November 5 is a date when Britons commemorate events that nearly changed the course of the nation's history when a plot by a gang of Roman Catholic activists ended in failure.
.Catholics in the 1600's had to practice their religion in secret. There were even fines for people who didn't attend the Protestant church on Sunday or on holy days. James lst passed more laws against the Catholics when he became king.
Guido Fawkes was born Guy Fawkes on the 13th April 1570 in York. It is recorded that Fawkes lost his father at the age of eight; his mother then remarried a Catholic man, with Fawkes later converting to Catholicism in a country increasingly abhorrent of his new faith. For about 10 years, Fawkes fought abroad for the Catholic cause in Europe in the Eighty Years’War and it is here that Fawkes adopted the Italian name Guido for the remainder of his life
Fawkes returned to England with fellow English Catholic Thomas Wintour, who introduced him to Robert Catesby. There were 13 conspirators all together, with Robert Catesby being the true ringleader. Along with other disaffected Catholics they came up with a plot to overthrow the Protestant King and Parliament while they sat in November. Fawkes, became the most well known since he was the one who was found with 36 barrels of gunpowder in the cellar underneath of House of Lords, caught after a tip off from an anonymous letter.
Upon his capture the government declared that ‘bonfires be lit’ to celebrate the King’s escape from death and for this to be repeated every year. It is from here onward perhaps, that the legacy of Guy Fawkes truly stems from. Defiant when captured, Fawkes remained resolute and unrepentant for his actions. He endured three days of torture, from the 6th to the 9th, until he fully revealed the names of his co-conspirators and their plan – by this time around half of his colleagues managed to evade capture. Fawkes, along with the other conspirators, were sentenced to be hung on the 31st January 1606 and quartered thereafter for high treason. Fawkes though was able to escape his full sentence. On the day of execution, he jumped from the gallows, breaking his own neck in the fall. Nonetheless, his corpse was quartered and sent to “the four corners of the kingdom.” The other men received the full measure of their sentences as a warning to other potential rebels.
Fawkes at the time said his only regret was that the plot was foiled. When he was asked why he was found with so much gunpowder he said “to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains.”
Despite attempting to kill the new king of England, James I apparently praised Fawkes for being dedicated to his cause and for having a ' Roman resolution.'
His capture has since been illustrated in countless schoolbooks, novels, popular works of history, and movies: a tall, bearded figure in boots, dark cloak, and dark, wide-brimmed hat. It is his figure that is still burned in effigy on bonfires around England every year on November 5. A much maligned individual , but due to a deep undertow of popular discontentment has become a symbol of resistance. Possibly down to Alan Moore and his brilliant comic creation in V for Vendettas, the main character ‘V’ wears the ‘Guy Fawkes mask’ to hide his identity and instead promotes the idea of anarchy and freedom. The film concludes with him –successfully- blowing up Parliament. Across the world protestors started wearing the stylised masks of Fawkes, some wore his mask as a symbol of their contempt for authority and government, reclaiming Guido as a symbol of hope and resistance.serving both a symbolic purpose as the spirit of rebellion, and a practical one in helping to hide the faces and identities of protesters from police. In this context, Guy Fawkes is a hero who fought, and won, against overwhelming odds..
Still though his effigy will be burned across many place in Britain today, because of his failure along with other Catholic conspirators to blow up the English parliament in 1605. They were viewed as traitorous, treasonous terrorists, and treated accordingly.Largely secular now, the annual celebrations became a focus of anti-Catholic feeling.
They might have failed but their memory still has a heavy resonance, and people are now finding other effigies to use instead.
Their is a well known phrase ‘One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’ The act can be perceived as mindless violence or just necessity, depending on the attitude of those perceiving it. The changing perceptions of Guy Fawkes proves this. I am in no way condoning the way that some people choose to resort to extreme violence in order to make their point, but I do think we should be aware of the complex and subjective nature of the term ‘terrorist’, and should use it accordingly.
In the end Fawkes and his friends paid the ultimate price, and although unhappy with the state of Catholicism in Europe, Fawkes would have happily seen a return of an autocratic Catholic monarch to Britain. Hero or Villain; it really depends on your interpretation of their legacy and your level of dissatisfaction with the world we live in today, to many a freedom fighter who in his time stood up for the people of England, and against the oppression of the government, who still resonates deeply with the world we live in today. In the meantime carry on resisting, and if you must play with fire, please be careful out there, and don't get caught.
Remember, Remember the 5th of November,
Gunpowder , Treason and Plot
I know no reason why the gunpowder plot should ever be
forgot,
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