Learn how an anonymous letter foiled the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy
Listen to the second installment of a series recounting the Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy of English Roman Catholics led by Robert Catesby to blow up Parliament and King James I, his queen, and his oldest son on November 5, 1605.
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Transcript
NARRATOR: Stories from Parliament. The Gunpowder Plot, Part two.
WILL DANBY: November the 4th 1605. After my nightmare, I lay awake knowing that the next day the King and the whole of Parliament would be blown to pieces. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I could see it all in my imagination.
But I didn't know about the letter. Somebody had sent a letter to Lord Monteagle, telling him not to go to Parliament the next day. Warning him that something terrible was going to happen.
ANONYMOUS WRITER: Tomorrow this Parliament shall receive a terrible blow. And yet, they should not see who hurts them.
DANBY: The letter was not signed. Monteagle took it to the King and from that moment, the gunpowder plot was doomed. The captain of the guard ordered his men.
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD: Find it. Search every attic and cellar. Open every door in Parliament. Throw open everything from the greatest hall to the smallest cupboard. Shine your torches into every nook and cranny. Go! Now!
GUARD MAN: Yes Captain!
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD: There is a threat to the King hidden in Parliament-- Find it!
GUARD MAN: Sir!
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD: Find it tonight. Find it now!
DANBY: In a cellar under the House of Lords directly under the hole where the King would have sat the next day, they found Guy Fawkes.
GUARD MAN: There! Seize that man! Bind his arms!
DANBY: And hidden under a pile of firewood, they found the thirty-four barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes had a watch, touchwood, and matches in his pocket. They took him to the Tower of London where the machines of torture and Sir Edward Cook were waiting. He didn't stand a chance.
SIR EDWARD COOK: Who were the other traitors, Fawkes? Give us their names and we will not hurt you.
GUY FAWKES: There were no others. I was working alone.
DANBY: Three days they say he told them nothing for three days.
COOK: Their names, Fawkes!
FAWKES: I was alone!
DANBY: Til on the third day, he broke.
FAWKES: Thomas Percy, Thomas Wintour, John Wright, Robert Catesby.
DANBY: So now they had my master's name. Robert Catesby put up a fight when the King's men tracked him down. But he was outnumbered, and they shot him dead.
I wept for my master, but at least I knew he had a quick death. The others were not so lucky. I was there at the trial in Westminster Hall. I saw them brought in, heard them condemned for high treason, heard, too their confessions and the terrible sentences that were passed upon them.
SENTENCER: A better fate awaits any man who is guilty of high treason. These plotters, these conspirators, these vile traitors, shall be dragged through the streets to Old Palace Yard in Westminster and there they will be hanged!
DANBY: I was there to see Guy Fawkes and three others die in the Old Palace Yard, right next to the Parliament building they wanted to blow up.
Traitors are made to suffer before they die. They're hanged, drawn and quartered. Their bodies are cut open while they are still alive. I will not tell you of the terrible things I saw that day, but I still shudder when I remember how those men died.
I knew what they were planning, you see. If they were all traitors, then so was I. And if they truly deserved that terrible death than perhaps I did, too.
And now, we Catholics will not be trusted for 100 years. They will stop us from practicing law or becoming officers in the army. Soon they will stop us from voting. For the next 100 years, we Catholics will be blamed for every fire and plague in England.
And the plotters, their names are already forgotten, except one. For the people will remember Guy Fawkes.
The King ordered bonfire's to be lit to remember the night his Majesty was saved from certain death. And now on November the 5th every year, people light their fires and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes. The man who waited in the dark with matches and touchwood in his pocket. The man who came within a whisker of changing England forever.
WILL DANBY: November the 4th 1605. After my nightmare, I lay awake knowing that the next day the King and the whole of Parliament would be blown to pieces. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I could see it all in my imagination.
But I didn't know about the letter. Somebody had sent a letter to Lord Monteagle, telling him not to go to Parliament the next day. Warning him that something terrible was going to happen.
ANONYMOUS WRITER: Tomorrow this Parliament shall receive a terrible blow. And yet, they should not see who hurts them.
DANBY: The letter was not signed. Monteagle took it to the King and from that moment, the gunpowder plot was doomed. The captain of the guard ordered his men.
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD: Find it. Search every attic and cellar. Open every door in Parliament. Throw open everything from the greatest hall to the smallest cupboard. Shine your torches into every nook and cranny. Go! Now!
GUARD MAN: Yes Captain!
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD: There is a threat to the King hidden in Parliament-- Find it!
GUARD MAN: Sir!
CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD: Find it tonight. Find it now!
DANBY: In a cellar under the House of Lords directly under the hole where the King would have sat the next day, they found Guy Fawkes.
GUARD MAN: There! Seize that man! Bind his arms!
DANBY: And hidden under a pile of firewood, they found the thirty-four barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes had a watch, touchwood, and matches in his pocket. They took him to the Tower of London where the machines of torture and Sir Edward Cook were waiting. He didn't stand a chance.
SIR EDWARD COOK: Who were the other traitors, Fawkes? Give us their names and we will not hurt you.
GUY FAWKES: There were no others. I was working alone.
DANBY: Three days they say he told them nothing for three days.
COOK: Their names, Fawkes!
FAWKES: I was alone!
DANBY: Til on the third day, he broke.
FAWKES: Thomas Percy, Thomas Wintour, John Wright, Robert Catesby.
DANBY: So now they had my master's name. Robert Catesby put up a fight when the King's men tracked him down. But he was outnumbered, and they shot him dead.
I wept for my master, but at least I knew he had a quick death. The others were not so lucky. I was there at the trial in Westminster Hall. I saw them brought in, heard them condemned for high treason, heard, too their confessions and the terrible sentences that were passed upon them.
SENTENCER: A better fate awaits any man who is guilty of high treason. These plotters, these conspirators, these vile traitors, shall be dragged through the streets to Old Palace Yard in Westminster and there they will be hanged!
DANBY: I was there to see Guy Fawkes and three others die in the Old Palace Yard, right next to the Parliament building they wanted to blow up.
Traitors are made to suffer before they die. They're hanged, drawn and quartered. Their bodies are cut open while they are still alive. I will not tell you of the terrible things I saw that day, but I still shudder when I remember how those men died.
I knew what they were planning, you see. If they were all traitors, then so was I. And if they truly deserved that terrible death than perhaps I did, too.
And now, we Catholics will not be trusted for 100 years. They will stop us from practicing law or becoming officers in the army. Soon they will stop us from voting. For the next 100 years, we Catholics will be blamed for every fire and plague in England.
And the plotters, their names are already forgotten, except one. For the people will remember Guy Fawkes.
The King ordered bonfire's to be lit to remember the night his Majesty was saved from certain death. And now on November the 5th every year, people light their fires and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes. The man who waited in the dark with matches and touchwood in his pocket. The man who came within a whisker of changing England forever.