WEBVTT - ...The Gunpowder Treason and Plot 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.800 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:07.880 and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey Listener discretion advised. 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:15.000 This is part two of our series on the Gunpowder plot. 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.200 If you haven't listened to last week's episode, you should 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:34.320 probably start there. On the evening of October twenty six five, 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:38.760 a man walked through the streets of London with the 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:44.479 weight of his treason jostling uneasily inside his coat pocket. 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:50.159 I like to imagine this man periodically grasping at the 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.720 same patch of cloth on his chest as he made 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:58.360 it through the throngs of Londoners casually strolling to their 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:03.360 Wednesday evening dinner lands, a minor heart attack ensuing each 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:09.240 time until he felt the envelopes reassuring crinkle underneath his 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:15.040 layers of outerwear. Though even as his fingers brushed against 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:20.280 the paper's edge, the letters contents likely kept the man 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:26.200 from feeling anything close to reassurance. The truth was the 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:31.440 man was carrying not one, but two accounts of treason 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:37.760 on his person. The first belonged to his participation in 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:43.480 the planned Catholic coup against the British Protestant government set 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:47.760 to take place in Parliament in just ten days, on 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:52.000 the fifth of November, the same plot that had a 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:57.840 man named Guy Fox overseeing thirty six barrels of gunpowder 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:02.280 underneath the floors of Parliament, just waiting for the order 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:06.040 to give the whole building and everyone inside of it 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.560 a fireworks show, the likes of which they had never 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:16.400 and undoubtedly would never see again. The second account of 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:21.040 treason was not against the British government, but against the 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:26.360 group behind the gunpowder plot itself. For in the rumpled 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:31.040 envelope in the man's jacket pocket was not information for 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:36.880 his co conspirators, but a warning for their enemy, whether 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:41.560 it was cold feet or a sudden burst of humanity 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:46.160 invading the man's conscience. The evening of October twenty six 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:51.400 found this man stalking the streets of London in search 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:57.600 of the servant to one Lord Monteagle. Later, when recalling 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:01.840 the encounter, the servant would only be able to characterize 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.440 the man who had stopped him as a quote man 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:10.520 of reasonable tall personage unquote. In the centuries to come, 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.960 historians would come a little closer to establishing the man's 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:19.880 true identity. Could it have been Thomas Percy, one of 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:22.880 the five men who had first conspired to blow up 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:27.720 Parliament alongside Guy Fox and Robert Catesby at the Duck 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:32.840 and Drake Inn in May six o four. If not him, 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.840 was there a chance this mysterious man wasn't even related 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.800 to the plot at all? Was he just a courier 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:45.520 sent in someone else's stead, or is it possible, well, 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:51.920 did this man even exist? Maybe Lord Monteagle staged this 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.600 entire scene in his account to King James so as 0:03:55.640 --> 0:04:00.800 to distance himself from the knowledge he had otherwise how 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:06.080 come to acquire. The truth will likely remain lost to history. 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:10.680 Who this man actually was walking through London with the 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:14.400 letter in his pocket, or whether he had even existed 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.000 at all, But the words of that letter, written in 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:23.839 their hasty, near allegible scrawl, would be remembered long after 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:29.479 the mysterious man who stopped Lord Monteagal's servant disappeared into 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:33.760 the night. Quote, my Lord, out of the love I 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:36.919 bear to some of your friends, I have a care 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:42.240 of your preservation. Therefore I would advise you to devise 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.720 some excuse to shift of your attendance at this Parliament. 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:51.080 For though there be no appearance of any stir yet, 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:58.479 I say they shall receive a terrible blow. I'm Danis Schwartz, 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:11.960 and this is noble blood. Upon receiving the rumpled letter 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:16.600 from his servant, Lord Montagal wasn't entirely sure what to think. 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.440 On one hand, the late hour in which the note arrived, 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:24.960 in conjunction with the poor penmanship and odd channels it 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.160 had taken to get to him in the first place, 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.640 all added up to something more akin to a prank 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:35.120 than a real warning. After all, who would be crazy 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:40.440 enough to actually conspire a terrible blow against the whole 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.560 of Parliament? Well, if you need a quick recap as 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.000 to exactly who was crazy enough to attempt to blow 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.599 up Parliament, allow me to briefly bring you up to speed. 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:56.000 In response to Queen Elizabeth the First and King James's 0:05:56.040 --> 0:06:00.480 persecution of British Catholics in the late sixteenth and early 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:05.440 seventeenth centuries, a group of five Catholic recusants led by 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.839 a man named Robert Catesby, met in London at the 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.839 Duck and Drake Inn in May sixteen o four to 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:15.799 discuss the beginnings of what would come to be known 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:20.400 as the Gunpowder Plot. Sitting at the table next to Catesby, 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.280 where his second in command Thomas Wintour, the renowned swordsman 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:29.000 Jack Wright, a guardsman of the Earl of Northumberland, Thomas Percy, 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:34.599 and notorious explosive as expert Guy Fox. Together the men 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.800 agreed to plot an attack against Parliament and the King, 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.160 a plot which took the form of Thomas Percy acquiring 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.960 the storage space underneath the House of Parliament so Guy 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:51.680 Fox could pose as a footman named John Johnson, who 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:55.760 would then smuggle thirty six barrels of gunpowder hidden underneath 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.279 piles of firewood into its depths, to be set off 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.120 on the inning day of Parliament when the King would 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:08.240 be present November five, six o five, after which Catesby, 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:12.200 Wintour and Right would spread news of the King's death 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:16.240 in the Midlands, kidnapped the King's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, and 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:21.920 established her as England's next Catholic ruler. And while Lord 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.640 Montegal likely had no prior knowledge of the plot and 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:31.760 therefore questioned its authenticity, his servant held no such doubts. 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:37.880 As it happened, Monteagal servant actually had close family ties 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.240 to the family of one of the original conspirators, Jack 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:46.640 Wright the Swordsman. So when Lord Montegal eventually decided to 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:50.440 air on the side of caution and send word to 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.840 warn his colleagues, his servant had already sent word to 0:07:54.920 --> 0:08:01.200 write relaying the betrayal within their ranks. Upon unreceiving word 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:05.480 from Right that they had been betrayed, Katesby and his 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:09.000 second in command, Win Tour, immediately tried to weed out 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:12.200 the trader in their ranks, but this proved to be 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.720 a flaw in their own design, because while Percy and 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.640 Fox had been left to deal with the practical measures 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:23.000 of securing a location for the gunpowder to be placed 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:27.280 to ensure maximum destruction, Katesby and win Tour had been 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:32.800 busy recruiting additional conspirators to help in the plot, and 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:37.320 by mid October the number of plotters had risen from 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:39.959 the original five that had met at the Duck and 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:45.920 Drake to a sizeable thirteen. Of course, more help also 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.960 meant more mouths to keep quiet, and if the letter 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:54.440 was any indication, As the date of the attack drew closer, 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:59.360 at least one of the men began to get cold feet. 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:04.360 In the ten intervening days between the discovery of the 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:09.600 Monteagal Letter and the opening of Parliament. Chaos and panic 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:14.440 rose like a fog in the London streets. The leaked 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:18.640 letter caused tensions among the conspirators to run higher with 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:23.400 each passing day, until finally some of the newer recruits 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:28.319 began to openly voice their doubts to Ktesby. In the end, 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:33.240 even Thomas Wintoor all but begged Ktesby to call off 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:39.040 the plot, but predictably, he couldn't be swayed. The end 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.559 was near and he wanted to see it through, no 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:47.480 matter the cost. With the clock running down, on the 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:52.000 evening of November fourth, Ktesby and Wright rode off for 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:56.280 the Midlands, getting in position ready to enact the rebellion 0:09:56.320 --> 0:10:00.760 that would follow the initial blow to parliam Mint, which 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.679 would take place the following day. But back in London, 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:15.719 authorities were already beginning to unravel their plans days previously. 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.840 On the first of November, King James became privy to 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.600 the contents of the so called Monteagle Letter, and by 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.719 November four he had guards searching at the Palace of 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:32.800 Westminster for anything that could cause the letters ominous blow 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:38.199 to Parliament. It was then that officials stumbled upon a 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:43.520 peculiar seller directly below the floors of Parliament, stacked Florida 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:49.400 ceiling with bundles of firewood. Upon this first inspection, authorities 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:54.080 could find no reason for suspicion. While its appearance was 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:59.120 undoubtedly odd, there was no law specifically forbidding the storage 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.319 of what likely seemed like an excessive amount of firewood. 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:07.120 In the sellers available for rent in the Palace of Westminster. 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.520 There was a man some sort of servant that happened 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:12.760 to be near the seller at the time of inspection, 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.839 but this was similarly not cause for any overt sense 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:21.840 of alarm. It was only after the inspectors left the 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:26.679 scene that they discovered the peculiar seller in question belonged 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.240 to none other than Thomas Percy, a man who was 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:36.559 coincidentally good friends with Lord Monteagle, and whose Catholic sympathies 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:41.880 were of relatively common knowledge. That friendship, for the record, 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:46.199 is why some suspect the man who delivered the letter 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.760 to be Percy or one of his servants working on 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:54.360 his behalf. That connection led the king to demand a 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:58.960 second search of the seller, whereupon they happened on a 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.240 far more anister scene than they had uncovered during their 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:08.160 first investigation. When authorities arrived at the cell for a 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:12.360 second time, the servant that had been present earlier was 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:17.000 there again, only now he had undergone a rather ominous 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:22.240 costume change. The servant, who identified himself as John Johnson, 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:26.200 was dressed in riding clothes, as if ready to make 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:32.240 a quick getaway. When searched, investigators found a watch and 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:36.760 long stemmed matches hidden in the folds of his cloak, 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.840 leading them once again to take a look at the 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:46.079 copious amount of firewood stacked in the cellar before them. 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.960 It was then that they discovered, underneath the bundles of 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:55.400 wood lay thirty six barrels of gunpowder, waiting for one 0:12:55.800 --> 0:13:00.880 long stemmed match to spark the devastating blow to Parliament. 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:07.320 By the early hours of November five five, the Gunpowder 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:12.079 plot was one stiff breeze away from complete and utter collapse. 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:16.000 The first call for arrest was for the man whose 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.280 name was on the lease of the gunpowder filled seller, 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:25.160 Thomas Percy. Unbeknownst to authorities, Percy was already well on 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.120 his way to meet Kateesby in the Midlands to help 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.720 enact the second phase of their plot. But while Percy 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.920 rode to see what he believed would be the gunpowder 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:41.480 plots inevitable success all across London, the remaining conspirators were 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.920 taking to horseback in a an altogether much less optimistic 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:51.040 and more panicked state of mind. With Fox in custody, 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:54.200 the writing was on the wall. It was only a 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:58.360 matter of time before the authorities came barreling down their doors. 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.800 Following his arrest, Fox, known as John Johnson at this 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.440 point refused to give up his real name or the 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:12.240 names of his co conspirators. Instead, he calmly claimed that 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.720 the idea was his own. Refusing to show any remorse 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:20.240 for his actions, he told his interrogators the devil and 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.040 not God, was to blame for the discovery of the plot. 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:30.400 After nearly two days of interrogation, on November six, King 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.080 James finally ordered for the man who claimed to be 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.800 John Johnson to be taken to the Tower of London 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:42.040 to be tortured until he gave up information pertaining to 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:46.320 the failed attack on Parliament. Within a day of being 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:50.480 put on the torture rack, John Johnson revealed himself to 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:55.400 be Guy Fox, and by November seven. The oath of 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.240 secrecy he had sworn at the Duck and Drake Inn 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.840 a year and a half prior had all but crumbled. 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:07.920 While Fox began to crack. Some hundred miles north of London, 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:12.120 Ktesby and his men were preparing for a final stand 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:16.480 of their own. By this point, Thomas Percy had managed 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.320 to find his kinsmen, but the joy in their reunion 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:25.720 was cut short after another conspirator delivered the horrifying news 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:31.800 of Fox's capture. The gunpowder hadn't gone off the Parliament 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.480 House and all those who were meant to be inside 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:39.880 remained unharmed, and the recusant revolution they had been willing 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:44.720 to kill for was crumbling under their feet. But even 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:49.840 in the face of their inevitable failure, Katesby was nothing 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:53.920 if not consistent. Instead of fleeing, as many of the 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:58.240 other conspirators attempted to do, he decided to double down 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:02.200 on the second part of their plan, spreading word that 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:06.720 King James had died and urging his Catholic brethren to 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.720 rise up and unite to place a Catholic leader on 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:16.200 the throne. Unfortunately for Catesby, even the false news of 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:20.480 King James's death could only seem to rally about forty 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:24.480 men to his cause, not nearly enough to stand a 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:28.640 chance against the hundreds that were preparing to ride out 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:36.720 against them the next morning. On the evening of November seven, Exhausted, demoralized, 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:41.920 and chilled from trekking through the wet British countryside, Catesby 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.360 and his men built a fire and set up camp 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:50.760 outside hul Bish House in Staffordshire. With mud and damp 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:55.040 clinging to everything from their clothes to their supplies, the 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:59.040 men decided to use what little remained of their collective 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:04.480 brain power to dry out their gunpowder next to an 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.440 open bonfire, which is how a little less than two 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:14.280 days later than planned, the Gunpowder plot conspirators finally got 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:19.000 the explosion they had been waiting for. Unfortunately for them, 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.879 the blast took place approximately a hundred and thirty miles 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:28.919 from their intended target. The explosion caused several of the 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:33.560 men present to suffer from burns of varying degrees. It 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.320 blinded one of them, and left all of them with 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:41.479 a significantly depleted supply of gunpowder with which to defend 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.159 themselves from the authorities who would reach them by the 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:49.400 following morning, as the few remaining men who hadn't yet 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:54.400 deserted and were relatively unburned enough to fight, gathered to regroup. 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:58.600 When they asked what they were to do, Catesby had 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:06.360 but one answer, we mean here to die. At eleven 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.760 o'clock the next morning, the High Sheriff of Worcestershire arrived 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.919 at Hulbush House with upwards of two hundred men, ready 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:19.760 to face off with Katesby's meager brigade. But for as 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:24.080 much firepower as the high Sheriff brought, the ensuing shootout 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.679 was over in a matter of minutes. Of the five 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.760 men who had begun the gunpowder trees and all those 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.919 months before at the Duck and Drake Inn, three of 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:36.880 them would die on the grounds of hull Bush House 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:41.000 that morning. Thomas Wintour would escape death with just a 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:45.240 gunshot wound to his shoulder, but Jack Wright, Thomas Percy, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:50.200 and Robert Catesby were all struck down in the musket fire. Fox, 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.679 of course, was in the midst of confessing after his 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.760 ordeal and during the torture rack in the Tower of London. 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:01.800 When they recovered Katesby's body, they discovered he had used 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.760 his final moments to crawl toward a picture of the 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:10.160 Virgin Mary, holding on to his beliefs as he passed 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.600 from one life to the next. In the coming weeks, 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:17.160 Wintour and Fox would both be sentenced to death for 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.800 their treason, and would both ultimately hang from a noose 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:25.240 in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, mere feet away 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:29.280 from the building they had attempted to destroy. Days before 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:34.040 their execution. On January twenty third, sixteen o six, Parliament, 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:38.280 under King James the First would pass the Thanksgiving Act, 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:43.400 the yearly observance every fifth of November commemorating the day 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.760 the monarchy was saved from the group of Catholic recusants 0:19:47.960 --> 0:19:51.800 who sought to blow up Parliament. Four hundred years later, 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:57.680 that celebration would morph into the campy pyrotechnic display known 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:01.879 as Bonfire Night that contin used to be celebrated annually 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:07.360 every November five across the UK. Though the historical basis 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.760 of the holiday stayed the same, the ways in which 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.920 it's now celebrated, and consequently what the holiday has come 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:19.760 to mean, have absolutely changed over time. What used to 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.200 serve as an annual reminder of the day the monarchy 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:28.200 prevailed over an English Catholic act of terrorism has shifted 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:33.560 into a mostly secular holiday. But more than that, Foxes 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:39.600 legacy has shifted from universally hated villain to more rebel 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:44.320 we love to hate. The popularity of the Guy Fox 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.760 mask in pop culture and the resulting impact on his 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:52.760 legacy is just one example of the undeniable truth that history, 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.080 no matter how hard we try to carve it in stone, 0:20:56.680 --> 0:21:01.480 will always be subjective. The legacy of the Gunpowder Treason 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.600 will likely continue to change, just as it has for 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.840 hundreds of years, but there is one fact that is 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:13.320 for certain. As long as it's fun to gather together 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:18.800 and light things on fire, history will almost certainly remember. 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:31.240 Remember the five of November. That was the end of 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.639 our two part series on the failed Gunpowder Plot, But 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:38.160 stick around after a sponsor break to hear a little 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.480 bit more about how Guy Fox's image has been used 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:52.119 in the four hundred years since his execution. Even if 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:55.600 today was the first time you heard of the Gunpowder Plot, 0:21:56.080 --> 0:22:00.680 chances are you've seen Guy Fox's face, or at least 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:05.399 a version of it. A stark white face, slits for eyes, 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:11.000 prominent cheekbones, and inhumanly symmetrical facial hair that looks like 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:13.719 it's been drawn on with a marker. The Guy Fox 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:18.359 mask is a staple at most Halloween stores, especially since 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:22.679 v for Vendetta. Its distinct lack of humanity in a 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:27.000 face meant to embody the every man, or in this case, 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:32.640 every guy, makes it all the more creepy, though in reality, 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:36.399 this may be more of a commentary on how Guy 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:41.320 Fox's image has been replicated over the centuries, rather than 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:45.479 an actual attempt to depict the real face of the 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:49.960 real Guy Fox. The truth is, while there are some 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:55.080 written accounts about Fox's appearance, any physical representation of his 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:58.880 likeness are really just images that have been passed through 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:04.000 a few too many games of historical telephone, each iteration 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:07.399 meant to make him more villain like than the last. 0:23:08.080 --> 0:23:12.560 In Antonio Frasier's excellent biography on the Gunpowder Plot, she 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:17.400 describes Fox as being a quote tall, powerfully built man 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.320 with thick, reddish brown hair, a flowing mustache in the 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:25.480 tradition of the time, and a bushy, reddish brown beard. 0:23:26.320 --> 0:23:31.640 Historical prints of Fox border on cartoonish, but most portray 0:23:31.760 --> 0:23:36.399 him as tall and thin, with long, angular facial features. 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:41.159 And a dubious looking mustache, all features I'd like to 0:23:41.160 --> 0:23:44.280 point out that could describe more than a handful of 0:23:44.560 --> 0:23:49.919 classic childhood cartoon villains. The fact that artists have portrayed 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:53.600 Fox in this way is not wholly surprising, after all, 0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:57.480 he is burned in effigy on a yearly basis, but 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:01.040 it does make the emergence of the Guy Fox mask 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:05.840 that much more intriguing. The Guy Fox mask as we 0:24:05.880 --> 0:24:10.359 know it today didn't really come into massive popularity until 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:13.280 after the release of the movie based on the graphic 0:24:13.320 --> 0:24:17.840 novel Fifa Vendetta in two thousand five. Although the film 0:24:17.960 --> 0:24:22.160 is a now relatively well known cultural touchstone, it didn't 0:24:22.160 --> 0:24:25.680 break any box office numbers. In fact, a comic con 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:29.680 that year, Warner Brothers gave out free Guy Fox masks 0:24:29.760 --> 0:24:33.359 from the film to promote the movie. The result of 0:24:33.400 --> 0:24:36.000 that promotion would be the birth of a meme on 0:24:36.200 --> 0:24:41.000 four Chan in two thousand and six called epic Fail Guy, 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:44.400 which showed a stick figure finding a Guy Fox mask 0:24:44.520 --> 0:24:49.480 in a garbage bin. From four Chan. The activist group 0:24:49.600 --> 0:24:53.800 known as Anonymous would adopt the mask to use as 0:24:53.880 --> 0:24:59.080 their face, spurring other protest movements to begin to use 0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:02.359 the Guy Fox ask as the symbol of anarchy and 0:25:02.520 --> 0:25:07.840 rebellion that the comic and eventual two thousand five movie 0:25:07.840 --> 0:25:12.080 adaptation made it out to be in the first place. Frankly, 0:25:12.160 --> 0:25:15.080 there are so many layers to this, like how the 0:25:15.160 --> 0:25:18.960 Occupy Wall Street movement in two thousand eleven used the 0:25:18.960 --> 0:25:23.000 Guy Fox mask, which was produced and sold by Time Warner, 0:25:23.320 --> 0:25:27.439 to embody an anti capitalist regime, or how Guy Fox 0:25:27.520 --> 0:25:31.520 himself was not fighting for anarchy but for what has 0:25:31.560 --> 0:25:34.120 to be the least punk rock institution of all time, 0:25:34.600 --> 0:25:38.720 the Catholic Church. But ultimately, it all boils down to 0:25:39.200 --> 0:25:44.840 how Guy Fox's legacy has simultaneously continued to change over time, 0:25:45.400 --> 0:25:49.200 yet somehow it always remains sort of the same. The 0:25:49.320 --> 0:25:53.080 rolls Guy Fox has embodied over the last four hundred 0:25:53.160 --> 0:25:56.320 years have run the gambit from villain to anti hero, 0:25:57.040 --> 0:26:00.680 but his characterizations were never meant to embody body who 0:26:00.760 --> 0:26:06.600 he was as a singular person. Instead, Guy Fox has 0:26:06.640 --> 0:26:09.879 always been the face of a group, whether it be 0:26:10.040 --> 0:26:15.320 Catesby and his co conspirators or the entire anonymous organization. 0:26:16.040 --> 0:26:19.600 The use of Fox's name in public discourse has always 0:26:19.640 --> 0:26:23.600 been to condemn or celebrate the actions of a collective, 0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:27.320 not a singular man. It's enough to make you wonder 0:26:27.440 --> 0:26:30.760 what Guy would have thought about his legacy, if you 0:26:30.800 --> 0:26:34.399 would have resented being forever the face of a collective, 0:26:35.080 --> 0:26:38.159 or if he would have relished the sacrifice of his 0:26:38.240 --> 0:26:43.879 personhood in favor of continuing to represent something far bigger 0:26:44.240 --> 0:27:02.400 than one person ever could. Noble Blood is a production 0:27:02.440 --> 0:27:05.760 of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. 0:27:06.200 --> 0:27:10.320 Noble Blood is hosted by me Danish Wortz. Additional writing 0:27:10.359 --> 0:27:14.640 and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, Miura Hayward, 0:27:14.720 --> 0:27:18.440 Courtney Sunder, and Laurie Goodman. The show is produced by 0:27:18.480 --> 0:27:23.520 rema Il Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thayne and executive 0:27:23.520 --> 0:27:27.800 producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more 0:27:27.840 --> 0:27:32.960 podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:27:33.040 --> 0:27:34.959 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.