When we talk about Guy Fawkes it’s only really spoken about the Guy Fawes who was part of a plot to blow up the houses of parliament- please don’t stop reading because I also will be talking about this- but I wanted to dive deeper into the back story of Guy Fawkes. Where was he born? How did he live? Did he like LEGO? These are just the start of the questions I had about him.
Table of Contents
Let’s start at the beginning.
Guy Fawkes was born in the same city as me. York. We were born 421 years apart but, you know, we’re basically brothers. Guy is guessed to have been born on the 13th of April 1570 on Stonegate which is just further down from York Minster.
You’re probably wondering what I mean by “he was guessed to have been born”. Well, we don’t actually know the exact date he was born but Guy was baptised in the church of St. Michael le Belfrey on the 16th of April and back then it was customary to have a 3-day wait between birth and baptism. Therefore a good guess of Guy Fawkes’s birth date would be the 13th of April.
His father was called Edward and his mother was called Edith. His father died when Guy was 8 and his mother remarried. He was one of four siblings. In that era, many children, very sadly, didn’t live very long and only four of Edwards and Edith’s children survived past infancy.
Guy went to St. Peters school in York – a school which is still teaching students to this very day. Two of his fellow pupils were the brothers John and Christopher Wright. This version of the Wright brothers were involved in the Gunpowder Plot along with Guy himself.
I haven’t found any record of whether Guy was a good student at school or not. But on leaving school he entered into the service Anthony Browne but lost his job quite soon after and then started working for Antony-Maria Browne. Yes, they were related and yes, they were rich Tudor people.
Military Service
Guy joined up with Sir William Stanley in Ireland. Stanley was raising an army in Ireland to fight the Spanish. Remember this was a period when Spain and England didn’t get on. The Spanish Armarda was in 1588 and was still very recent.
Sir William Stanley was held in high regard by Queen Elizabeth I but, he surrendered the city of Deventer to the Spanish in 1587. This saw Stanley and the majority of his army switch their allegiance to the Spanish. This included Guy Fawkes.
Guy fought for the Spanish in the Eighty Years War against the Dutch Republic. Then battled against France between 1595 and 1598. He even fought in the Siege of Calais which led to the Spanish capture of Calais in France. Calais is the port you often hear about on the news as it’s where ferries from Dover in England travel to when they cross the English Channel to France.
By most accounts, Guy was a good soldier and was recommended to become a captain. His main skill set in the army was the use of gunpowder.
Religion
Religion was a big bone of contention in England. Guy Fawkes was brought up as a Protestant but when he switched his allegiances to the Spanish he would have converted to Catholicism. It’s the Protestants and Catholics who make up this next section of the blog.
If you look at religion throughout the history of Britain it changes more times than some people change their socks. This was the cause of many terrible events during the country’s history. I did see somewhere that roughly 6% of wars that have been recorded in the world have had religious differences as the main cause. People were willing to die for their religion.
During Tudor England, the country switched from Catholic to Protestant and back several times depending on the ruler’s preference. I can only begin to imagine how confusing this must have been for the general population.
Before Henry VIII and his notable split from the Roman Catholic Church when they refused to let him divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, England was a Catholic country. This meant they followed the rule of the pope in the Vatican and church services were held in Latin. (Latin was the language of the church)
You might be confused as to why I’m suddenly talking about Henry VIII in a blog about Guy Fawkes. I beg you to stick with me because all this is important context for the Gunpowder plot itself.
Before his split from the Pope, Henry VIII was known to disagree with Protestants and was even labelled “defender of the faith” by the pope in 1521 for his support of the Catholic church. This dramatically changed when the pope refused Henry his much-desired divorce.
You might wonder why they refused Henry his divorce in the first place. Divorce is something we are quite familiar with nowadays. In the Catholic religion, however, divorce is against the rules.
Henry VIII plonked himself as the spiritual leader of the Church of England. This was basically a boxing fight bell to signal the start of battle. Long story short, Henry ordered the closing of Catholic Churches, stole a lot of treasure and burned a lot of buildings.
Despite all this, England remained a Catholic country but Henry had started the path so when his son- Edward VI- came to the throne his advisors and those running the country (Edward was just a kid when his father died so wasn’t old enough to rule alone) created a new Protestant England.
In this new Protestant England, church services started to be held in English and Catholics were treated appallingly. Lots and lots of Catholic priests were locked up in jail.
When Mary I – often known as Bloody Mary- became Queen after the death of her brother Edward, she reverted England back to a Catholic religion. Henry VIII had robbed gold from the church, Edward VI’s advisors had locked up Catholic priests and Mary burned at least 300 leading Protestants at the stake… talk about an escalation! This stake burning is always why she is known as Bloody Mary. Would flaming Mary not have been more apt?
Of course, there are many smaller details missing here but I’m just trying to give a general overview of what was going on. Do look into these things for more information.
If all that wasn’t confusing enough when Elizabeth I came to the throne after her sister Mary died she switched the official religion to Protestant once again. That was confusing to write so just imagine how confused the people of England would have been.
It appears that Elizabeth was much less brutal than the other members of her family as she looked for ways for both Catholics and Protestants to live in harmony. She had prayer books written in English and Latin and attempted to create a live and let-live country.
She was even fair when it came to punishing those who tried to convert someone to their religion. It didn’t matter if you were Catholic or Protestant if you tried to convert someone to your religion you were punished… brutally punished.
It is important to mention as well that Catholics were still persecuted during the reign of Elizabeth I and were forced to practice their religion in secret – these events could be a whole series of Not-So-Romantic Blog posts all by themselves.
So why did I take the time to explain this? Was it an elaborate word count which can frequently be seen in my books? On this occasion, it is not.
The summary really is that Catholics wanted England to be Catholic and the Protestants wanted England to be Protestant. It’s on these grounds that the Gunpowder Plot came about.
The Gunpowder Plot
After the death of Queen Elizabeth I, King James of Scotland became King of both Scotland and England. Despite being the son of Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, James I was a Protestant and intended to keep England as a Protestant country, in fact, he ordered all Catholic priests to leave the country.
Robert Catesby began the Gunpowder plot. His father had been prosecuted by the Elizabethan regime for not transferring his beliefs to Protestantism, and Robert had had enough of being under a Protestant ruler.
The overall aim of the plan was to assassinate the King and hope they would get a Catholic back on the throne to make England a Catholic Country once more. The Catholic they hoped to get on the throne was the daughter of James the first, Princess Elizabeth. She would be a puppet Queen.
There are hundreds and hundreds of detailed accounts of the known details of the Gunpowder Plot so I’m not going to go through an in-depth retelling and waste everyone’s time but, here is the briefest of timelines.
- 24th March 1603- James is crowned King of England.
- 20th May 1604- Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes and other conspirators met for the first time in the Duck and Drake pub in London. They planned to blow up the houses of parliament on the 5th of November when the King was in attendance. Guy Fawkes was to be the gunpowder expert.
- March 1605- The group rent a cellar under parliament and hides 36 barrels of gunpowder in it. They then place heaps of firewood on top. They didn’t do this all on the same day as that would have been really suspicious.
- 26th October 1605- We don’t know for sure, but it is likely Francis Tresham sent a letter of warning to his brother-in-law Lord Monteagle warning him not to attend Parliament on the 5th of November. The letter writer also asked for the letter to be burnt on reading. We know the letter was sent we just don’t know who definitely sent it. Lord Monteagle shows the letter to the King.
- 4th November 1605- The secretary of state, Robert Cecil orders the Houses of Parliament to be searched.
- 5th November 1605- Guy Fawkes is arrested after being found in the cellar with a fire lighting set with 36 barrels of gunpowder.
Capture
After his capture, Guy Fawkes gave his name as John Johnson and was questioned in the King’s private chamber. He told the guard he had intended to blow up the king and his Parliament and also regretted not succeeding.
His torture then began to try and get the names of his co-conspirators out of him. They started “gentle” and only subjected him to the rack which is a horrendous torture machine where you lie down on a very uncomfortable frame with rope tied around your wrists and ankles. The torturer then turns a wheel which tightens the rope, forcing you to be stretched. Real gentle torture as you can tell.
Guy was quickly transferred to the Tower of London where he was questioned and tortured further. Despite his torture, Guy didn’t reveal any of the names of his co-conspirators. Not immediately anyway. He revealed his name was Guy Fawkes on the 7th of November and let slip that there had been five people involved in the assassination attempt of the King.
I’m going to (and might already have when you’re reading this) write a Not-So-Romantic Blog about torture methods in this period of history so if you want to know how difficult it would have been to stay strong and silent whilst being tortured I suggest you head over and read it.
Guy’s resolve to start naming names lasted until the 8th of November after heavy torture. Commendable really.
The trial of Guy Fawkes and eight co-conspirators began on the 27th of January 1606. Despite earlier confessions, Guy pleaded not guilty to the charges. all conspirators were, unsurprisingly, declared guilty.
Hung, Drawn, and Quartered
We’ve arrived at the part of the story that is most commonly remembered. Guy Fawkes being hung, drawn and quartered. This was known as “drawn backwards”. This method of killing involved hanging someone until they were almost dead, drawing (dragging) them by horse and then quartering them- literally chopping them into four. This became the punishment for high treason.
It first came in during the reign of Edward III in 1352 but some of the first recorded evidence of someone being hung, drawn and quartered is from just under 100 years before that in 1283 during the reign of Edward I.
On this occasion, Dafydd ap Gruffydd turned against Edward and declared himself Prince of Wales and Lord of Snowdon. Dafydd was captured and was declared to have committed high treason. It wasn’t called high treason back then but this is where the term originated from.
On the 3rd of October 1283, Dafydd was drawn (pulled) through the streets after being attached to a horse’s tail- I know what you’re thinking… poor horse. I’d certainly have something to say if I was pulling someone on my tail – I don’t have a tail, it was just as an example to say I wouldn’t be happy if I was a horse dragging someone by my tail.
From there he was hung by the neck (not the ankle) until he passed out. He was then taken out of the noose and woken up so he could watch his innards being pulled out piece by piece and burnt before him. He was then chopped into four. Those four parts were then sent to the four corners of the country.
When you think of all the historical records which have been lost, I can surprisingly tell you that his right arm was sent to York, his left arm to Bristol, his right leg to Northampton and his left leg to Hereford. His head was stuck up outside the Tower of London.
William Wallace is another notable person to have been hung, drawn and quartered. For anyone keeping a record… I have no ambition to be on the list of people who have been hung, drawn and quartered.
I’m quite concerned about how fascinating I’m finding all this. I’ve completely drifted from the topic of “Who was Guy Fawkes” but hopefully you’re finding this as interesting as I am.
I did some digging and it is thought that David Tryie was the final person to be hung, drawn and quartered in Britain in the year 1781.
As we get back to Guy Fawkes did I mention that his genitals would be cut off and burnt in front of him? I didn’t? My bad!
Guy Fawkes, and the others, were the have their genitals cut off and burnt in front of them as well as being hung, drawn and quartered. It certainly adds some drama to the situation. They would also have all their internal organs removed, just like the others who shared the same fate.
The execution took place on the 31st of January 1606 and on that day Guy was the last one to be hung. The plan, as we’ve previously discussed, was to hang Guy until he passed out and was as close being dead without being dead so he could watch his body parts being burnt. This plan didn’t go to plan though.
For lack of a better sentence, I will say, “luckily” for Guy Fawkes, he died quickly as he broke his neck in the noose. I suppose it’s slightly better to go quickly rather than have the agony of being quartered.
Despite his neck breaking Guy Fawkes was still quartered and his remaining parts were sent to four corners of the country to be put on display… and be bird food.
Bonfire Night
In the aftermath of the foiled assassination attempt, Parliament announced on the 5th of November 1606 was to be a day of public thanksgiving. This day included ringing church bells, lighting bonfires and even setting off fireworks – sound familiar?
This slowly evolved into what we now know as Bonfire Night. It is in remembrance of the Gunpowder Plot and people started to make Guy Fawkes effigies to burn on top of the bonfires.
It wasn’t just bonfire night which came from the gunpowder plot, it also became essential for the Yeoman of the guard (personal guards to the King and Queen) to search the basement of the Houses of Parliament and nearby buildings before the King and/or Queen arrives for the state opening of Parliament.
The state opening of Parliament is a way of marking the formal start of a parliamentary year. I suppose you could look at it as a very fancy start to a year at school.
Who was Guy Fawkes?
And so we arrive at the question we started with. Who was Guy Fawkes?
Guy Fawkes was part of an assassination attempt on the King which would have wiped out the majority of the political system of the country. No matter the cause it is difficult to look beyond him being a terrorist who would have been responsible for the deaths of many many people should the plan have succeeded- and perhaps it would have done had that letter not been sent… we will never know.
Because of minimal security thanks to the renovation work taking place on the houses of Parliament maybe it would have worked.
In the aftermath, Fawkes was a villain. To say he was basically employed by the ring leaders the fact that it is Guy Fawkes who is remembered above everyone is somewhat surprising. He wasn’t the ringleader.
I feel, that in the modern day, Guy Fawkes is seen more as an anti-hero who fought the establishment.
The brutal treatment of the Catholics was in no way right and it was brutal but could we honestly say that had the Gunpowder Plot worked and the Catholics had placed their puppet queen on the throne- would they have treated the Protestants any better? A deep question which has no answer.
I, perhaps, could have understood more if they wanted fair treatment for all… I still don’t think murdering countless people is the answer for anything but would their fighting for a fairer country have made it more understandable?
I’m not sure I can answer the question, “Who was Guy Fawkes” as really… it doesn’t have an answer. Historically he was a former Protestant English citizen who transferred to the Spanish and Catholics and was then employed to potentially murder an awful lot of people.
But who was really? We’ll probably never know.
Let me know your answer to “Who was Guy Fawkes?” in the comments below.
What to read next
Thanks for reading this Not-So-Romantic Blog where I attempted to answer the question “Who was Guy Fakes?”. I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. If you have here are a few suggestions on blogs on a similar theme that you could read next.
Thanks for reading! I hope to see you in another Not-So-Romantic Blog very soon.