“Remember, remember, the fifth of November!” This is a famous saying that you may have heard before. But what does it mean and where did it come from? Many of us in America have heard of Guy Fawkes and some may even know a little bit about his plot in 1605. But many of us do not. In tonight’s episode, we’re going to dive into Guy’s life and learn a bit about what life was like in England in the early 1600s.
Guy Fawkes was born in 1570 in York, England. He was the second of four children born to Edward Fawkes, a lawyer who worked in the English courts, and his wife, Edith. Guy’s family were normal, wealthy people of their time. They were members of the Church of England, a Protestant church. But Guy’s mother’s family were Catholics and she had grown up in a Catholic house.
Catholicism and Protestantism are different types of Christianity. In the 1500s, most of England was Catholic and it usually had to do with who was with the King or Queen and what they wanted people to practice. King Henry VIII declared that England would become a Protestant nation in the 1500s and after that, the government made efforts to get people to stop being Catholic.
This is the world that Guy grew up in. He had two younger sisters, Anne and Elizabeth, and they were a happy family. Unfortunately, when Guy was eight years old his father died. Guy and his sisters were then raised by their mom for a number of years on her own. Eventually their mom remarried. The mom’s new husband was a Catholic man and as a result, they started to practice Catholicism again.
Catholicism in England that had been shut down under Henry VIII and continued to be suppressed by his successor Queen Elizabeth I. During her reign, Catholics could not legally celebrate their religious ceremonies or be married according to their own rites. Rites are religious customs or traditions. Queen Elizabeth commanded that everyone needed to be Protestant and that they had to attend Protestant services, not Catholic services. If they did not attend Protestant services, they would be fined.
Because Guy Fawkes lived such a long time ago, not many details of his life are known. He was said to have a pleasant and cheerful personality and was loyal to his friends. He was also described as growing to become a “tall, powerfully built man, with thick reddish-brown hair, a flowing moustache in the tradition of the time, and a bushy reddish-brown beard”. Guy was the only son in his family, so according to laws of the time, he inherited the family’s home and land in Clifton in York. The home was cared for by his mother when Guy was still a child. But once Guy became an adult, it passed to him and he lived in it and cared for it for the first few years that he was an adult.
In October 1591, at the age of 21, Guy Fawkes sold his home and land in Clifton in York. He had decided to become a soldier and went to Europe to fight in a war with Spanish Catholics against non-Catholics. He now felt very strongly about his family’s Catholic faith and wanted to help return Catholicism as the main religion in England and throughout Europe.
Guy lived in Europe for nearly 10 years and fought as a paid soldier for Spanish during this time. During this time, he changed his name to “Guido” which is a Spanish version of “Guy”. He fought in many battles and eventually became a captain.
In 1603, Guy talked to the Spanish royalty and tried to convince them that after everything he had done for them, they should now help support a Catholic rebellion in England. A rebellion is an uprising of people that fight against the government in order to make a change. In England, the feelings between Catholics and non-Catholics were becoming worse. Queen Elizabeth had died and King James I was now the new king. King James continued Elizabeth’s efforts to shut down Catholicism in England. The Spanish King listened to Guy Fawkes request. However, he decided not to get involved and did not support his rebellion.
Guy returned to England at age 33 and continued to be angry about what he saw happening to his religion. Because Catholics were not allowed to practice their religion opening, many met in secret for ceremonies and talked about ways to make changes so that they could live more freely again. One idea that a small group of priests had was to kidnap the new King of England, King James I. This particular plan failed and the priests who were planning this were captured.
But others started plotting something similar. In May 1604, a group of five men, including Guy Fawkes, met at a hotel in London. They talked about what they could do to help make Catholicism the main religion in England. One of the men, Robert Catesby, suggested a plan that they blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder. The Houses of Parliament are a part of government, like Congress in the United States, that make laws. Eight other men later joined them in the plot, which became known as the “Gunpowder Plot”. A plot is a plan or a scheme to do something.
The plotters thought that if they blew up Parliament and King James and his son, who would also be there on the opening day, that this would leave only King James’s daughter, Princess Elizabeth, to be Queen. Then they would convince Princess Elizabeth to bring Catholicism back to England.
Guy Fawkes was one of these “plotters”. He started using the name “Guido” again instead of “Guy”. He also used another alias, or fake name, “John Johnson”. Using this name John Johnson, Guy Fawkes got a job as the caretaker of a cellar located just below the House of Lords (which is a government group similar to the Senate in America).
The plotters rented a room in a building near Parliament. It was unused and filthy, so they considered it an ideal hiding place for the gunpowder that they planned to use to be stored. According to Fawkes, 20 barrels of gunpowder were brought in at first, followed by 16 more. Gunpowder is a black powder used in guns and bombs and explodes when it comes in contact with sparks or flames.
With Guy in this job as caretaker beneath Parliament, the plotters started moving gunpowder from their rented room and stockpiling it in the cellar. The group planned that on November 5, 1605, Guy would light a fuse during the opening of a new session of Parliament. He would then escape by boat and make his way across the River Thames in London to safety on the other side.
As the date got closer, the plotters got ready to execute their plan. However, a week and half before their plans were to take place, the plotters were stopped. On October 26, a letter was sent to the police telling them to wait to start Parliament because there was a plan to blow it up. The letter was anonymous, which means that it is sent without a name so no one knows who it is from. To this day, no one knows for sure who wrote the letter. But the police went to the place beneath Parliament around midnight on November 4. They found Guy Fawkes waiting there with matches in his pocket and 36 barrels of gunpowder stacked next to him.
Guy Fawkes was arrested. Soon after, the police found his co-conspirators and arrested them as well, except for four of them, including Catesby, who died in a shootout with English troops. Guy and his co-conspirators were all found guilty of high treason. Treason means a serious crime against your own country. They were all executed shortly after that, in January 1606.
Following this plot, the government in England made new laws that made life for Catholics even more strict. They were not allowed to vote in elections, practice law or serve in the military. These laws actually stayed in place for over 200 years.
After the plot was revealed, Londoners learned of what had almost happened and were very happy that the plot had been found out and nothing had been blown up. They began lighting bonfires. They were happy that their government and King James had not been bombed. The government declared November 5 as a day of thanksgiving in England. This is now known as “Guy Fawkes Day” and is celebrated every year in England and other parts of the world now.
In today’s celebrations, British people treat Guy Fawkes Day as a time to get together with friends and family, set off fireworks, light bonfires and attend parades. Some even burn puppets of Guy Fawkes. Children traditionally wheel around their puppets of Guy Fawkes from door to door demanding a “penny for the Guy”, which became a custom similar to Halloween trick-or-treating.
While the story of Guy Fawkes is a sad and difficult one, there are always things that can be learned from history. What can be learned from Guy Fawkes and the plotters? He was certainly a man of conviction. Conviction means confidence and faith. He wanted to bring a better life for his Catholic people in England. However, he tried to go about it in a violent way. The plotters’ plan to blow up parliament was very sad because it involved violence and destruction in order to bring about what they wanted. Violence is not the answer to making the world a better place. Indeed the plot backfired because once it was revealed, it resulted in stricter laws for Catholics, not an easier life like the plotters wanted.
Sometimes when we hear sad or hard stories in history, it is good to learn from how this story impacted society and the way life is now. While the story of Guy Fawkes is a sad story, we can see how the plotters plan and the ultimate failure of that plan had major impacts on British culture for years to come. And this is why British people “Remember, remember the fifth of November.”