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Posts Tagged ‘Guy Fawkes Day’

Guy Fawkes (1570 -1606) conspired in the Gunpowder Plot to blow up King James the 1st and members of both Houses of Parliament.
He was arrested in the cellar, which contained 36 barrels of gunpowder, on November 4, 1605 interrogated, tortured and finally executed.
Guy Fawkes Night is still celebrated in Britain every year with bonfires, fireworks and the burning of the “Guy”.

Bit of a joke poster for the 5th November gunpowder plot. Was it an inside job? Quite possibly, it has been suggested by a few conspiracy theorists that the whole plot was an inside job by the govenrment to convince King James that the Catholics could not be trusted. Seems like a strange stunt but consider the following points:

Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury and James’ right hand man hated Catholics and saw them as real trouble makers. Cecil was worried that King James would go softly on them during his reign and this irked him to say the least. Cecil wanted Catholicism out of England altogether, the steps that King James were taking to expel priests was not enough for him.

It is well known (amongst those who know) that James was very scared of meeting a violent end. Growing up in Scotland his life had been full of dangers; he was even kidnapped as a young boy. Cecil knew this and it’s possible he thought that by getting James to believe they had tried to blow him up would turn him against them for good.

36 barrels of gunpowder is a lot of powder. In those days the government tightly controlled all the gunpowder in Britain, so how did Guy Fawkes and co. get a hold of that much? Did they have a contact inside parliament?

Why would a bunch of Catholics be allowed to rent a house so close to the Houses of parliament or a cellar right underneath it? Seems a bit unlikely in those troubled times.

Why search the parliament cellars on that night, for the first time in British history? What would inspire such a search? Convenient, almost too convenient.

Why did the soldier who shot Robert Catesby and Thomas Percy at the shootout at Holbeach House receive such a large pension (allegedly 10p a day for life) as a reward? Surely these men would have been better taken alive so they could squeal on their co conspirators.

All intriguing and thought provoking arguments, however, just like any good conspiracy there are counter arguments just as powerful. We will attack them in reverse order. Just to be different.

The soldier had bravely fought and risked life and limb for his King and country, of course he was due a good pension. Although 10p a day seems a bit meagre by today’s standards it was a lot back then.

The cellars were most likely searched because of Lord Monteagles letter. “What’s that?” I hear you say. I’m glad you asked.
During the preparation, several of the conspirators had been concerned about fellow Catholics who would be present on the appointed day, and inevitably killed. One conspirator, Francis Tresham – who had been introduced to the plot as he was a wealthy Catholic, and could provide money and weapons – is suspected of writing the anonymous letter of warning to Lord Monteagle, a prominent Catholic and Tresham’s own Brother-in-law. Monteagle received the letter on Friday October 26, at his house in Hoxton:

My lord out of the love I bear to some of youre frends I have a care of your preseruasion therefore I would advise you as you tender your life to devise some excuse to shift of your attendance at this parliament for god and man hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this time and think not slightly of this advertisement but retire youre self into youre control where you may expect the event in saftey for though there be no appearance of any stir yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this parliament and yet they shall not see who hurts them this councel is not to be condemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm for the danger is passed as soon as you have burnt the letter and I hope god will give you the grace to make good use of it to whose holy protection I commend you.

Monteagle had the note read aloud, possibly in an attempt to warn the plotters the secret was out, and promptly handed it over to Robert Cecil who was the 1st Earl of Salisbury and the Secretary of State. The other conspirators learned of the letter the following day but resolved to go ahead with their plan after Fawkes inspected the undercroft and found that nothing had been touched.

So, it seems from this that it was this letter from the traitor to the plot, Francis Tresham, that in the end tipped off big Cecil and foiled the plan.

The plotters would all have been using fake names and concealed their true identities, indeed we know that Guy Fawkes was under the assumed alias “John Johnson” which is the lazy and quickly thought up fake name a young miscreant might give when inadvertently having his collar felt by the rozzers today.

“My name, erm, John”

“John what!?”

“Erm, John Johnson?”

Furthermore Thomas Percy had contacts in the parliament and these were almost certainly used in obtaining the rented property for their devious scheme.

36 barrels of gunpowder is a lot of powder, but come on, anything can be obtained if you know the right people and have the hard cash. Guy Fawkes knew a lot of military types from his days in the Spanish army so this would have been a very easy obstacle for them.

So if it was a big conspiracy, why did Fawkes not crack under torture and spill the beans? He was famously tough to interrogate (like Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon) in fact the only one who cracked and talked was Thomas Winter and he made no mention of a double conspiracy. They all knew they would be executed one way or the other so why not snitch at this point as there was nothing left to lose.

The other little unanswered question here is Francis Tresham.

He was the man who wrote the letter to Lord Monteagle and also the one man who was not killed or hanged with the others. He was locked in the Tower of London and allegeldly died from taking poison on the 23^rd December 1605. Where did he get the poison from? Did someone want him silenced? Was he poisoned at all or did he abscond in secret out of the country for his part in helping the government?

It is almost certain the big Cecil was at it somehow although exactly how we will never know; in fact all of these questions perhaps will never be answered. One thing that is for sure that the arguments over the conspiracy will rage on and continue to keep us entertained for many years to come.

For more information on the history of the Gunpowder Plot and the events that led up to it visit the Epic Fireworks Learning Centre.

A COMBINATION of foul weather and hard work saw a massive drop in bonfire-related incidents in and around Kilmarnock last week.

Station Commander Stephen Logan, based at the town’s fire station in Campbell Street, said on Monday this year’s Guy Fawkes’ night celebrations had been one of the quietest his crews had seen for years.

Said Stephen: “Four years ago there were 40 fireworks/bonfire-related turnouts at the station from November 1-5.

“That figure has been steadily decreasing and the figure for the same period last week was actually down to just seven – a massive drop.”

The station commander acknowledged that the heavy rain over the days leading up to November 5 had helped the situation.

But he added: “It shows too that our approach is working. We have been co-operating with East Ayrshire Council, and that has paid off. Unofficial bonfires around the area were cleared away prior to Thursday night.

“We have also been going around schools talking to pupils about safety issues relating to fireworks.

“It was very pleasing to such encouraging statistics this year.”

The big East Ayrshire Council fireworks display planned for Kay Park on Thursday night was cancelled due to the boggy state of the area in the wake of the prolonged wet spell.

EAC said this week that they appreciated that the call-off had disappointed thousands of people, with the annual display normally one of the major events of the year in the Kilmarnock area.

It’s hoped to reschedule the display, but as the Standard went to press no future date had been confirmed.

The execution of Guy Fawkes’ (Guy Fawkes), by Claes (Nicolaes) Jansz Visscher, given to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1916.

The Execution of Guy Fawkes

This is the scene where Guy Fawkes was executed. It is a little known fact that Guy cheated the executioners. When he was to be hanged he planned to wait until the noose was around his neck and jump, thus snapping his neck and sparing him from the terrible pain of a full execution. Right up until his death, it seems, he was a cunning plotter.

The text at the top of the page transaltes as:

The PUNISHMENT
exacted from the eight conspirators in Britain,
on January 30 & 31, 1606,
actually exacted in separate groups of four,
but nevertheless on account of the very same cause of Punishment,

Everybody else was hung drawn and quartered. Learn more about the history of Guy Fawkes and the rest of the conspirators at Epic Fireworks Website.

An explosion at a fireworks warehouse which sent thousands of shells and rockets bursting into the nightime Somerset sky, has seen the boss of the company fined and banned from being a company director for 5 years.
Andrew Collins of Firemagic Ltd admitted 2 breaches of health and safety regulations and a further 3, as the sole director of the company.

The court was told fireworks were not stored correctly in a secure storage area once they had been fused, when the fire swept through the warehouse the fireworks went off like the 4th of July. Also the warehouse was full beyond the legal capacity.Storing such a quantity of fireworks is very dangerous indeed.

An Avon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service spokesman who described the scene upon his arrival said some fireworks caught alight causing “an impromptu display”, which lasted 40 minutes. “It was pretty spectacular when we first got here,” he added.

The explosion was loud enough to be heard six miles away and the conflagration that followed was enough to completely destroy the factory and 2 adjacent businesses.

Three members of staff at the factory were taken to hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation and shock.

The fire broke out in the tool room of the warehouse, where a worker was testing detonators. Staff were working late at night during the busy Guy Fawkes season when one of the men spotted a small flame coming from the tool room. Going against training – and common sense – the men tried to fight the fire themselves. After they emptied 6 fire extinguishers in a desperate bid to save the building, they were forced to flee and call the fire service.

There was a series of serious mistakes and incidents of carelessness that led to the fire. It seems that 2 policemen, who were on the site fitting CCTV equiptment – due to burglaries at the premises – witnessed 30 cartons of fireworks on the floor of the warehouse. The police also saw a bonfire lit during the day less than 20 metres from the wide open doors of the warehouse! This is strongly denied by Mr. collins.

Firemagic Ltd pleaded guilty to the charge of over stocking the explosives site and exceeding the maximum gunpowder weight limit.

Sentencing Collins, Judge Lambert said: “Training was so inadequate that when fire broke out workers tried to tackle it themselves against the regulations, putting their health and safety and ultimately their lives at risk. Figures for damage exceeded £300,000 and one man had his business ruined.” He didn’t order Collins pay the council’s costs, which ran into six figures, due to his inability to pay.

Mr Fuller – speaking on behalf of Mr. Collins – said the company admitted to overstocking fireworks but had been misled by the Chinese firm it imported fireworks from as to their explosive content, taking it over the limits of its licence. He also said Collins had been involved in the fireworks industry since he was 19 and had an impeccable safety record at thousands of displays.

He went on to add that Mr. Collins was genuinely remorseful about the incident, especially about the damage caused to his neighbours.