taken. Digby, who had intended to give himself up, was caught by a small group of pursuers. Tresham was arrested on 12 November, and taken to the Tower three days later. Montague, Mordaunt, and Stourton (Tresham's brother-in-law) were also imprisoned in the Tower. The Earl of Northumberland joined them on 27 November. Meanwhile the government used the revelation of the plot to accelerate its persecution of Catholics. The home of Anne Vaux at Enfield Chase was searched, revealing the presence of trap doors and hidden passages. A terrified servant then revealed that Garnet, who had often stayed at the house, had recently given a Mass there.
Gunpowder Plot | Reaction
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby. The plan was to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605, as the prelude to a popular revolt in the Midlands during which James's nine-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, was to be installed as the Catholic head of state. Catesby may have embarked on the scheme after hopes of securing greater religious tolerance under King James had faded, leaving many English Catholics disappointed.
Gunpowder Plot | Introduction
Fawkes's protestations that Gerard knew nothing of the plot were omitted from Coke's speech. The foreign powers, when mentioned, were accorded due respect, but the priests were accursed, their behaviour analysed and criticised wherever possible. There was little doubt, according to Coke, that the plot had been invented by the Jesuits. Garnet's meeting with Catesby, at which the former was said to have absolved the latter of any blame in the plot, was proof enough that the Jesuits were central to the conspiracy; according to Coke the Gunpowder Plot would always be known as the Jesuit Treason. Coke spoke with feeling of the probable fate of the Queen and the rest of the King's family, and of the innocents who would have been caught up in the explosion.
Gunpowder Plot | Trials
capable of intelligent argument as well as physical endurance, somewhat to the surprise of his enemies." The first meeting of the five central conspirators took place on Sunday 20 May 1604, at an inn called the Duck and Drake, in the fashionable Strand district of London. Catesby had already proposed at an earlier meeting with Thomas Wintour and John Wright to kill the King and his government by blowing up "the Parliament House with gunpowder". Wintour, who at first objected to the plan, was convinced by Catesby to travel to the continent to seek help. Wintour met with the Constable of Castile, the exiled Welsh spy Hugh Owen, and Sir William Stanley, who said that Catesby would receive no support from Spain.
Guy Fawkes | Gunpowder Plot
When he realised the plot had been uncovered, he took his horse and made for his sister's house at Norbrook, before continuing to Huddington Court. The group of six conspirators stopped at Ashby St Ledgers at about 6 pm, where they met Robert Wintour and updated him on their situation. They then continued on to Dunchurch, and met with Digby. Catesby convinced him that despite the plot's failure, an armed struggle was still a real possibility. He announced to Digby's "hunting party" that the King and Salisbury were dead, before the fugitives moved west to Warwick. In London, news of the plot was spreading, and the authorities set extra guards on the city gates, closed the ports, and protected the house of the Spanish Ambassador, which was surrounded by an angry mob.
Gunpowder Plot | Flight
Fawkes, using the pseudonym "John Johnson", took charge of the building, posing as Percy's servant. The building was occupied by Scottish commissioners appointed by the King to consider his plans for the unification of England and Scotland, so the plotters hired Catesby's lodgings in Lambeth, on the opposite bank of the Thames, from where their stored gunpowder and other supplies could be conveniently rowed across each night. Meanwhile, King James continued with his policies against the Catholics, and Parliament pushed through anti-Catholic legislation, until its adjournment on 7 July. The conspirators returned to London in October 1604, when Robert Keyes, a "desperate man, ruined and indebted", was admitted to the group.
Gunpowder Plot | Further recruitment
His fellow plotters were John and Christopher Wright, Robert and Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, Guy Fawkes, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby and Francis Tresham. Fawkes, who had 10 years of military experience fighting in the Spanish Netherlands in the failed suppression of the Dutch Revolt, was given charge of the explosives. The plot was revealed to the authorities in an anonymous letter sent to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, on 26 October 1605. During a search of the House of Lords in the evening on 4 November 1605, Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder—enough to reduce the House of Lords to rubble—and arrested.
Gunpowder Plot | Introduction
After Guy Fawkes was captured in the basement of the Houses of Parliament, many of his fellow plotters, under the leadership of Robert Catesby, fled to the Midlands. Walsh and his 200-strong force began following the conspirators after they entered Worcestershire and caught up with them at Holbeche House in Staffordshire on 8 November. Among those in Walsh's force was John Streete, the noted marksman from Worcester, who at one point killed two plotters with a single shot. The conspirators made two major errors: they got their gunpowder wet and then tried to dry it in front of the fire, causing it to blow up.
Richard Walsh (English politician) | Gunpowder Plot
They ceased their efforts when, during tunnelling, they heard a noise from above. The noise turned out to be the then-tenant's widow, who was clearing out the undercroft directly beneath the House of Lords—the room where the plotters eventually stored the gunpowder.
Gunpowder Plot | Further recruitment
In the absence of any sign that James would move to end the persecution of Catholics, as some had hoped for, several members of the clergy (including two anti-Jesuit priests) decided to take matters into their own hands. In what became known as the Bye Plot, the priests William Watson and William Clark planned to kidnap James and hold him in the Tower of London until he agreed to be more tolerant towards Catholics. Cecil received news of the plot from several sources, including the Archpriest George Blackwell, who instructed his priests to have no part in any such schemes.
Gunpowder Plot | Early plots
They ceased their efforts when, during tunnelling, they heard a noise from above. Fawkes was sent out to investigate, and returned with the news that the tenant's widow was clearing out a nearby undercroft, directly beneath the House of Lords.
Guy Fawkes | Gunpowder Plot
At about the same time, Lord Cobham, Lord Grey de Wilton, Griffin Markham and Walter Raleigh hatched what became known as the Main Plot, which involved removing James and his family and supplanting them with Arbella Stuart. Amongst others, they approached Henry IV of France for funding, but were unsuccessful. All those involved in both plots were arrested in July and tried in autumn 1603; Sir George Brooke was executed, but James, keen not to have too bloody a start to his reign, reprieved Cobham, Grey, and Markham while they were at the scaffold. Raleigh, who had watched while his colleagues sweated, and who was due to be executed a few days later, was also pardoned.
Gunpowder Plot | Early plots
On 6 November, with Fawkes maintaining his silence, the fugitives raided Warwick Castle for supplies and continued to Norbrook to collect weapons. From there they continued their journey to Huddington. Bates left the group and travelled to Coughton Court to deliver a letter from Catesby, to Father Garnet and the other priests, informing them of what had transpired, and asking for their help in raising an army. Garnet replied by begging Catesby and his followers to stop their "wicked actions", before himself fleeing. Several priests set out for Warwick, worried about the fate of their colleagues. They were caught, and then imprisoned in London.
Gunpowder Plot | Last stand
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland. Gunpowder Plot may also refer to:
Gunpowder Plot (disambiguation) | Introduction
The conspirators aimed to cause an uprising in the Midlands to coincide with the explosion in London and at this point secure Elizabeth's accession as a puppet queen. She would then be brought up as a Catholic and later married to a Catholic bridegroom. The plot failed when the conspirators were betrayed and Guy Fawkes was caught by the King's soldiers before he was able to ignite the powder.
Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia | Gunpowder Plot
A further note, written in the 19th century, confirmed this provenance, although in 1952 the document acquired a new comment: "but there was none left!"
Gunpowder Plot | Reconstructing the explosion
The plans of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 were, partially, conceived in Huddington Court. Two priest holes are in the building. One is behind an oak panel in what was the chapel, where mass was said by the resident priest. The main section of the hole has another door which leads to a small room where the priest would not have wanted to suffer from claustrophobia! The other hiding hole is in the room opposite and is a door made to look like a part of the wall. This enters into a quite sizeable room that was only discovered in the 1920s.
Huddington Court | The Gunpowder Plot
Around 20 January, Bromley was ordered to search Hindlip Hall for Catholic priests: “to pull down the wainscoat, bore the ground, drill the boards and chimney corners, examine the attics and roof, &c., in search of concealed hiding-places.” He was having great difficulties when two of concealed men, Nicholas Owen and Hall, broke out and were captured. It was another week before Henry Garnet and Edward Oldcorne emerged, and even then the priests were misidentified. He took the prisoners to London, after a suitable delay to allow Garnet to recover his strength: Garnet later reported the kind treatment he had received at Bromley's hands throughout the stay and the journey, although he was on his way to brutal execution.
Henry Bromley (died 1615) | The Gunpowder Plot
Three days later, he ordered all Jesuits and all other Catholic priests to leave the country, and reimposed the collection of fines for recusancy. James changed his focus from the anxieties of English Catholics to the establishment of an Anglo-Scottish union. He also appointed Scottish nobles such as George Home to his court, which proved unpopular with the Parliament of England. Some Members of Parliament made it clear that in their view, the "effluxion of people from the Northern parts" was unwelcome, and compared them to "plants which are transported from barren ground into a more fertile one". Even more discontent resulted when the King allowed his Scottish nobles to collect the recusancy fines.
Gunpowder Plot | Early plots
The first meeting between the five conspirators took place on 20 May 1604, probably at the Duck and Drake Inn, just off the Strand, Thomas Wintour's usual residence when staying in London. Catesby, Thomas Wintour, and John Wright were in attendance, joined by Guy Fawkes and Thomas Percy. Alone in a private room, the five plotters swore an oath of secrecy on a prayer book. By coincidence, and ignorant of the plot, Father John Gerard (a friend of Catesby's) was celebrating Mass in another room, and the five men subsequently received the Eucharist.
Gunpowder Plot | Initial planning
Although gunpowder does not explode unless physically contained, a spark from the fire landed on the powder and the resultant flames engulfed Catesby, Rookwood, Grant, and a man named Morgan (a member of the hunting party). Thomas Wintour and Littleton, on their way from Huddington to Holbeche House, were told by a messenger that Catesby had died. At that point, Littleton left, but Thomas arrived at the house to find Catesby alive, albeit scorched. John Grant was not so lucky, and had been blinded by the fire. Digby, Robert Wintour and his half-brother John, and Thomas Bates, had all left.
Gunpowder Plot | Last stand
Catesby and the others arrived at Huddington early in the afternoon, and were met by Thomas Wintour. They received practically no support or sympathy from those they met, including family members, who were terrified at the prospect of being associated with treason. They continued on to Holbeche House on the border of Staffordshire, the home of Stephen Littleton, a member of their ever-decreasing band of followers. Whilst there Stephen Littleton and Thomas Wintour went to 'Pepperhill', the Shropshire residence of Sir John Talbot to gain support but to no avail. Tired and desperate, they spread out some of the now-soaked gunpowder in front of the fire, to dry out.
Gunpowder Plot | Last stand
An arrest warrant was issued against Thomas Percy, and his patron, the Earl of Northumberland, was placed under house arrest. In "John Johnson's" initial interrogation he revealed nothing other than the name of his mother, and that he was from Yorkshire. A letter to Guy Fawkes was discovered on his person, but he claimed that name was one of his aliases. Far from denying his intentions, "Johnson" stated that it had been his purpose to destroy the King and Parliament. Nevertheless, he maintained his composure and insisted that he had acted alone. His unwillingness to yield so impressed the King that he described him as possessing "a Roman resolution".
Gunpowder Plot | Flight
Thomas Bates confessed on 4 December, providing much of the information that Salisbury needed to link the Catholic clergy to the plot. Bates had been present at most of the conspirators' meetings, and under interrogation he implicated Father Tesimond in the plot. On 13 January 1606 he described how he had visited Garnet and Tesimond on 7 November to inform Garnet of the plot's failure. Bates also told his interrogators of his ride with Tesimond to Huddington, before the priest left him to head for the Habingtons at Hindlip Hall, and of a meeting between Garnet, Gerard, and Tesimond in October 1605.
Gunpowder Plot | Jesuits
Tired and desperate they spread in front of the fire some of the now-soaked gunpowder taken from Hewell Grange, to dry out. An ember from the fire landed on the powder, and the resultant flames engulfed Catesby, Rookwood, Grant and another man.
John Grant (Gunpowder Plot) | Failure
On 6 November, the Lord Chief Justice, Sir John Popham (a man with a deep-seated hatred of Catholics) questioned Rookwood's servants. By the evening he had learned the names of several of those involved in the conspiracy: Catesby, Rookwood, Keyes, Wynter , John and Christopher Wright, and Grant. "Johnson" meanwhile persisted with his story, and along with the gunpowder he was found with, was moved to the Tower of London, where the King had decided that "Johnson" would be tortured. The use of torture was forbidden, except by royal prerogative or a body such as the Privy Council or Star Chamber.
Gunpowder Plot | Investigation
Guy Fawkes, who was born and educated in York, was a member of a group of Roman Catholic restorationists that planned the Gunpowder Plot. Its aim was to displace Protestant rule by blowing up the Houses of Parliament while King James I, the entire Protestant, and even most of the Catholic aristocracy and nobility were inside. In 1644, during the Civil War, the Parliamentarians besieged York, and many medieval houses outside the city walls were lost. The barbican at Walmgate Bar was undermined and explosives laid, but the plot was discovered. On the arrival of Prince Rupert, with an army of 15,000 men, the siege was lifted.
York | 16th to 18th centuries
In the 2005 ITV programme "", a full-size replica of the House of Lords was built and destroyed with barrels of gunpowder, totalling 1 metric tonne of explosives. The experiment was conducted on the Advantica-owned Spadeadam test site and demonstrated that the explosion, if the gunpowder was in good order, would have killed all those in the building. The power of the explosion was such that of the deep concrete walls making up the undercroft (replicating how archives suggest the walls of the old House of Lords were constructed), the end wall where the barrels were placed by, under the throne, was reduced to rubble, and the adjacent surviving portions of wall were shoved away.
Gunpowder Plot | Reconstructing the explosion
On 1 November 1980, BBC Radio 4 broadcast "Gunpowder Treason and Plot", written by A. J. Walton and directed by Margaret Etall and featuring Michael Spice as Guy Fawkes, Christopher Scott as Thomas Wintour, Anthony Hyde as Robert Catesby, Fraser Kerr as James I, Robert Lang as Walter Raleigh and John Moffatt as Robert Cecil. On 6 November 2005, to mark the 400th anniversary of the plot, BBC Radio 3 broadcast "The Gunpowder Plot" written by Jonathan Davidson and directed by David Hunter, with David Calder as Cecil, Sean Arnold as Lord Popham, Cal Macaninch as King James I, John Henshaw as Father Henry Garnet, Hugh Dickson as Father Oldcorn and Helen Longworth as Anne Vaux.
Gunpowder Plot in popular culture | On radio
Sue Mahan and Pamala L. Griset classify the plot as an act of religious terrorism, writing that "Fawkes and his colleagues justified their actions in terms of religion." Peter Steinfels also characterizes this plot as a notable case of religious terrorism.
Christian terrorism | Gunpowder Plot
A man privy to Guy Fawkes' Gunpowder Plot is said to have lived in the house Ardda'r Myneich (Monks Hill), whose ruins lie in the fields above the road between Porthlwyd and Dolgarrog bridges. Dr Thomas Williams (1550–1622), rector of St Peter's Church, Llanbedr-y-Cennin, was charged with having papist sympathies. He had warned Sir John Wynn of Gwydir to stay away from the Houses of Parliament on that fateful day.
Dolgarrog | The Gunpowder Plot
At about the same time in December, Tresham's health began to deteriorate. He was visited regularly by his wife, a nurse, and his servant William Vavasour, who documented his strangury. Before he died Tresham had also told of Garnet's involvement with the 1603 mission to Spain, but in his last hours he retracted some of these statements. Nowhere in his confession did he mention the Monteagle letter. He died early on the morning of 23 December, and was buried in the Tower. Nevertheless he was attainted along with the other plotters, his head was set on a pike either at Northampton or London Bridge, and his estates confiscated.
Gunpowder Plot | Jesuits
Salisbury exploited this to extract higher subsidies from the ensuing Parliament than any but one granted to Elizabeth. Fawkes and others implicated in the unsuccessful conspiracy were executed.
James VI and I | Gunpowder Plot
The foiling of the Gunpowder Plot initiated a wave of national relief at the delivery of the King and his sons, and inspired in the ensuing parliament a mood of loyalty and goodwill, which Salisbury astutely exploited to extract higher subsidies for the King than any (bar one) granted in Elizabeth I's reign. Walter Raleigh, who was languishing in the Tower owing to his involvement in the Main Plot, and whose wife was a first cousin of Lady Catesby, declared he had had no knowledge of the conspiracy. The Bishop of Rochester gave a sermon at St. Paul's Cross, in which he condemned the plot.
Gunpowder Plot | Reaction
Catesby wants to save his friend Monteagle, but Fawkes, who regards him as an enemy, wants him blown up with the rest of the aristocracy. The two fight, at first with "doubtful" swords and then with bladders, before Fawkes is "done". The remainder of the pantomime consists of clowns acting out various comic scenes unrelated to the Gunpowder Plot. The play "Guido Fawkes: or, the Prophetess of Ordsall Cave" was based on early episodes of the serialised version of Ainsworth's 1841 novel. Performed at the Queen's Theatre, Manchester, in June 1840, it portrayed Fawkes as a "politically motivated sympathiser with the common people's cause".
Gunpowder Plot in popular culture | In theatre
Even if only half the gunpowder had gone off, everyone in the House of Lords and its environs would have been killed instantly. The blast would have been mostly directed upwards, Arup blasting consultant David Haddon, pointed out, raining debris in a 200-meter radius.
The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend | Synopsis
The Gunpowder Plot is the central theme of the second part of "Gunpowder, Treason & Plot", a 2004 TV miniseries, with Robert Carlyle as King James and Michael Fassbender as Guy Fawkes. On 22 October 2014, BBC Two broadcast "Gunpowder 5/11: The Greatest Terror Plot" written/produced/directed by Adam Kemp. The story is a dramatization, using the actual words of Thomas Wintour (Jamie Thomas King), Guy Fawkes and state interrogators, of the events from Wintour's recruitment of both Fawkes and his own brother to his capture on 8 November and of the final days of the conspirators after 5/11. The story uses "5/11" for the Gunpowder Plot in the same way "9/11" is used for the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks.
Gunpowder Plot in popular culture | On film and television
He was stripped of all public offices, fined £30,000 (about £ in 2020), and kept in the Tower until June 1621. The Lords Mordaunt and Stourton were tried in the Star Chamber. They were condemned to imprisonment in the Tower, where they remained until 1608, when they were transferred to the Fleet Prison. Both were also given significant fines.
Gunpowder Plot | Interrogations
His first words at the meeting were "Shall we always, gentlemen, talk and never do anything?" All five later swore an oath of secrecy on a prayer book, and then celebrated Mass in another room with Father Gerard, who was ignorant of their pact. While the plotters did not then have a detailed plan, Percy's appointment on 9 June as a Gentleman Pensioner gave him a reason to establish a London base. Through Northumberland's agents, Dudley Carleton and John Hippesley, he subleased a house in Westminster from Henry Ferrers, a tenant of John Whynniard, and installed Fawkes there as his servant, "John Johnson".
Thomas Percy (Gunpowder Plot) | Plot
The plot and the rhyme were referenced in the BBC "Sherlock" episode "The Empty Hearse" aired on 1 January 2014. Sherlock and Dr. Watson must stop a planned terrorist attack against the House of Lords on 5 November, where a late-night hearing on an anti-terrorist bill is being held. Watson is almost burned alive inside a giant bonfire.
Gunpowder Plot in popular culture | On film and television
It was then considered prudent to search the cellars on the day before each State Opening of Parliament, a ritual that survives to this day.
Gunpowder Plot | Accusations of state conspiracy
Although Catesby and Percy escaped the executioner, their bodies were exhumed and decapitated, and their heads exhibited on spikes outside the House of Lords. On a cold 30 January, Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant, and Thomas Bates, were tied to hurdles—wooden panels—and dragged through the crowded streets of London to St Paul's Churchyard. Digby, the first to mount the scaffold, asked the spectators for forgiveness, and refused the attentions of a Protestant clergyman. He was stripped of his clothing, and wearing only a shirt, climbed the ladder to place his head through the noose. He was quickly cut down, and while still fully conscious was castrated, disembowelled, and then quartered, along with the three other prisoners.
Gunpowder Plot | Executions
In the center of the plot is a detachment that managed to deliver gunpowder from Kronstadt to Leningrad, despite an attack by artillery and aircraft.
Gunpowder (film) | Plot
Undercrofts were common features at the time, used to house a variety of materials including food and firewood. Whynniard's undercroft, on the ground floor, was directly beneath the first-floor House of Lords, and may once have been part of the palace's medieval kitchen. Unused and filthy, its location was ideal for what the group planned to do. In the second week of June Catesby met in London the principal Jesuit in England, Father Henry Garnet, and asked him about the morality of entering into an undertaking which might involve the destruction of the innocent, together with the guilty. Garnet answered that such actions could often be excused, but according to his own account later admonished Catesby during a second meeting in July in Essex, showing him a letter from the pope which forbade rebellion.
Gunpowder Plot | Undercroft
Henry Douthwaite as Guy Fawkes Stuart Liddle as King James I Matt Rozier as Robert Catesby Jonathan Dunstan as Thomas Winteur Daniel Hoadley as Thomas Percy Toby Knight as John Wright Tallulah Boote Bond as Princess Elizabeth John Joyce as Father Henry Garnet
The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend | Historical dramatization
During the excitement caused by the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 he was arrested near Warwick while going under the name Thomas Rokewood, which he had no doubt assumed from Ambrose Rokewood of Coldham Hall, whose chaplain he then was, and who had, unfortunately, been implicated in the plot.
Thomas Garnet | Effect of the Gunpowder Plot
Each of the condemned, said Coke, would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground. He was to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both". His genitals would be cut off and burnt before his eyes, and his bowels and heart then removed. Then he would be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of his body displayed so that they might become "prey for the fowls of the air". Confessions and declarations from the prisoners were then read aloud, and finally the prisoners were allowed to speak. Rookwood claimed that he had been drawn into the plot by Catesby, "whom he loved above any worldy man".
Gunpowder Plot | Trials
The compression would have created a cannon effect, with the powder first blowing up from the top of the barrel before, a millisecond later, blowing out. Calculations showed that Fawkes, who was skilled in the use of gunpowder, had deployed double the amount needed. In a test detonation of all of period-accurate gunpowder available in the UK inside the same size of barrel Fawkes had used, the experts for the project were surprised at how much more powerful an effect that compression had in creating an explosion. Some of the gunpowder guarded by Fawkes may have survived. In March 2002 workers cataloguing archives of diarist John Evelyn at the British Library found a box containing a number of gunpowder samples, including a compressed bar with a note in Evelyn's handwriting stating that it had belonged to Guy Fawkes.
Gunpowder Plot | Reconstructing the explosion
By October 1605, he had 12 Catholic men assigned to his cause and was at work on the remaining details. Several conspirators expressed disquiet over the safety of fellow Catholics who might be caught in the planned explosion. Percy's concern was for his patron, Northumberland, who it seems might have been made Lord Protector if the plot had succeeded. Lord Monteagle's name was also mentioned, by a worried Francis Tresham. The fate of Elizabeth's brother, Prince Henry, was uncertain; although the plotters presumed that he would die with his father, they decided that if he did not attend Parliament, Percy should kidnap him.
Thomas Percy (Gunpowder Plot) | Plot
Despite Littleton's protests that he was not harbouring anyone, a search was made and another servant, David Bate, showed where the two plotters were escaping from a courtyard into the countryside. The two had been on the run for two months and they had Littleton to thank for evading the law for that long. Note the House at Hagley Park was in existence at least 150 years prior to the construction of Hagley Hall.
Hagley Hall | Gunpowder plot
Once the King and his Parliament were dead, the plotters intended to install Elizabeth on the English throne as a titular Queen. The fate of her brothers, Henry and Charles, would be improvised; their role in state ceremonies was, as yet, uncertain. The plotters planned to use Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, as Elizabeth's regent, but most likely never informed him of this.
Gunpowder Plot | Plot
Several hours later Fawkes was discovered guarding the explosives, and was arrested.
Robert Keyes | Gunpowder Plot
The plot may also have influenced his later work, "Paradise Lost". The Gunpowder Plot was commemorated for years by special sermons and other public acts, such as the ringing of church bells. It added to an increasingly full calendar of Protestant celebrations that contributed to the national and religious life of 17th-century England, and has evolved into the Bonfire Night of today. In "What If the Gunpowder Plot Had Succeeded?" historian Ronald Hutton considered the events which might have followed a successful implementation of the plot, and the destruction of the House of Lords and all those within it. He concluded that a severe backlash against suspected Catholics would have followed, and that without foreign assistance a successful rebellion would have been unlikely; despite differing religious convictions, most Englishmen were loyal to the institution of the monarchy.
Gunpowder Plot | Aftermath
On 25 March 1605 Percy also obtained the lease for the undercroft directly underneath the first-floor House of Lords. It was into this room that the plotters moved 36 barrels of gunpowder from Catesby's lodgings on the opposite side of the River Thames. The plan was that during the State Opening of Parliament, at which the king and his ministers would be present, the plotters would blow up the House of Lords, killing all those within it. James's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, would be captured during a Midlands uprising, and installed as a titular queen. Percy spent that Autumn collecting Northumberland's rents, while Catesby continued to enlist support.
Thomas Percy (Gunpowder Plot) | Plot
Northumberland, although not a Catholic himself, planned to build a strong relationship with James I in order to better the prospects of English Catholics, and to reduce the family disgrace caused by his separation from his wife Martha Wright, a favourite of Elizabeth I. Thomas Percy's meetings with James seemed to go well. Percy returned with promises of support for the Catholics, and Northumberland believed that James would go so far as to allow Mass in private houses, so as not to cause public offence. Percy, keen to improve his standing, went further, claiming that the future King would guarantee the safety of English Catholics.
Gunpowder Plot | Initial recruitment
In his speech to both Houses on 9 November, James expounded on two emerging preoccupations of his monarchy: the divine right of kings and the Catholic question. He insisted that the plot had been the work of only a few Catholics, not of the English Catholics as a whole, and he reminded the assembly to rejoice at his survival, since kings were divinely appointed and he owed his escape to a miracle. Salisbury wrote to his English ambassadors abroad, informing them of what had occurred, and also reminding them that the King bore no ill will to his Catholic neighbours.
Gunpowder Plot | Reaction
The public ranked Fawkes 30th in the BBC's "100 Greatest Britons", and he was included in Bernard Ingham's list of the 50 greatest people from Yorkshire.
Gunpowder Plot in popular culture | Polls
As news of Fawkes's capture spread, particularly through the great houses of the Strand, Christopher deduced what had occurred and went to Thomas Wintour at the Duck and Drake inn, exclaiming "the matter is discovered". Wintour ordered him to verify the news, and on confirming that the government were seeking Thomas Percy (for whom Fawkes, using the alias "John Johnson", claimed to be working), ordered him to alert Percy. Christopher and Percy left London together, heading for Dunstable.
John and Christopher Wright | Gunpowder Plot
The survivors were taken into custody and the dead buried near Holbeche, but on the orders of the Earl of Northampton, the bodies of Percy and Catesby were exhumed and their heads displayed on spikes at "the side of the Parliament House".
Thomas Percy (Gunpowder Plot) | Failure and death
Thomas Wintour begged to be hanged for himself and his brother, so that his brother might be spared. Fawkes explained his not guilty plea as ignorance of certain aspects of the indictment. Keyes appeared to accept his fate, Bates and Robert Wintour begged for mercy, and Grant explained his involvement as "a conspiracy intended but never effected". Only Digby, tried on a separate indictment, pleaded guilty, insisting that the King had reneged upon promises of toleration for Catholics, and that affection for Catesby and love of the Catholic cause mitigated his actions. He sought death by the axe and begged mercy from the King for his young family.
Gunpowder Plot | Trials
Fawkes was installed as a caretaker and began using the pseudonym John Johnson, servant to Percy. The contemporaneous account of the prosecution (taken from Thomas Wintour's confession) claimed that the conspirators attempted to dig a tunnel from beneath Whynniard's house to Parliament, although this story may have been a government fabrication; no evidence for the existence of a tunnel was presented by the prosecution, and no trace of one has ever been found; Fawkes himself did not admit the existence of such a scheme until his fifth interrogation, but even then he could not locate the tunnel. If the story is true, however, by December 1604 the conspirators were busy tunnelling from their rented house to the House of Lords.
Guy Fawkes | Gunpowder Plot
Soon after, the Jesuit priest Oswald Tesimond told Garnet he had taken Catesby's confession, in the course of which he had learnt of the plot. Garnet and Catesby met for a third time on 24 July 1605, at the house of the wealthy catholic Anne Vaux in Enfield Chase. Garnet decided that Tesimond's account had been given under the seal of the confessional, and that canon law therefore forbade him to repeat what he had heard. Without acknowledging that he was aware of the precise nature of the plot, Garnet attempted to dissuade Catesby from his course, to no avail.
Gunpowder Plot | Undercroft
Following their oath, the plotters left London and returned to their homes. The adjournment of Parliament gave them, they thought, until February 1605 to finalise their plans. On 9 June, Percy's patron, the Earl of Northumberland, appointed him to the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, a mounted troop of 50 bodyguards to the King. This role gave Percy reason to seek a base in London, and a small property near the Prince's Chamber owned by Henry Ferrers, a tenant of John Whynniard, was chosen. Percy arranged for the use of the house through Northumberland's agents, Dudley Carleton and John Hippisley.
Gunpowder Plot | Further recruitment
Dain wants to buy gunpowder through Almayer. Almayer doesn’t question why the man wants explosives. Dain manipulates him with tales of the legendary gold mountain of which he claims to know the location.
Hanyut | Plot
By March 1605 Christopher had joined the conspiracy as well, but in October that year, as the plan was nearing its culmination, its existence was revealed to the authorities by an anonymous letter delivered to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, warning him to stay away from Parliament. Uncertain of its meaning Monteagle delivered the letter to the English Secretary of State, Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury. Monteagle's servant was closely related to Christopher's wife, Margaret, and thus the plotters soon became aware of its existence. Catesby, by then at White Webbs near Enfield Chase with the Wright brothers, decided that the letter did not constitute a sufficiently serious threat to the scheme, and he decided to forge ahead.
John and Christopher Wright | Gunpowder Plot
The conspirators also planned to instigate an uprising in the Midlands and to simultaneously kidnap James's daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Percy was to remain in London and secure the capture of her brother, Prince Henry. When the plot was exposed early on 5 November 1605, Percy immediately fled to the Midlands, catching up with some of the other conspirators "en route" to Dunchurch in Warwickshire. Their flight ended on the border of Staffordshire, at Holbeche House, where they were besieged early on 8 November by the pursuing Sheriff of Worcester and his men. Percy was reportedly killed by the same musketball as Catesby, and was buried nearby.
Thomas Percy (Gunpowder Plot) | Introduction
As well as its primary targets, it would have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Londoners – the most devastating act of terrorism in Britain's history, plunging the nation into a religious war. English spymasters uncovered the plot and caught Guy Fawkes with the gunpowder beneath Parliament. The other conspirators fled to Holbeach in Staffordshire. A shoot out on November 8 with authorities led to the deaths of Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy and the brothers Christopher and John Wright. The rest were captured. Fawkes and seven others were tried and executed in January 1606. The planned attack has become known as the Gunpowder Plot and is commemorated in Britain every November 5 with fireworks displays and large bonfires with effigies of Guy Fawkes and the Pope are often burned.
History of terrorism | Gunpowder Plot
Walsh invited the conspirators to surrender, and upon their refusal ordered an assault of the building. All of the conspirators were either captured or killed. Catesby was killed, as were the John and Christopher Wright and Thomas Percy, but Ambrose Rookwood was captured alive and later held in Worcester gaol.
Richard Walsh (English politician) | Gunpowder Plot
Following the arrest of Guy Fawkes the plotters fled to Huddington Court and arrived at about 2.00 p.m. on Wednesday 6 November. They left early the following morning in the pouring rain and made it as far as Holbeach House in Staffs where following a shoot out they were killed or arrested. Some had fled and were picked up later, including Robert Wintour who evaded capture for two months. Thomas had been wounded and their half brother, John, surrendered his sword at Dudley Castle. They were all executed. Huddington Court was confiscated along with all their estates. However, it was back in family ownership by 1607, most probably via the payment of large fines by the Talbot estates.
Huddington Court | The Gunpowder Plot
This prompted a refutation later that year by Samuel Gardiner, who argued that Gerard had gone too far in trying to "wipe away the reproach" which the plot had exacted on generations of English Catholics. Gardiner portrayed Salisbury as guilty of nothing more than opportunism. Subsequent attempts to prove Salisbury's involvement, such as Francis Edwards's 1969 work "Guy Fawkes: the real story of the gunpowder plot?", have similarly foundered on the lack of any clear evidence. The cellars under the Houses of Parliament continued to be leased out to private individuals until 1678, when news of the Popish Plot broke.
Gunpowder Plot | Accusations of state conspiracy