Guy Fawkes is remembered today as one of the main conspirators behind the Gunpowder Plot
which aimed to blow up King James I and his parliament and majority of the Royal family.
It was a plot which was Catholic and aimed to overthrow the monarchy and the government,
but ultimately the plan failed and if it would have happened it would have blown up half
of London.
But Fawkes was one of a number of plotters who came together to plan the downfall of
the English and Scottish King.
But after the plot was foiled, there were quick movements by the government as to find
out who particularly was responsible, and it was through Guy Fawkes and his torture
that more names came out about the extent of the assassination attempt.
Fawkes mentioned the names of the co-conspirators but was broken on the rack to extract the
information.
But gunpowder plotters were then rounded up, and a number were executed.
But what is the story behind this?
Join us today as we look at, ‘the BRUTAL executions of the Gunpowder Plot.’
Guy Fawkes was discovered in the basements of the Houses of Parliament, after they were
searched by authorities.
There was a huge number of barrels of gunpowder stored in the undercrofts of the House of
Lords, and the plan was to ignite this on the 5th November, when the State Opening of
Parliament was going to happen.
This would have gathered the majority of the ruling family along with the King and his
government in one place, and then would have blown them to kingdom come.
Fawkes was guarding the barrels of gunpowder, and Fawkes was arrested after giving up a
bit of a struggle.
He originally gave his name as John Johnson, and was found with a lantern, slow matches,
a pocket watch and touchwood to ignite the fuse. 36 barrels of gunpowder were found,
and then Fawkes was taken straight to the King, and when it was discovered that the
plot was falling apart, the other co-conspirators began to run and hide in many different places.
Fawkes defiantly stood infront of the King James I, and the King even respected him for
the bravery he showed.
But he was then tortured at the Tower of London, and on the 7th November he signed his confession
after being broken on the brutal torture device of the rack.
The true mastermind behind the group was Robert Catesby, who urged the rest of the plotters
to continue with their plan to raise a Catholic rebellion in England and Wales to rise up
against the King and the Government.
But this did not matter, as the authorities knew the names of the men involved in the
plan, and they began to then hunt them.
A large number of conspirators flocked to Holbeche House in Staffordshire.
This was the home of Stephen Littleton, who was a member of the plotter’s followers,
and the conspirators tried to raise some local support.
But whilst here, the remaining conspirators put some gunpowder around the fire to dry
it out, but then a spark from the fire landed on the powder and there was an explosion that
injured Catesby, Ambrose Rookwood and John Grant.
But the conspirators continued to hide at Holbeche House, but on the morning of the
8th November things turned and trouble arrived.
The Sheriff of Worcestershire Richard Walsh arrived at Holbeche House with 200 soldiers
and they besieged the house.
A shootout occurred between Walsh’s soldiers and the conspirators.
A number of deaths occurred, and the mastermind Catesby and the senior Thomas Percy were both
killed by one lucky shot, and some of the other conspirators were injured and taken
into custody.
The ones who were arrested were then placed on trial and were brought in front of a judge.
Those who were arrested were threatened with torture if they did not add more names to
the plot, and they did find out that the plot was larger in its scope than initially believed.
One name that came up was Jesuit Priest Henry Garnet, and the plotters were placed on trial
and the proceedings were watched by the Royal family and the King.
Several Earls heard the trial, and all of the conspirators pleaded not guilty.
When all the evidence had been heard, all of the conspirators were sentenced to death
and were subject to a horrific execution.
The normal punishment for someone who was found guilty of treason or being a traitor
was that the men would be hanged, drawn and quartered.
The declaration read, ‘For first after a traitor hath had his just trial, and is convicted
and attainted, he shall have his judgement to be drawn to the place of execution from
his prison, as being not worthy ay more to tread upon the face of the earth, whereof
he was made.
Also for that he hath been retrograde to nature, therefore is he drawn backwards at a horse
tail.
He must be drawn with his head declining downwards, and lying so near to the ground as may be,
being thought unfair to take benefit of the common air.
For which cause also he shall he strangled, being hanged up by the neck between heaven
and earth, as deemed unworthy of both, and to have his privy parts cut off and burned
before his face, as being unworthily begotten, and unfit to leave any generation after him.
His bowels and inlay’d parts taken out and burnt, who inwardly had conceived and harboured
in his heart such horrible treason.
After to, have his head cut off which he imagined the mischief.
And lastly his body be quartered, and the quarters set up in some high and eminent place,
to the view and detestation of men, and to become a prey for the fowls of the air.’
Hanging drawing and quartering was a brutal and shocking execution for those who saw the
execution.
It was an execution that had a number of steps, and then the remains of the executed were
displayed in different cities to act as a bold warning.
It would not be long before the condemned would be executed in front of huge crowds.
The 8 who were sentenced to death were executed in two groups on two consecurtive days.
On the 30th January 1606, Robert Winter, John Grant, Thomas Bates and Everard Digby were
tied to hurdles behind horses, and were taken from prisons such as the Tower of London to
where they would be executed.
Huge crowds lined the streets and they threw things and abused the traitors who were shocked
at the plan to kill their King.
Guards held back the crowds and also were worried that the conspirators would be saved
and freed by Catholic sympathisers.
The families of the executed also watched on as their loved ones were taken to St Paul’s
Churchyard.
When they got here, they were brought up to the scaffold one by one, where they were hanged,
drawn and quartered.
Each was hanged until almost dead, cut down and then beheaded and their remains were then
cut into four bits.
The man who was last was forced to see the other 3 being killed in this manner, before
they too were killed in a bloody way.
But on the following day, the 31st January 1606, the second executions of the gunpowder
plotters took place.
Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, Robert Keyes and Ambrose Rookwood were paraded through the
streets again, but they were taken to Old Palace Yard outside the Palace of Westminster,
next to the building where they planned to carry out the attack and kill the King.
The crowd yet again were thirsty for their blood, and Rookwood and Winter were both taken
up to the gallows first.
Their executions went well and straightforward, but the next two would not.
Robert Keyes was defiant and he planned not to go the way which was intended, and as we
was led up the ladder with the noose around his neck, he threw himself off the scaffold.
He hoped for a quick death and his neck snapped, but this didn’t happen, and Keyes was taken
straight to the block to be quartered whilst he was alive and very much conscious.
But finally it would be Guy Fawkes who was executed last.
In a similar style move, Fawkes as he was taken on the gallows was still weak from his
torture at the Tower of London on the Rack and he was guided up the steps of the scaffold.
As he was on the gallows, he then threw himself from the scaffold and allegedly broke his
neck, and with this he was instantly killed.
He then escaped the pain of his execution, but it was still carried out on his dead body.
More executions took place, for example Humphrey and Stephen Littleton who lend their house
to the conspirators where the shootout occurred were executed.
But one of the most shocking executions included the dead bodies of Robert Catesby and Thomas
Percy.
The pair were dug up, and their bodies were posthumously executed, and their decaying
heads were then displayed alongside the others above the House of Lords.
Francis Tresham did escape execution as he died inside the Tower of London during his
imprisonment.
But the Gunpowder Plot remains one of the most shocking events in English History.
The plan to blow up and kill the King James I came close to happening, but ultimately
it was the successful torture of Guy Fawkes that implicated the others.
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