WEBVTT - The Gunpowder Plot, Part 2 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:03.760 Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:10.440 Stuff Works dot com. This podcast is brought to you 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:14.000 by Audible dot com, the Internet's leading provider of audio books, 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.040 with more than eighty five thousand downloadable titles across all 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.639 types of literature. One audiobook to consider is Steve Jobs 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:24.279 by Walter Isaacson. This biography is based on many personal 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:28.400 interviews with Steve Jobs, his family, his friends and colleagues. 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:31.320 Here the real story of one of the greatest innovators 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.680 of our time. That's Steve Jobs. Available from Audible. To 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:38.120 try Audible free today and get a free audio book 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:41.440 of your choice, go to Audible podcast dot com slash 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:46.240 history Stuff. That's Audible podcast dot com slash history Stuff. 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:51.479 Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm to blame a 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.000 chuk reboarding and I'm fired out and by the time 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:56.880 this episode airs, some of you, especially if you live 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:00.200 in England, may have observed something known as bonfire or 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:04.280 night or Guy Fox Day on Saturday, November five, and 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.480 these events commemorate the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, which 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.039 was an attempt to murder King James the First of England, 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.760 his son Henry and many English noblemen. By blowing up 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.760 Parliament on November five, six oh five. It was also 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.360 known as the Powder Treason. Yeah, and we've talked about 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.000 it a little bit already. In part one of this story. 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.119 We looked into some of the historical events and situations 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:28.880 that set the stage for the plot, and we introduced 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.640 some of the conspirators involved too, and gave a basic 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.759 rundown of what their initial plan was. So, I think, 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:37.200 just for people who haven't heard that episode, let's give 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.360 them a quick recap of what we talked about earlier. Yes, Well, 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.200 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, Catholics were 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:47.440 subject to religious legislation that basically required Catholics to live 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:50.160 kind of a double life. If you were Catholic, you 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.760 had to at least outwardly conform and act like you 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.800 were accepting a Protestant lifestyle. If you didn't, then you 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:00.400 had to pay these steep procusancy fines. At the very least, 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.400 I mean, if you were harboring a priest or something 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.880 like that, that was a difficult. Yeah, that could be worse. 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:07.320 So when King James the First took the throne in 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.399 sixteen oh three, Catholics hoped that he'd be more tolerant, 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:14.240 but all he did was temporarily suspend recusancy. Find So 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.440 it was really disappointing to a lot of Catholics in general, 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.920 and some of them were actually proactive and started dreaming 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.280 up ways to overthrow the king and the Protestant government. Yeah, 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:26.960 they decided to do something about it, and the Gunpowder 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.799 plot was one of these plans that certain groups dreamed of. 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:34.880 It was devised primarily by a wealthy Catholic man named 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:39.119 Robert kates Me and a group of young Catholic activists, 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.440 mostly from Katesby's own social circle, and a lot of 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.200 the players were related somehow to wed By Blood or 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:48.720 by Mary. Yeah, we talked about that. We're gonna refresh 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.000 some of the players later on too, Except there is 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.880 one guy who is a total outlier. He is not 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.440 related to any of them, yet he is the most famous. 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:02.000 That's of course, Guy Fox. He was a militant English 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.840 Catholic who had spent years fighting with the Spanish army. 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.960 And remember we talked about earlier, the key to his 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.400 involvement in the plot was that he had been away 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:12.800 for so long and nobody knew who he was, right, 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.080 and we'll talk about that's more in a minute, but 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.320 basically their plan was to Lisa House adjacent to the 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.239 Houses of Parliament, dig a tunnel beneath them, and then 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.520 stash gunpowder under the chamber where the King, the House 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:26.520 of Lords and the House of Commons would all be 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.519 meeting when the next parliament session opened on November five, 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:33.280 six oh five. So when we saw them last March 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.840 of sixteen o five, our conspirators had just looked out 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.680 and they had gotten the chance to Lisa Seller, which 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.000 would was used at the time for coal storage. I 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.280 believe that extended right underneath the House of Lords, so 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.760 it made the tunnel unnecessary. There's a really good break 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:51.040 for them, exactly. So the plotters started filling up the 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:55.040 feller with barrels and barrels of gunpowder, sneaking in at night, 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:58.600 and they kept it pretty well concealed too. They covered 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.720 it with iron bars and lots of bundles of kindling, 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:03.880 so you can just tell it was a cellar full 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.120 of gunpowder. So over the next few months they managed 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.360 to get about thirty six barrels of gunpowder in there, 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:14.000 which was definitely enough to demolish everything in the mediate area, 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.880 including of course the King and his heir and the 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:20.280 members of parliament. But that was only if the gunpowder 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:24.160 was fresh enough by the time they actually ignited it, 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:27.919 and some folks have suggested that the gunpowder might have 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.440 decayed um others say, well, maybe they were able to 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:33.480 replace some of it, but that turns out to be 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.279 a moot point, and it still would have done some damage, 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.479 we can assume. But during this time Fox assumed the 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:43.200 role of the seller's caretaker, posing as a John Johnson, 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.400 a servant of Thomas Percy, who was the plotter who 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.320 would lease the space. And Fox was really well suited 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:51.359 to this role too, because, as we mentioned in the 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.920 previous podcast, he'd been out of the country for some time. 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:58.200 So his appearance, which Gunpowder plot historian Antonio Fraser has 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:02.839 described as quote tall, powerfully built, with thick reddish brown hair, 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:05.760 a flowing mustache in the tradition of the time, and 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:09.200 a bushy, reddish brown beard, was pretty much unknown in 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:11.640 London at that time, which is fortunate because he does 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:14.120 sound like a guy you probably would recognize if he 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.440 saw him. Twice Yes, very distinctive. So the plot seemed 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:22.200 to be progressing steadily but before fall even rolled around, 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.720 the conspirators did something you should probably never do if 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.760 you're really trying to keep a secret. They let more 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.320 people in on it. Kind of a lot, but we'll 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.640 just give you a refresher because there are a lot 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:35.760 of names here, and they worked to add many more 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:40.599 names to their party. But the original conspirators were Catesby, 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:45.599 Tom Wintour, Thomas Percy, Jack Wright, and Guy Fox. So 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:50.200 in the spring of sixteen o five, they included Robert Wintour, 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:54.080 who was Tom's brother, Kit Wright, who was Jack's brother, 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:58.560 and John Grant, who was Wintour's brother in law. Another guy, 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.200 Robert Keith, who was probably related to the wind Tour 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.440 brothers somehow or another, was also led into the group, 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:09.560 as was Katesby servant Thomas Bates. So, I mean, I 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.000 guess you figure you can trust your your brother. So 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.120 they're telling a few people, but this is already starting 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.360 to swell to a pretty large group of men. Yeah, 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:20.720 And then it got even worse when the plotters took 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.560 a break from the preparations they were doing over the summer. 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:29.320 Katesby also brought Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby, and Francis Tresham, 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:33.240 Katesby's cousin by marriage into the fold, mainly because of 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.320 their wealth. Katesby had been funding this whole thing by 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:38.520 himself so far and he really needed some help to 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.160 see it to its completion. And Rookwood and Digby were 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.440 also supposed to have a role in what will refer 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:47.960 to as part two of this plan. They both had 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:49.920 a lot of horses that were going to be useful 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.919 in the uprising at Katesby was planning after the explosion, 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:56.680 but more specifically after the explosion, which would take place 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:00.120 after Fox slit a slow match in the cellar. As 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.359 soon as the king had come into the House of Lords, 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.520 kate Spy would ride from London to the Midlands, where 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.880 he'd made Digby and Digby would have been waiting beforehand 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.440 with some servants that the Red Lion and dun Church 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.160 disguised as a hunting party. From there they would supposedly 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.600 go to kidnap Princess Elizabeth, the King's daughter from the 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.360 home of her governor and proclaim her queen. And we 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.360 mentioned her in the previous podcast as well, and the 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:26.440 reason that they were going to proclaim her queen is 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.560 because Prince Henry would have died in the explosion. He 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.040 was the oldest son of the king, and four year 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.800 old Prince Charles was too sickly. There were some there 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:36.440 was some question as to whether or not he was 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:38.880 gonna survive, and they didn't want to place all their 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:42.640 hopes on him. So yeah, that was the general idea 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:44.840 of the plot. But what was going to happen next 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.240 after they had kidnapped Princess Elizabeth, It's sort of unclear. 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:52.040 In an article for History Today, Simon Adams says that's 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:55.760 quote one of the major mysteries of the plot. So 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.360 presumably they would just try to marry Elizabeth off to 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:04.000 some their Catholic European prince and solidify their Catholic regime 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:08.200 that way, and they would create their own puppet queen essentially. 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.960 According to an article by Pauline Croft in History Review, though, 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.560 Tresham was uneasy about the whole plot pretty much as 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.320 soon as he heard it. So giant red flag here. 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:20.560 He's not liking what he hears, and you can't take 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.240 it back once you tell somebody all about your plot, either. 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.200 But regardless of how everyone felt about it, I mean, 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:29.080 that's still more than ten people. That's just a lot 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:31.160 of people to be involved in what's supposed to be 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.760 a secret plot. So maybe what happened next really isn't 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:40.080 that surprising. On October o five, just days before Parliament 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:42.800 was set to meet, William Parker, who's better known as 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:47.040 Lord Monteagal, received an anonymous letter warning him to quote 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.280 devise some excuse to shift your attendance at this parliament 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:54.880 to avoid quote a terrible blow. So basically, stay away 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.000 for your own good, don't go to parliament. So Lord 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:02.000 Monteagal was a former Catholic himself. He had also participated 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.920 in that ethics uprising with Katesby and friends that we 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.720 mentioned in the earlier podcast, and he had at least 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:14.560 publicly converted to the Protestant religion. Still, he had Catholic connections, 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:19.200 especially through his marriage. Tresham was Montegal's brother in law, 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:23.760 so um, Unfortunately for Kate's By, Tresham had a few 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:27.439 brothers in law to consider. But that's why the letter 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:31.080 is often attributed to Tresham because of that family connection. 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:33.840 But we really don't know for sure who sent it, 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.840 who warned Lord Monteagle. Yeah, Croft actually throws out some 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.520 other potential sources of the letters. She writes, for example, 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:44.600 that Tom Winter sometimes served as Montegal secretary, so there's 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.439 a connection there. But there's another theory that's even more 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.600 interesting to me at least. Croft also suggests that it's 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:54.760 possible that Monteagle himself wrote the letter and just incorporated 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.400 information that he gleaned from some of his Catholic cohorts 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.200 to tip people off under under the guise of an 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:03.800 anonymous letter. Right, but regardless of where it came from, 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.960 Monteagle shared this letter with Sir Robert Cecil, the Earl 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.040 of Salisbury, the head of the monarchy secret police, and 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.200 the King's Secretary of State. Salisbury, in turn, of course, 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:15.520 shares the letter with the King, and there aren't any 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.120 specifics in the letter, so they wait a couple of 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.199 days before they raise any sort of alarm. Katesby in 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.920 the meantime he hears about the letter too, and he's 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.679 obviously worried that the plot has been betrayed, so he 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:31.080 consults with his co conspirators and they actually decided just 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.560 to go ahead with the plan they suspected. I've read 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:37.240 that Tresham was at fault, but he swore to them 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:40.040 that he didn't do anything, so they just said, okay, 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.160 let's go. They weren't going to just completely rush into 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.800 it blindly though just named case. On November four, Percy 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.760 visited with his boss and his relative, the Earl of Northumberland, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:54.480 whose connections had of course helped Percy leave the house 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:56.560 in the cellar in the first place. He checked with 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:00.120 him to try to gauge whether or not the all 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:04.760 of Northumberland knew anything about the plan. Ironically, Percy did 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.760 not warn his relative to try to stay away from 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.080 Parliament himself that day, but Percy left the meeting feeling 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:14.480 pretty reassured that they were in the clear. Nobody knew 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.360 it was good. So it is all just full speed 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:21.320 ahead for the gunpowder plotters, or so they think, because 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.920 Saulisbury by this time has ordered the area all around 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.360 the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, to be searched. 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.880 During the first search, though they didn't find anything, though 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:33.760 they did run into Fox there. He was of course 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:37.400 posing as John Johnson, and so they took him basically 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:38.920 for what he was posing to be. They took him 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:42.200 for a servant. The gunpowder, as we mentioned, was concealed, 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:44.679 so they didn't see that in the search either. They 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.400 did notice all of that kindling, though, the kindling that 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.360 we mentioned that was concealing the gunpowder, and they thought 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.880 it was a little weird that that was all there. 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:55.840 But when they realized that Thomas Percy, who was of 0:11:55.880 --> 0:12:00.440 course a well respected gentleman pensioner, was leasing a space, 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:04.080 they figured, all right, it's probably okay. But then, according 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.560 to that Craft article, again Montego raised suspicion about the 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.880 fact that Percy was leasing the space even though he 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:13.200 had his own home in London, you know, like, why 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:17.360 does Percy need this place? Anyway? The King ordered another 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.640 search after that, and they found Fox at about midnight 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:25.720 on November four, along with the gunpowder, very incriminating slow 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:29.640 match and a watch that Percy had given him to 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:33.120 check the time with. So the plot was done caught 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:36.680 red handed. So Fox was arrested as John Johnson and 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.200 thrown into the Tower of London, where it said that 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.920 he was interrogated and tortured to reveal the names of 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:45.080 the other conspirators, even though torture was illegal in England 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.120 at the time. It took two days to break Fox 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:50.400 down for him to finally give up the names of 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:52.920 the others who were involved in the plot. Percy's name, 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.440 of course, had already been linked with the leases, so 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:58.600 there was already a warrant out for his arrest. Meanwhile, 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:02.600 though katesby Rook would the right brothers, Percy and Bates 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:04.559 all roads in the Midlands where part two of the 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.320 plan was supposed to happen, but of course that wasn't 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:09.760 going to happen now. Instead, they met up with the 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:13.560 other co conspirators, raided Warwick Castle for fresh horses, and 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:17.040 then went looking for help and apparently got refused by 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.840 several Catholic safe houses. They just kept going from house 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.080 to house, but nobody would join them, and nobody would 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:24.520 offer them help. I was interested in that point because, 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.040 I mean, it suggests me at least that word of 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.760 the plot must have spread really quickly, I mean, all 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.000 the way up in the Midlands to houses to know 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:35.920 better than to actually accept these people into your home. Well, 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:37.520 a big deal was made out of it, which we're 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.360 going to touch on a little bit later, But at 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:41.320 that time, yeah, I guess people knew it wasn't a 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:45.040 good idea to to protect these people, so they eventually 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:47.720 stopped at whole beach House in Staffordshire, where they thought 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:50.360 they could at least put up a defense there. But 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:52.679 they messed up right in the beginning by putting their 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.839 damp gunpowder by the fire to dry, so of course 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.959 the gunpowder exploded and it burned a couple of them 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.320 in the process. It minded one guy. It's all rather 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:04.560 ironic if you think about it long and hard. But 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:07.480 of course at this point the odds were even worse 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.960 for them. Not only are they on the run for 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.680 high treason, but they are injured, and according to Kroff, 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.400 they considered just getting out of the whole thing blowing 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:20.520 themselves up at this point. But by November eight men 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.760 led by the High Sheriff of wush sure did them. 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.480 In the rest of the way. They had this quick battle. 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.600 Katesby the rights and Percy ended up dying from their wounds. 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:35.040 It sounds like it was probably the best way to go. Thomas, Wintour, Rookwood, 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.240 and Grant were captured. Five of the guys were still free, 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.000 but not for very long. By the new year, all 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:45.280 of them were captured, and then Trusham, when he was 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.520 contained in the tower, fell ill and died, and some 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:52.400 people think that maybe he was poison Maybe even Monteagle 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.280 took mercy on him because of that letter of warning 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:59.120 and slipped him some poison helped him escape what would 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:03.040 ultimately be a far worse punishment of drawing and quartering, 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:06.680 which is the fate the rest of them were destined for. Yep, 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.120 all the plotters who weren't dead were put on trial 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.720 January sixteen o six, and of course they were all 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.640 found guilty of high treason and executed over the next 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.440 couple of days. They were all hanged, drawn and quartered. 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.960 So the plot was ultimately unsuccessful, and maybe because of that, 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:26.000 it's been the subject of debate for many years. Some 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.640 have even suggested that there was no plot, that the 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.840 plotters were actually set up by the government, specifically the 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:35.080 Earl of Salisbury, who knew that the backlash after the 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.960 plot was exposed would just reinforced Protestantism and strength and 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:42.520 hatred toward Catholics in England. Yeah, and in a nineteen 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.440 interview with The New York Times, Fraser, who we mentioned earlier, 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:48.880 said that the reason the origins of the plot are 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.560 up for debate is that researchers are trying to quote 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:57.040 draw conclusions from imperfect records and testimonies taken under torture. 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.000 She says that you really have to assess the evidence 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.760 and make up your own mind. And for her part, 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.000 she does believe there was the plot. According to Teaching History, 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:10.200 most historians do generally accept this idea. Now they do 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:13.640 think there was something going on, but the results of 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:17.000 government conspiracy would have been aiming for still came to pass. 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.440 The Gunpowder plot just made anti Catholic feelings in England 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:24.560 more intense. There were new laws preventing Catholics from practicing law, 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:27.600 serving as officers in the army or the navy, and 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:30.280 they weren't allowed to vote. On the evening of Guy 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.240 that Guy Fox was caught. November fifth, sixteen o five, 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:37.080 the first Guy Fox type celebration took place. The people 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:40.520 of London rang bells and lip bonfires to celebrate the 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.480 fact that the king and his nobility were safe. In 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:46.200 sixteen o six, the English government passed an act to 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.200 make the celebration an annual event, which at first was 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.200 religious in nature, with sermons and everything, and then later 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.480 it became more of a raucous social event. In the 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:58.320 seventeenth century, people started burning effigies of the pope on 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.120 the fires. And in the eighteen century is when the 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:05.480 little guy Effi g appeared. Yeah, And in eighteen fifty nine, 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:09.679 since there was an increased emphasis on religious toleration, the 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:14.560 sixteen o six Act was finally abolished and the Bonfire Night. 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.440 At that point the celebrations really started to morph into 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:21.480 private bonfires and fireworks parties that children would go sell 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:23.919 the guys on the street to fund. And over the 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:26.679 years it really became more of a family event in 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.680 a lot of places with fireworks displays, kind of how 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:32.360 we would celebrate Fourth of July here on sounds sort 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:34.959 of similar to that, although people can definitely correct us 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.800 if we're wrong about that, but certain similar elements. Right. 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.720 So now Bonfire Night celebrations still exist, but they compete 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:45.000 with other false celebrations like Halloween, and I'm really interested. 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.359 We asked during the last podcast for people to send 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.960 us um some examples of things that they do to 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.160 celebrate Bonfire Night, if they celebrated it at all, and 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:56.240 so hopefully we'll get to read some of those on 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:00.000 an upcoming podcast. Kind of awesome to have this always, 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.800 Like I guess the week after Halloween to you can 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.000 bring out your costumes again. Maybe I don't know, if 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.040 you celebrate both and it's just like a two week 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:11.719 long celebration or something exactly. The Gunpowder plot didn't leave 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:15.080 a mark, though, of a more serious mark than just 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.760 all these bonfire parties. The Houses of Parliament are still 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.639 searched just before the State Opening, which has been held 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:28.480 in November since nine even though Parliament's website says this 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:32.200 is retained as a picturesque custom rather than a serious 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.840 anti terrorist precaution, for which of course there are proper 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.840 mean I'm glad they qualified that for us. But Guy 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.600 Flox in the Gunpowder Plot have also been invoked quite 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.000 a bit in art and pop culture. One of the 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:46.159 most well known examples is the one that we mentioned 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:48.440 in part one of this podcast, which is the two 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:51.440 thousand six movie V for Vendetta, based on the comic 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:54.160 book series by Alan Moore, in which an anarchist known 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.440 as V tries to bring down the government. Basically that's 0:18:57.480 --> 0:18:59.960 the basic plot line of this and V where is 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.440 a guy Fox mask? And if you haven't seen this movie, 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:04.640 I do highly recommend it, especially now that we've kind 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.000 of gone over the story. I did enjoy it, Sarah, 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:08.960 you haven't seen it, right, haven't seen it? And I 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:11.760 know now that I've admitted that. Whenever we admit there's 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:13.800 a certain movie we haven't seen, we usually hear from 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:16.520 people telling us, I can't believe you haven't seen that. 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.320 You're still getting Harry Potter email. I'm still getting Harry 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.159 Potter emails. We're still getting ned Kelly emails. So you know, 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:24.679 I'm sure you'll get emails about this one too. But 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.200 maybe because of the movie and its association with popular 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:32.399 revolution and anti establishment ideals that mask. The Guy Fox 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:36.679 mask has shown up in other places to members of 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:39.600 the hacker group Anonymous have been known to wear it. 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.200 I was talking to Jonathan Strickland of Tech Stuff about 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:43.720 that recently. He brought it up to me when he 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.000 found out we were doing this, and recently people involved 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.160 in the Occupy Wall Street movement have been wearing it too. 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:52.879 So it is interesting to see how this idea of 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:55.800 Guy Fox is still very political. It makes me wonder, though, 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:58.840 how many of the people wearing the masks today really 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:01.600 know the story of Guy fa Box, or even if 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:04.440 they know who Guy Fox is and they know about 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:07.359 the bonfires did they know the whole history of the plot? Yeah, 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:11.000 And to Robert Catesby, is I mean Catesby to research 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.199 your studying him now? Was really a true terrorist? He 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:16.040 didn't kill He didn't care that he was about to 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.040 kill a life people. He didn't care that he might 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:20.960 have killed Catholics too, and people he knew for sure 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:23.959 right in what he was doing. Um So, I'm curious 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.639 to know what people think about this phenomenon of people 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.760 wearing Guy Fox masks for different reasons. Um so right 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.159 to us. You can write us at history Podcast at 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:35.320 how stuff works dot com, or you can look us 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.120 up on Facebook or on Twitter Atmston History. And we 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.679 were also talking to our colleague Kristen Conger of stuff 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.760 Mom never told you earlier. She's writing an article on 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:48.240 how Occupy Wall Street works, and I bet that'll be 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:51.880 published by the time this episode publishes, So that might 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.600 be a good opportunity to learn a little bit more 0:20:54.640 --> 0:21:00.200 about this modern offsheet of Guy Fox. Um para nail, Yeah, 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:02.600 I guess that's what we'd call it. You can check 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.800 that out. It's how Occupy Wall Street Works on our 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:15.199 homepage at www dot how stuff works dot com. This 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:17.679 podcast is brought to you by audible dot Com, the 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:20.640 Internet's leading provider of audiobooks, with more than eighty five 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.240 thousand downloadable titles across all types of literature and featuring 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:27.720 audio versions of many New York Times bestsellers. To try 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.000