Today in History—November 5: Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

On this day in 1605, English authorities caught a man in the cellar underneath the House of Lords in London, surrounded by (badly hidden) barrels of gunpowder.

Who was he, and how did he get there?

The infamous plot to blow up the English government started with the anti-Roman Catholic Penal Laws of the 16th century—a series of laws that basically criminalized Roman Catholicism.

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When King James I was crowned in 1603, English Catholics hoped he might prove more religiously tolerant than his predecessors. He quickly dashed that hope. Thus a group of angry Roman Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, began plotting a way to topple the Protestant government.

The plan was simple enough: The insurgents would rent a cellar underneath the Palace of Westminster and fill it with explosives. On the first day of the parliamentary session, they would take out the royal family and Parliament in one big blast. The weakened government, they reasoned, would be forced to meet their demands.

The conspirators needed someone with military experience to execute their scheme. They recruited Guy Fawkes, a young Roman Catholic soldier known for his pious and adventurous spirit.

Everything was going according to plan. Then, on October 26, a member of Parliament—who happened to be the brother-in-law of one of the conspirators—received a cryptic, anonymous letter. It urged him to avoid Parliament if he valued his life: “They shall receive a terrible blow.”

It was decided to search the cellars, but officials agreed to wait until the last minute in order to catch any criminals red-handed. That’s how, about midnight on November 4–5, royal guards walked in on Fawkes ready to set Parliament ablaze.

After days of torture, Fawkes named his coconspirators; those who survived capture were executed for treason.

The Gunpowder Plot, as it’s now known, only increased the severity of the Penal Laws in the following decades. And although Fawkes never saw Parliament burn, English crowds light fireworks and Guy Fawkes effigies every November 5 to commemorate the plan that went up in smoke.