Fun and Hijinks with the Gunpowder Plot

Posted by Ranillon on 4. December 2010 15:07

Okay, so this is only slightly related to what I've been talking about concerning the history and tactics of the English Civil War, but this BBC video is so entertaining and hilarious I just had to post it.

The video above is a BBC production dealing with the famous Gunpowder Plot ("Remember, remember the Fifth of November..."), but in a highly enjoyable and comical fashion.  It gets all the basic facts right so it's also educational.

For those that don't know, the Gunpowder Plot was an attempt by a band of disgruntled Catholics to literally blow up the government.  The plan was to place 36 barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords in London and set it off at the start of parliament when pretty much anyone who was anyone would be in attendance.  This included the king at the time, James I (or VI of Scotland -- he was the first joint king of England and Scotland together) who was the father of Charles I, the king during the English Civil War over thirty years later.  It also included Henry, James' heir at the time (he would die seven years later, thus leaving Charles as the next king), most of the important religious and noble people of the time, and even the soon-to-be-eternally-famous Francis Bacon (who was to be there hoping for a job). 

Incredibly, the plotters managed to rent the storage area under the House of Lords (as the show points out, that is kind of like Al Queda renting the basement of the White House) and then over the process of months bring in the gunpowder.  They got within a half day of theoretically carrying out their plan before the authorities swooped in and arrested Guy Fawkes, the explosives expert who was waiting around the storage area with the gunpowder the night before parliament so as to set the fuse the next morning.  However, someone had previously warned a Catholic noble who was planning on attending the opening that it would be better if he was someplace else that day.  He in turn informed the king.  So, the government had been on the lookout for the plotters for at least a few weeks beforehand (it is suspected that the plot was allowed to progress as far as it did so as to draw out all the conspirators). 

In the end those involved in the plot were hunted down and captured, except for two (including the mastermind) who died during a confrontation with the king's troops.  The others were condemned to a traitor's death -- hung, drawn, and quartered.  The hanging part was meant to only reduce someone to the point of near death without causing it so that he'd still be around for the part where his executioners cut him apart piece-by-piece.  However, Guy Fawkes -- the only conspirator that most anyone remembers by name -- "cheated" the system by throwing himself off the scaffold and breaking his neck.