Guy Fawkes and the failed Gunpowder Plot

“Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason, and plot,” the 19th-century English folk verse begins as it launches into the tale of Guy Fawkes and the notorious Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The verse, which exists in many variations, tells the story of a group of Catholic rebels who sought to blow up Parliament, assassinate King James I, a Protestant, and restore a Catholic monarchy to England.

Unknown (printed for P. Brooksby, I. Deacon, I. Blare, I. Back.), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The conspirators smuggled 36 barrels of gunpowder — nearly three tons — into a rented vault directly underneath the House of Lords, where the King and much of England’s political elite would assemble on November 5, 1605, for the State Opening of Parliament. But someone betrayed the conspirators in an anonymous letter that sent agents of the King directly to the door of the vault in the early hours of November 5, only hours before the planned slaughter. When the door opened, Guy Fawkes was caught, and a catastrophe was averted.

On that very day, Londoners lit bonfires to celebrate the King’s narrow escape, and a subsequent Act of Parliament ordered that every year, November 5 would be marked as a day to give thanks for the King’s deliverance. The celebration, often called Guy Fawkes Day or Bonfire Night, grew over the years to include fireworks and burning effigies.

The Act remained in effect until 1859, but more than 150 years after the last state celebration of Bonfire Night, Guy Fawkes has transformed from a reviled traitor into a pop culture creation that represents dissent and resistance. But even though Fawkes was rehabilitated as his co-conspirators faded into the background, the celebration itself lives on in the modern U.K., where a Protestant monarch still sits on the throne.