Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey Listener discretion advised.
Speaker 1: This is part two of our series on the Gunpowder plot.
Speaker 1: If you haven't listened to last week's episode, you should
Speaker 1: probably start there. On the evening of October twenty six five,
Speaker 1: a man walked through the streets of London with the
Speaker 1: weight of his treason jostling uneasily inside his coat pocket.
Speaker 1: I like to imagine this man periodically grasping at the
Speaker 1: same patch of cloth on his chest as he made
Speaker 1: it through the throngs of Londoners casually strolling to their
Speaker 1: Wednesday evening dinner lands, a minor heart attack ensuing each
Speaker 1: time until he felt the envelopes reassuring crinkle underneath his
Speaker 1: layers of outerwear. Though even as his fingers brushed against
Speaker 1: the paper's edge, the letters contents likely kept the man
Speaker 1: from feeling anything close to reassurance. The truth was the
Speaker 1: man was carrying not one, but two accounts of treason
Speaker 1: on his person. The first belonged to his participation in
Speaker 1: the planned Catholic coup against the British Protestant government set
Speaker 1: to take place in Parliament in just ten days, on
Speaker 1: the fifth of November, the same plot that had a
Speaker 1: man named Guy Fox overseeing thirty six barrels of gunpowder
Speaker 1: underneath the floors of Parliament, just waiting for the order
Speaker 1: to give the whole building and everyone inside of it
Speaker 1: a fireworks show, the likes of which they had never
Speaker 1: and undoubtedly would never see again. The second account of
Speaker 1: treason was not against the British government, but against the
Speaker 1: group behind the gunpowder plot itself. For in the rumpled
Speaker 1: envelope in the man's jacket pocket was not information for
Speaker 1: his co conspirators, but a warning for their enemy, whether
Speaker 1: it was cold feet or a sudden burst of humanity
Speaker 1: invading the man's conscience. The evening of October twenty six
Speaker 1: found this man stalking the streets of London in search
Speaker 1: of the servant to one Lord Monteagle. Later, when recalling
Speaker 1: the encounter, the servant would only be able to characterize
Speaker 1: the man who had stopped him as a quote man
Speaker 1: of reasonable tall personage unquote. In the centuries to come,
Speaker 1: historians would come a little closer to establishing the man's
Speaker 1: true identity. Could it have been Thomas Percy, one of
Speaker 1: the five men who had first conspired to blow up
Speaker 1: Parliament alongside Guy Fox and Robert Catesby at the Duck
Speaker 1: and Drake Inn in May six o four. If not him,
Speaker 1: was there a chance this mysterious man wasn't even related
Speaker 1: to the plot at all? Was he just a courier
Speaker 1: sent in someone else's stead, or is it possible, well,
Speaker 1: did this man even exist? Maybe Lord Monteagle staged this
Speaker 1: entire scene in his account to King James so as
Speaker 1: to distance himself from the knowledge he had otherwise how
Speaker 1: come to acquire. The truth will likely remain lost to history.
Speaker 1: Who this man actually was walking through London with the
Speaker 1: letter in his pocket, or whether he had even existed
Speaker 1: at all, But the words of that letter, written in
Speaker 1: their hasty, near allegible scrawl, would be remembered long after
Speaker 1: the mysterious man who stopped Lord Monteagal's servant disappeared into
Speaker 1: the night. Quote, my Lord, out of the love I
Speaker 1: bear to some of your friends, I have a care
Speaker 1: of your preservation. Therefore I would advise you to devise
Speaker 1: some excuse to shift of your attendance at this Parliament.
Speaker 1: For though there be no appearance of any stir yet,
Speaker 1: I say they shall receive a terrible blow. I'm Danis Schwartz,
Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. Upon receiving the rumpled letter
Speaker 1: from his servant, Lord Montagal wasn't entirely sure what to think.
Speaker 1: On one hand, the late hour in which the note arrived,
Speaker 1: in conjunction with the poor penmanship and odd channels it
Speaker 1: had taken to get to him in the first place,
Speaker 1: all added up to something more akin to a prank
Speaker 1: than a real warning. After all, who would be crazy
Speaker 1: enough to actually conspire a terrible blow against the whole
Speaker 1: of Parliament? Well, if you need a quick recap as
Speaker 1: to exactly who was crazy enough to attempt to blow
Speaker 1: up Parliament, allow me to briefly bring you up to speed.
Speaker 1: In response to Queen Elizabeth the First and King James's
Speaker 1: persecution of British Catholics in the late sixteenth and early
Speaker 1: seventeenth centuries, a group of five Catholic recusants led by
Speaker 1: a man named Robert Catesby, met in London at the
Speaker 1: Duck and Drake Inn in May sixteen o four to
Speaker 1: discuss the beginnings of what would come to be known
Speaker 1: as the Gunpowder Plot. Sitting at the table next to Catesby,
Speaker 1: where his second in command Thomas Wintour, the renowned swordsman
Speaker 1: Jack Wright, a guardsman of the Earl of Northumberland, Thomas Percy,
Speaker 1: and notorious explosive as expert Guy Fox. Together the men
Speaker 1: agreed to plot an attack against Parliament and the King,
Speaker 1: a plot which took the form of Thomas Percy acquiring
Speaker 1: the storage space underneath the House of Parliament so Guy
Speaker 1: Fox could pose as a footman named John Johnson, who
Speaker 1: would then smuggle thirty six barrels of gunpowder hidden underneath
Speaker 1: piles of firewood into its depths, to be set off
Speaker 1: on the inning day of Parliament when the King would
Speaker 1: be present November five, six o five, after which Catesby,
Speaker 1: Wintour and Right would spread news of the King's death
Speaker 1: in the Midlands, kidnapped the King's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, and
Speaker 1: established her as England's next Catholic ruler. And while Lord
Speaker 1: Montegal likely had no prior knowledge of the plot and
Speaker 1: therefore questioned its authenticity, his servant held no such doubts.
Speaker 1: As it happened, Monteagal servant actually had close family ties
Speaker 1: to the family of one of the original conspirators, Jack
Speaker 1: Wright the Swordsman. So when Lord Montegal eventually decided to
Speaker 1: air on the side of caution and send word to
Speaker 1: warn his colleagues, his servant had already sent word to
Speaker 1: write relaying the betrayal within their ranks. Upon unreceiving word
Speaker 1: from Right that they had been betrayed, Katesby and his
Speaker 1: second in command, Win Tour, immediately tried to weed out
Speaker 1: the trader in their ranks, but this proved to be
Speaker 1: a flaw in their own design, because while Percy and
Speaker 1: Fox had been left to deal with the practical measures
Speaker 1: of securing a location for the gunpowder to be placed
Speaker 1: to ensure maximum destruction, Katesby and win Tour had been
Speaker 1: busy recruiting additional conspirators to help in the plot, and
Speaker 1: by mid October the number of plotters had risen from
Speaker 1: the original five that had met at the Duck and
Speaker 1: Drake to a sizeable thirteen. Of course, more help also
Speaker 1: meant more mouths to keep quiet, and if the letter
Speaker 1: was any indication, As the date of the attack drew closer,
Speaker 1: at least one of the men began to get cold feet.
Speaker 1: In the ten intervening days between the discovery of the
Speaker 1: Monteagal Letter and the opening of Parliament. Chaos and panic
Speaker 1: rose like a fog in the London streets. The leaked
Speaker 1: letter caused tensions among the conspirators to run higher with
Speaker 1: each passing day, until finally some of the newer recruits
Speaker 1: began to openly voice their doubts to Ktesby. In the end,
Speaker 1: even Thomas Wintoor all but begged Ktesby to call off
Speaker 1: the plot, but predictably, he couldn't be swayed. The end
Speaker 1: was near and he wanted to see it through, no
Speaker 1: matter the cost. With the clock running down, on the
Speaker 1: evening of November fourth, Ktesby and Wright rode off for
Speaker 1: the Midlands, getting in position ready to enact the rebellion
Speaker 1: that would follow the initial blow to parliam Mint, which
Speaker 1: would take place the following day. But back in London,
Speaker 1: authorities were already beginning to unravel their plans days previously.
Speaker 1: On the first of November, King James became privy to
Speaker 1: the contents of the so called Monteagle Letter, and by
Speaker 1: November four he had guards searching at the Palace of
Speaker 1: Westminster for anything that could cause the letters ominous blow
Speaker 1: to Parliament. It was then that officials stumbled upon a
Speaker 1: peculiar seller directly below the floors of Parliament, stacked Florida
Speaker 1: ceiling with bundles of firewood. Upon this first inspection, authorities
Speaker 1: could find no reason for suspicion. While its appearance was
Speaker 1: undoubtedly odd, there was no law specifically forbidding the storage
Speaker 1: of what likely seemed like an excessive amount of firewood.
Speaker 1: In the sellers available for rent in the Palace of Westminster.
Speaker 1: There was a man some sort of servant that happened
Speaker 1: to be near the seller at the time of inspection,
Speaker 1: but this was similarly not cause for any overt sense
Speaker 1: of alarm. It was only after the inspectors left the
Speaker 1: scene that they discovered the peculiar seller in question belonged
Speaker 1: to none other than Thomas Percy, a man who was
Speaker 1: coincidentally good friends with Lord Monteagle, and whose Catholic sympathies
Speaker 1: were of relatively common knowledge. That friendship, for the record,
Speaker 1: is why some suspect the man who delivered the letter
Speaker 1: to be Percy or one of his servants working on
Speaker 1: his behalf. That connection led the king to demand a
Speaker 1: second search of the seller, whereupon they happened on a
Speaker 1: far more anister scene than they had uncovered during their
Speaker 1: first investigation. When authorities arrived at the cell for a
Speaker 1: second time, the servant that had been present earlier was
Speaker 1: there again, only now he had undergone a rather ominous
Speaker 1: costume change. The servant, who identified himself as John Johnson,
Speaker 1: was dressed in riding clothes, as if ready to make
Speaker 1: a quick getaway. When searched, investigators found a watch and
Speaker 1: long stemmed matches hidden in the folds of his cloak,
Speaker 1: leading them once again to take a look at the
Speaker 1: copious amount of firewood stacked in the cellar before them.
Speaker 1: It was then that they discovered, underneath the bundles of
Speaker 1: wood lay thirty six barrels of gunpowder, waiting for one
Speaker 1: long stemmed match to spark the devastating blow to Parliament.
Speaker 1: By the early hours of November five five, the Gunpowder
Speaker 1: plot was one stiff breeze away from complete and utter collapse.
Speaker 1: The first call for arrest was for the man whose
Speaker 1: name was on the lease of the gunpowder filled seller,
Speaker 1: Thomas Percy. Unbeknownst to authorities, Percy was already well on
Speaker 1: his way to meet Kateesby in the Midlands to help
Speaker 1: enact the second phase of their plot. But while Percy
Speaker 1: rode to see what he believed would be the gunpowder
Speaker 1: plots inevitable success all across London, the remaining conspirators were
Speaker 1: taking to horseback in a an altogether much less optimistic
Speaker 1: and more panicked state of mind. With Fox in custody,
Speaker 1: the writing was on the wall. It was only a
Speaker 1: matter of time before the authorities came barreling down their doors.
Speaker 1: Following his arrest, Fox, known as John Johnson at this
Speaker 1: point refused to give up his real name or the
Speaker 1: names of his co conspirators. Instead, he calmly claimed that
Speaker 1: the idea was his own. Refusing to show any remorse
Speaker 1: for his actions, he told his interrogators the devil and
Speaker 1: not God, was to blame for the discovery of the plot.
Speaker 1: After nearly two days of interrogation, on November six, King
Speaker 1: James finally ordered for the man who claimed to be
Speaker 1: John Johnson to be taken to the Tower of London
Speaker 1: to be tortured until he gave up information pertaining to
Speaker 1: the failed attack on Parliament. Within a day of being
Speaker 1: put on the torture rack, John Johnson revealed himself to
Speaker 1: be Guy Fox, and by November seven. The oath of
Speaker 1: secrecy he had sworn at the Duck and Drake Inn
Speaker 1: a year and a half prior had all but crumbled.
Speaker 1: While Fox began to crack. Some hundred miles north of London,
Speaker 1: Ktesby and his men were preparing for a final stand
Speaker 1: of their own. By this point, Thomas Percy had managed
Speaker 1: to find his kinsmen, but the joy in their reunion
Speaker 1: was cut short after another conspirator delivered the horrifying news
Speaker 1: of Fox's capture. The gunpowder hadn't gone off the Parliament
Speaker 1: House and all those who were meant to be inside
Speaker 1: remained unharmed, and the recusant revolution they had been willing
Speaker 1: to kill for was crumbling under their feet. But even
Speaker 1: in the face of their inevitable failure, Katesby was nothing
Speaker 1: if not consistent. Instead of fleeing, as many of the
Speaker 1: other conspirators attempted to do, he decided to double down
Speaker 1: on the second part of their plan, spreading word that
Speaker 1: King James had died and urging his Catholic brethren to
Speaker 1: rise up and unite to place a Catholic leader on
Speaker 1: the throne. Unfortunately for Catesby, even the false news of
Speaker 1: King James's death could only seem to rally about forty
Speaker 1: men to his cause, not nearly enough to stand a
Speaker 1: chance against the hundreds that were preparing to ride out
Speaker 1: against them the next morning. On the evening of November seven, Exhausted, demoralized,
Speaker 1: and chilled from trekking through the wet British countryside, Catesby
Speaker 1: and his men built a fire and set up camp
Speaker 1: outside hul Bish House in Staffordshire. With mud and damp
Speaker 1: clinging to everything from their clothes to their supplies, the
Speaker 1: men decided to use what little remained of their collective
Speaker 1: brain power to dry out their gunpowder next to an
Speaker 1: open bonfire, which is how a little less than two
Speaker 1: days later than planned, the Gunpowder plot conspirators finally got
Speaker 1: the explosion they had been waiting for. Unfortunately for them,
Speaker 1: the blast took place approximately a hundred and thirty miles
Speaker 1: from their intended target. The explosion caused several of the
Speaker 1: men present to suffer from burns of varying degrees. It
Speaker 1: blinded one of them, and left all of them with
Speaker 1: a significantly depleted supply of gunpowder with which to defend
Speaker 1: themselves from the authorities who would reach them by the
Speaker 1: following morning, as the few remaining men who hadn't yet
Speaker 1: deserted and were relatively unburned enough to fight, gathered to regroup.
Speaker 1: When they asked what they were to do, Catesby had
Speaker 1: but one answer, we mean here to die. At eleven
Speaker 1: o'clock the next morning, the High Sheriff of Worcestershire arrived
Speaker 1: at Hulbush House with upwards of two hundred men, ready
Speaker 1: to face off with Katesby's meager brigade. But for as
Speaker 1: much firepower as the high Sheriff brought, the ensuing shootout
Speaker 1: was over in a matter of minutes. Of the five
Speaker 1: men who had begun the gunpowder trees and all those
Speaker 1: months before at the Duck and Drake Inn, three of
Speaker 1: them would die on the grounds of hull Bush House
Speaker 1: that morning. Thomas Wintour would escape death with just a
Speaker 1: gunshot wound to his shoulder, but Jack Wright, Thomas Percy,
Speaker 1: and Robert Catesby were all struck down in the musket fire. Fox,
Speaker 1: of course, was in the midst of confessing after his
Speaker 1: ordeal and during the torture rack in the Tower of London.
Speaker 1: When they recovered Katesby's body, they discovered he had used
Speaker 1: his final moments to crawl toward a picture of the
Speaker 1: Virgin Mary, holding on to his beliefs as he passed
Speaker 1: from one life to the next. In the coming weeks,
Speaker 1: Wintour and Fox would both be sentenced to death for
Speaker 1: their treason, and would both ultimately hang from a noose
Speaker 1: in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, mere feet away
Speaker 1: from the building they had attempted to destroy. Days before
Speaker 1: their execution. On January twenty third, sixteen o six, Parliament,
Speaker 1: under King James the First would pass the Thanksgiving Act,
Speaker 1: the yearly observance every fifth of November commemorating the day
Speaker 1: the monarchy was saved from the group of Catholic recusants
Speaker 1: who sought to blow up Parliament. Four hundred years later,
Speaker 1: that celebration would morph into the campy pyrotechnic display known
Speaker 1: as Bonfire Night that contin used to be celebrated annually
Speaker 1: every November five across the UK. Though the historical basis
Speaker 1: of the holiday stayed the same, the ways in which
Speaker 1: it's now celebrated, and consequently what the holiday has come
Speaker 1: to mean, have absolutely changed over time. What used to
Speaker 1: serve as an annual reminder of the day the monarchy
Speaker 1: prevailed over an English Catholic act of terrorism has shifted
Speaker 1: into a mostly secular holiday. But more than that, Foxes
Speaker 1: legacy has shifted from universally hated villain to more rebel
Speaker 1: we love to hate. The popularity of the Guy Fox
Speaker 1: mask in pop culture and the resulting impact on his
Speaker 1: legacy is just one example of the undeniable truth that history,
Speaker 1: no matter how hard we try to carve it in stone,
Speaker 1: will always be subjective. The legacy of the Gunpowder Treason
Speaker 1: will likely continue to change, just as it has for
Speaker 1: hundreds of years, but there is one fact that is
Speaker 1: for certain. As long as it's fun to gather together
Speaker 1: and light things on fire, history will almost certainly remember.
Speaker 1: Remember the five of November. That was the end of
Speaker 1: our two part series on the failed Gunpowder Plot, But
Speaker 1: stick around after a sponsor break to hear a little
Speaker 1: bit more about how Guy Fox's image has been used
Speaker 1: in the four hundred years since his execution. Even if
Speaker 1: today was the first time you heard of the Gunpowder Plot,
Speaker 1: chances are you've seen Guy Fox's face, or at least
Speaker 1: a version of it. A stark white face, slits for eyes,
Speaker 1: prominent cheekbones, and inhumanly symmetrical facial hair that looks like
Speaker 1: it's been drawn on with a marker. The Guy Fox
Speaker 1: mask is a staple at most Halloween stores, especially since
Speaker 1: v for Vendetta. Its distinct lack of humanity in a
Speaker 1: face meant to embody the every man, or in this case,
Speaker 1: every guy, makes it all the more creepy, though in reality,
Speaker 1: this may be more of a commentary on how Guy
Speaker 1: Fox's image has been replicated over the centuries, rather than
Speaker 1: an actual attempt to depict the real face of the
Speaker 1: real Guy Fox. The truth is, while there are some
Speaker 1: written accounts about Fox's appearance, any physical representation of his
Speaker 1: likeness are really just images that have been passed through
Speaker 1: a few too many games of historical telephone, each iteration
Speaker 1: meant to make him more villain like than the last.
Speaker 1: In Antonio Frasier's excellent biography on the Gunpowder Plot, she
Speaker 1: describes Fox as being a quote tall, powerfully built man
Speaker 1: with thick, reddish brown hair, a flowing mustache in the
Speaker 1: tradition of the time, and a bushy, reddish brown beard.
Speaker 1: Historical prints of Fox border on cartoonish, but most portray
Speaker 1: him as tall and thin, with long, angular facial features.
Speaker 1: And a dubious looking mustache, all features I'd like to
Speaker 1: point out that could describe more than a handful of
Speaker 1: classic childhood cartoon villains. The fact that artists have portrayed
Speaker 1: Fox in this way is not wholly surprising, after all,
Speaker 1: he is burned in effigy on a yearly basis, but
Speaker 1: it does make the emergence of the Guy Fox mask
Speaker 1: that much more intriguing. The Guy Fox mask as we
Speaker 1: know it today didn't really come into massive popularity until
Speaker 1: after the release of the movie based on the graphic
Speaker 1: novel Fifa Vendetta in two thousand five. Although the film
Speaker 1: is a now relatively well known cultural touchstone, it didn't
Speaker 1: break any box office numbers. In fact, a comic con
Speaker 1: that year, Warner Brothers gave out free Guy Fox masks
Speaker 1: from the film to promote the movie. The result of
Speaker 1: that promotion would be the birth of a meme on
Speaker 1: four Chan in two thousand and six called epic Fail Guy,
Speaker 1: which showed a stick figure finding a Guy Fox mask
Speaker 1: in a garbage bin. From four Chan. The activist group
Speaker 1: known as Anonymous would adopt the mask to use as
Speaker 1: their face, spurring other protest movements to begin to use
Speaker 1: the Guy Fox ask as the symbol of anarchy and
Speaker 1: rebellion that the comic and eventual two thousand five movie
Speaker 1: adaptation made it out to be in the first place. Frankly,
Speaker 1: there are so many layers to this, like how the
Speaker 1: Occupy Wall Street movement in two thousand eleven used the
Speaker 1: Guy Fox mask, which was produced and sold by Time Warner,
Speaker 1: to embody an anti capitalist regime, or how Guy Fox
Speaker 1: himself was not fighting for anarchy but for what has
Speaker 1: to be the least punk rock institution of all time,
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church. But ultimately, it all boils down to
Speaker 1: how Guy Fox's legacy has simultaneously continued to change over time,
Speaker 1: yet somehow it always remains sort of the same. The
Speaker 1: rolls Guy Fox has embodied over the last four hundred
Speaker 1: years have run the gambit from villain to anti hero,
Speaker 1: but his characterizations were never meant to embody body who
Speaker 1: he was as a singular person. Instead, Guy Fox has
Speaker 1: always been the face of a group, whether it be
Speaker 1: Catesby and his co conspirators or the entire anonymous organization.
Speaker 1: The use of Fox's name in public discourse has always
Speaker 1: been to condemn or celebrate the actions of a collective,
Speaker 1: not a singular man. It's enough to make you wonder
Speaker 1: what Guy would have thought about his legacy, if you
Speaker 1: would have resented being forever the face of a collective,
Speaker 1: or if he would have relished the sacrifice of his
Speaker 1: personhood in favor of continuing to represent something far bigger
Speaker 1: than one person ever could. Noble Blood is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is hosted by me Danish Wortz. Additional writing
Speaker 1: and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, Miura Hayward,
Speaker 1: Courtney Sunder, and Laurie Goodman. The show is produced by
Speaker 1: rema Il Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thayne and executive
Speaker 1: producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.