Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.

The famous Gunpowder Plot began in Warwickshire and its leader was Robert Catesby, a wealthy catholic who didn't think much of the new King James I. Catesby wanted catholic rule in England and, like extremists throughout the ages, he reckoned the only way to realise his aims was to blow up as many people as possible.

In 1604 Catesby began to recruit his fellow conspirators. Most of them, like him, were young men from prominent Midlands families. They were angry that, as Catholics, protestant England discriminated against them. Guy Fawkes, from York, was a late addition to the plot. He was a soldier with plenty of useful experience of setting light to gunpowder.

Their plan was quite simple. They would rent a cellar beneath the Houses of Lords, fill it with barrels of gunpowder and blow everything to kingdom come. A catholic England would be restored and everybody would live happily ever after. Of course, such a plan was bound to end in tears.

The gang spent many weeks during 1605 smuggling barrels of gunpowder into their cellar directly beneath the Houses of Lords.

By the summer of 1605 the gunpowder was in place and the conspirators (thirteen in all, an unlucky number) dispersed to their homes. The plot would be put into action on November 5th, the State Opening of Parliament. However, one of the conspirators, Francis Tresham, lost his nerve. Concerned that his brother-in-law, Lord Monteagle, would be killed. He wrote him a letter urging him not to attend Parliament on November 5th.

This was not the cleverest idea that Francis Tresham ever had. Monteagle took the letter to Robert Cecil, the Secretary of State. The gunpowder plotters were now doomed.

At midnight on November 5th, a party of soldiers raided the conspirator's cellar and arrested Guy Fawkes sitting next to 36 barrels of gunpowder.

James I ordered that Fawkes be taken to the Tower of London where "gentle tortures" were to be used to extract a confession.

Within hours the plotters were fleeing back to the Midlands, hotly pursued by a government posse.

Huddington Court, near Worcester, was owned by one of the plotters. It had priest holes which provided a temporary hiding place. Other conspirators made their way to Coughton Court in Warwickshire and Holbeche House in Staffordshire.

Holbeche House was besieged by the Sheriff of Worcester and a dramatic shoot out ensued. Robert Catesby, the gang leader, was killed. He was lucky.

The remaining plotters were rounded up and dragged back to London to face the most gruesome of executions - hanging, drawing and quartering.

This bloody punishment took place outside Parliament. The plotters were hanged until "almost dead", they were then taken down from the scaffold and laid out on a wooden table. The executioner would then proceed to mutilate their bodies in the most horrific way imaginable. Their arms, legs, and heads were put on public display as a warning to others.

James I was obviously very happy to have survived the gunpowder plot. So happy, in fact, that he ordered November 5th to be commemorated every year to celebrate his "joyful deliverance".

Poor old Guy Fawkes was not so happy. Does his indignant spirit float over the country every November 5th? Does his ghost see joyful crowds burning his likeness on thousands of bonfires, while we stuff our faces with jacket potatoes and groaty pud?

N.B
Coughton Court is in the hands of The National Trust and has a very interesting Gunpowder Plot exhibition. The Throckmorton family, although not directly involved, knew some of the conspirators. Some members of the family still live in the house which, like all good National Trust places has a suitably ghostly atmosphere!