Hiya I'm Bruce Fummey. Remember, remember the 5th of November.
Everyone in Scotland knows the significance of that date,
or do they? Today I'm going to set you a challenge, and there might be fireworks, are you ready?
If you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history, then hit the subscribe
button at the bottom right hand side of the screen at anytime during this video. Once you've subscribed,
click the notification bell to make sure that they tell you when I bring out new videos. In the
meantime, let me set you a challenge, and tell you a story. I'm going to explain why the 5th of November
was a successful plot and you've been conned by the biggest propaganda cover-up in British history!
I'm going to set a countdown timer at the bottom of the screen and when it gets to zero ... kaboom ...
Your challenge is to correctly identify the propaganda message, that we as a nation have been
unquestioningly accepting for hundreds of years. You just need to say the name of the coup leader
before the countdown hits zero, or everyone on this island ... pfft ... no pressure then eh? I'm going to give you
five minutes, starting now. Now first of all, for the foreigners, the tradition that's been built
up on this island around the 5th of November: so in 1603, Queen Elizabeth of England died. In the
previous 70 years, her dad Henry the Eighth had turned England against the Church of Rome, and his son
Edward the Sixth had continued this, but when he died, he was replaced by a sister, Mary who was a Catholic,
and swung back to Roman orthodoxy. When she died, her sister, Elizabeth moved back to Protestantism.
Now each time there was a change, one side became the persecuted, and the other side the persecutors.
I myself have no religion, I don't care whose side you're on. One side got high literacy rates,
the other side got Mardi Gras. I'm not picking sides, who doesn't like reading about pancakes?
Here in Scotland we've taken a different, but parallel, and undoubtedly intertwined route.
I've got some videos about it; look for John Knox in the channel videos. The bottom line
is that when Elizabeth of England died, there was a Protestant Monarch called James the Sixth here in
Scotland, ready and willing to rush off south, like excrement off a shovel, muttering vague promises of
return over his shoulder. Oh aye, we must keep in touch, get your people to call my people, driver!
So commence the reign of the Stuart Kings of Scots over England. Now English Catholics
had seen Queen Elizabeth behead James's mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, so they had high hopes that he
might improve their lot, but political expediency turned out to trump sentimentality with James.
This left Catholics disappointed, dissenting and seditious. It led to a plot to blow up the
House of Lords with James the First in it, when Parliament opened on the 5th of November 1605.
Now if anyone's confused with why one minute I'm calling him James the Sixth, then the next minute
James the First, this was the first time that the English had a James's king. We'd be doing
it for a years. Now a bloke called Guy Fawkes was found underneath the Parliament building's guarding a
stack of gunpowder. He was brutally tortured and the conspirators were caught and executed and
ever since on the 5th of November each year in England, and therefore Scotland and Wales,
people set fire to things and let off fireworks. It's a celebration of the King's delivery and indeed
national delivery from Catholic terrorists, who had planned the coup to overthrow the rightful Monarch. Now
today it's tradition, but there have been times in the past where it's actually a legal requirement.
Now all these fireworks displays are of course distractions, which cover up the successful coup.
By the way you've got two minutes and two seconds left. Okay let me tell you what I'm not disputing, I'm
not disputing that the coup did take place on the 5th of November, I'm not disputing that it
was religion that motivated it. I even agree that the intention was to overthrow James
the Stuart King of Scots, who was also King of England. Have you got me that name yet?
I'll leave a video to watch at the end, it'll explain the detail of the gaps that I've left,
but by then it might be too late, you see I think you've got the year wrong, and the coup
was successful, but you never even think about that because they've got you spending
all your time celebrating Guy Fawkes, with catherine wheels, roman candles, rockets.
By my watch the timer should be around a minute and 11 seconds.
James Stuart was the subject of a conspiracy to overthrow him, but you get the year confused.
Maybe it's because the English keep changing the numbers. What are they like? Okay here's a clue,
explosives weren't set underneath the House of Lords, the fuse was lit in the House of Lords, and
the timer's ticking, secondly, the coup wasn't against James the First as they call him,
lastly, the coup wasn't to overthrow a Protestant Monarch who had been favouring
Protestants, it was to overthrow a Catholic Monarch who had been promoting Catholicism.
No much time left, is it the blue wire or the red wire? So the date was the 5th of November,
you remembered that, what you've forgotten is that the year wasn't 1605, it was 83 years later in 1688.
The fuse was lit in the House of Lords, but the detonation was in Brixham in Devon. I need a name ...
.. too late! On the 5th of November 1688, 83 years after James the Sixth or First survived
the gunpowder plot, his grandson was on the throne. He was also called James Stuart, but
this time James the Seventh, or Second, depending on which side of the border you're from.
Now, unlike his grandad, James the Sixth, James the Seventh was Catholic. He'd just had a son who he baptized as a
Catholic. This prompted seven members of the House of Lords to write to a Protestant Dutchman, William
of Orange, to ask him to come and invade. William of Orange was married to James's daughter, Mary,
and was also the great grandson of the James's the Sixth, that Guy Fawkes had tried to blow up back in 1605.
On the 5th of November 1688, William of Orange disembarked a ship called Bril in Brixham in
Devon. He was accompanied by 35,000 men, including 4,000 cavalry. They'd come in over 300 boats,
a bigger fleet than the Spanish Armada. He'd come to overthrow the rightful King of England, Scotland
and Ireland. He'd come to carry out a religiously motivated coup to depose the Catholic, James the
Sixth, Seventh (sorry) of Scotland and the Second of England and Ireland. The point is, he wanted
to maintain a Protestant, English democracy, and every year huge amounts of time, money and effort
goes into a celebration on the 5th of November that's ingrained so deeply in our culture that as
soon as British people read the title to this video they were sure they knew what it was about.
There's even a poem and a song to tell us to remember, remember the 5th of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot. It's so ingrained in us to remember a plot that failed against the Stuart
King James the Sixth on the 5th of November 1605, that I bet not one person even considered that this video
might be about the plot to oust his grandson, which succeeded on the same day 83 years later!
That, is successful regime change. Now I'm not a monarchist and in 2020 we might ask if this
all really matters. I think it does, not because the British Monarchs are Catholic, Protestant, Methodist,
Baptist or ecumenical, personally I really couldn't give a parson's nose. The reason that it matters is
that if a Stuart Monarch was overthrown on the 5th of November yet each year we unquestioningly
celebrate the fact that a Stuart Monarch wasn't overthrown on the 5th of November what else are
we missing? 1984 came and went and we kept watching the fireworks and accepting orthodoxy. So what are
we being distracted from today? It matters, not because of the specifics, but because history
can be so twisted into tradition that we'll proclaim black is white and never questioned the lie.
So before you light fireworks, you should always check the box,
after all, maybe I just made this all up. Tell me in the comments section below if you got the
answer in time to deactivate the device, and if so when? Also here's that video that I promised called
'Jacobite Rebellion or was it?' Tha mi an dochas bum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.