One of the most famous events to occur inside of British History was the plot devised to
blow up the Houses of Parliament and King James I and his government, along with the
royal family.
The plot was close to being carried out, and was hours away from disaster until Guy Fawkes
was caught in the undercrofts of the Houses of Parliament armed with a slow match and
over 30 barrels of gunpowder.
It was clear what his intentions were, and following his arrest he was tortured and then
sentenced to death by a trial in which a number of his co-conspirators were also condemned.
But Guy Fawkes’ execution did not go as well as it should have, as he escaped the
executioner in his own cunning way, evading the hangman’s noose whilst he was still
alive.
Join us today as we look at the BRUTAL execution of guy Fawkes, and remember to support our
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The Gunpowder Plot was planned to blow up the House of Lords on the state opening of
Parliament, on the 5th November 1605.
James I, the King who had been ruling for a couple of years would have been blown to
kingdom come, as would his royal family and the conspirators wanted James’ 9 year old
daughter Elizabeth to be crowned as a Catholic Queen of England.
The principal time was to kill James and the other targets inside of the royal family and
the government, along with key members of the Privy Council and the House of Commons.
If this would have occurred, then the repercussions would still be felt today centuries on as
the monarchy would have fallen.
But the man who is best remembered for being involved in the plot was Guy Fawkes, the man
who was caught inside the Houses of Parliament armed with the gunpowder.
Guy Fawkes was raised as a Catholic, and he had embarked on a military career in Europe.
Fawkes joined Sir William Stanley another Catholic Commander and joined the fight alongside
Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester’s expedition to the Netherlands during the reign of Elizabeth
I. Fawkes became a junior officer and fought well and was considered a possible captain,
and then he travelled to Spain to try and raise support for a Catholic rebellion in
England.
He occasionally used the Italian version of his name Guido, and he began to dissent against
King James I who he deemed was a heretic.
It was in 1604 that Fawkes became involved with a collection of English Catholics led
by Robert Catesby who planned to assassinate James I. Fawkes was described as ‘a pleasant
man of approach and of cheerful manner, opposed to quarrels and strife, and loyal to his friends.’
He was considered a well experienced military leader, and this won him lots of plaudits
with the other conspirators.
He was described as a, ‘"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", and
that he was "a man of action ... capable of intelligent argument as well as physical
endurance, somewhat to the surprise of his enemies.’
The conspirators first met on the 20th May 1604 at an inn called the Duke and Drake on
the Strand in London.
Catesby led a chat and a talk about devising the plan to blow up the King.
Along with Fawkes were a number of other key catholics, and one of them Thomas Percy gained
access to a house in London, and Fawkes was made the caretaker of this house, under the
identity of John Johnson.
Whilst here, the conspirators tried to dig a tunnel from this house to Parliament and
then place gunpowder in this, but they did give up on this plan when they heard a noise
from above.
This noise was that a nearby undercroft directly beneath the House of Lord was being cleared
out.
The plotters then leased out this room, and it was considered a great hiding place for
the gunpowder.
To begin with Fawkes stored 20 barrels and then another 16.
As the Plague was ravaging London, the State Opening of Parliament was pushed back to the
5th November, and Fawkes did try to raise foreign support for a Catholic rebellion and
even possibly an invasion of England which would back up the assassination attempt.
Fawkes was the one who was placed in the position of trust as to light the fuse leading to the
gunpowder, and then he would escape across the River Thames to safety, all whilst a revolt
inside to the Midlands would rise up and capture Princess Elizabeth.
But as the plot loomed closer, the conspirators were worried about a number of prominent Catholics
who would be at the state opening, and because of this one decided to inform Lord Monteagle
via anoymous letter not to attend Parliament.
Fawkes checked the undercroft on the 30th October, and he saw that nothing had been
disturbed and discovered, but Monteagle’s letter was shown to King James I who ordered
a search go the cellars.
This occurred on the 5th November in the early hours, hours before Parliament would open.
With this, Fawkes was found and he had in his possession a watch, a slow match and was
apprehended as he was leaving the cellar around midnight.
Inside the barrels of gunpowder were found hidden under large piles of firewood and coal.
Fawkes refused to give his real identity to the authorities, and said he was ‘John Johnson’
when he was taken to the King for interrogation.
When he was taken into the Privy Chamber, he was asked what he was doing and he shouted
defiantly at the King, ‘to blow you Scottish beggars back to your native mountains,’
and he said it was regretful that the plan had been foiled.
He admitted he had planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament, and James I was shocked
by his resolution and determination, but to extract more information on who was a co-conspirator,
James I in his own handwriting authorised the torture of Guy Fakes.
He said that to begin with the lighter tortures should be applied using devices such as the
manacles before more severe methods should be used.
It was Sir William Waad the Leftenant of the Tower of the Tower London who was responsible
for the torture.
He was given a list of questions devised by the King and Fawkes was held in a room which
is known at the Tower as the Guy Fawkes room where his interrogation took place.
Following a routine search, Waad found a note addressed to Fawkes, but he continued to say
nothing to anytone.
On the 6th November in the evening, he spoke with Waad and said nothing except that he
planned to blow up Parliament in the name of the Catholic faith.
Fawkes was then told to rest before his interrogation would continue and become more severe.
He would be brutalised until he gave the names of his co-conspiators.
He had been tortured on the manacles and was suspended in the air by his arms and beaten
for a number of house but he continued to refuse anything.
On the 7th November he gave over his true identity and told the guards that there were
5 people involved in the plot to begin with.
He said he would not name anyone, but instead the guards applied more extreme torture.
He was first taken to the rack, the infamous stretching device that would cause horrific
injuries.
The rack was designed to stretch humans to the extreme, and people even died on the device,
with their bones snapping, joints dislocating and ligaments tearing.
It was brutal.
Fawkes continued to refuse to hand over anything, and with this was then placed on the rack,
and he was racked several times, with guards turning the cranks of the device tougher each
time and Fawkes having more injuries from the ordeal.
It was this that broke him.
In the evening of the 8th November, he had revealed information about the co-conpsirators
because of the rack.
He gave more than one was believed, naming a number of the men.
But on the 10th November, he then signed his confession.
It was said that, ‘‘On the 10th, this declaration was acknowledged before the Lords
Commissioners, and is signed in a tremulous hand “Guido.”
The signature is supposed to have been extorted by the rack, and the prisoner to have fainted
before completing it.’
Fawkes’ torture completed shattered him, and his handwriting before and after was indecipherable,
and the rack left him a shaking mess.
It was reported that, ‘Fawkes confessed nothing the first racking, but did so when
told he must come to it again and again, from day to day, till he should have delivered
his whole knowledge.’
The 8 plotters who were named and captured, were brought to trial on the 27th January
1606.
Fawkes shared a barbecue from the Tower of London to Westminster Hall with his plotters.
They were held in the Star Chamber and then displayed on a scaffold, and the King and
his royal family were watching in secret.
The charges were read out and Fawkes was identified as Guido Fawkes, and he pleased not guilty.
The jury found him and his other conspirators guilty, and with this they were sentenced
to death.
The Attorney General said that each of the condemned would be hanged, drawn and quartered.
They were to be put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy as both, their
genitals cut off and burned in front of their eyes and they their bowel and heart removed
before being decapitated and then quartered, being cut into four pieces.
The executions of the gunpowder plotters took place in two sessions, the first took place
on the 30th January 1606, but Fawkes was executed the following day alongside Thomas Winter,
Ambrose Rookwood and Robert Keyes.
All 3 were taken from the Tower of London on wattled hurdles, and were dragged through
the streets of London behind horses.
The crowds lined the streets and hurled abuse and objects at them, and they then arrived
at their place of execution, Old Palace Yard in Westminster.
They were symbolically to be executed in front of the building that they intended to destroy
and blow up.
But Fawkes would not go the way in which the authorities intended, and he wanted to end
things his own way.
After watching the others being brutally hanged, drawn and quartered, Guy Fawkes was the last
to be brought onto the scaffold.
He was led up the stairs, and he asked for the forgiveness of the King and also of England,
but claimed he died a Catholic and remained in the crosses and idle ceremonies of the
Catholic faith.
As he had been significantly weakened and injured by his brutal torture, the struggling
Fawkes was then led towards the ladder where the noose was about to be tied around his
neck.
However quickly and dramatically, Fawkes then jumped to his death, from the ladder and with
this crashed off the scaffold and instantly his neck was broken killing him.
He managed with this to avoid the pain and suffering of the latter part of the hanging,
drawing and quartering process as it would be performed on a very much alive individual.
But Fawkes was already dead, but the executioners spared no spectacle, and that day continued
with Fawkes’ execution, beheading his lifeless body, burning his entrails and cutting him
into four pieces.
Fawkes’ remains were then sent to four corners of the Kingdom for display to act as a warning
to traitors.
But the gunpowder plot and the efforts of Guy Fawkes are commemorated each year in England
and Britain on the 5th November on bonfire night.
If he would have been successful, Fawkes would have been regarded as the most brutal and
serious traitor in History, and someone who would have brought down the whole of the English
monarchy, as well as the government and parliament.
Some still claim that the last person to enter Parliament with honest intentions was the
man who was caught under the undercrofts of the centre of government 4 centuries ago with
over 30 barrels of gunpowder.
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