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Case study: the crimes and punishment of the Gunpowder Plotters, 1605

Why did the Gunpowder Plotters want to overthrow the King?  

  1. In 1570, Elizabeth I was excommunicated, and the Pope called on all loyal Catholics to get rid of Elizabeth. This led Elizabeth to more actively prevent Catholics from practising their faith and punished them if they continued to do so.   

  1. When James I became King of England, Catholics hoped that he would allow more religious freedom than his Elizabeth I – partly because he had a Catholic wife.  

  1. However, James I also introduced strict anti-Catholic measures.  

  1. The leader of the Gunpowder Plotters was Robert Catesby, whose father had been imprisoned for hiding a Catholic priest. Catesby himself had refused to take a Protestant oath, which meant he could not finish his university degree.  

  1. Catesby recruited the other Gunpowder plotters, including Guy Fawkes, Thomas Percy, Thomas Winton and Jack Wright. They were all Catholics.  

 

What were the aims of the Gunpowder Plotters? 

  1. They aimed to set off an explosion that would kill the King at the state opening of parliament on 5 November 1605.  

  1. This explosion would also kill the elite of society who would all be at the event, including senior judges, Protestant bishops, and members of the aristocracy.  

  1. The plotters would then replace James with his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, who they would influence to promote their own religious aims.  

 

What were the key events of the Gunpowder Plot?  

  1. The conspirators first met on 20 May 1604.  

  1. They rented a cellar under the House of Lords and packed it with 36 barrels of gunpowder.  

  1. On 20 October 1605, one of the people due to attend the state opening of Parliament, Lord Monteagle, received a letter warning him not to go.  

  1. Monteagle passed the letter onto to Robert Cecil, the king’s spy master, who ordered a search that uncovered Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder.  

  1. Some historians believe that Robert Cecil knew about the plot in advance but let it proceed so the government would have an excuse for further Catholic persecution.  

 

Trial and punishment 

  1. The conspirators were tortured to extract confessions. Guy Fawkes was put on the rack.  

  1. He confessed twelve days after his arrest, on 17 November.  

  1. Their trial began in January 1606 and found guilty of treason.  

  1. They were sentenced to death by being hanged, drawn and quartered.  

 

Consequences of the plot 

  1. Fawkes’s confession, plus James I’s account of the plot called the ‘King’s book’, helped encourage widespread anti-Catholic attitudes.  

  1. In 1605, the Thanksgiving Act ordered that the events of the 5 November should be commemorated each year (the origins of bonfire night), and Catholics were banned from working in the legal profession or becoming army officers.  

  1. In 1606, the Popish Recusants Act forced Catholics to take an oath of allegiance to the English crown. If they did not attend Church of England services they would have to pay recusancy fines.  

  1. Catholics continued to be banned from voting, becoming MPs or owning land until 1829.