Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.
 |
Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish, belonged to a group of Roman Catholic restorationists from England who planned the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Their aim was to displace Protestant rule by blowing up the Houses of Parliament while King James I and the entire Protestant (and even most of the Catholic) aristocracy and nobility were inside. The conspirators saw this as a necessary reaction to the systematic discrimination against English Catholics.
The Gunpowder Plot was led by Robert Catesby, but Fawkes was put in charge of its execution. He was arrested a few hours before the planned explosion, during a search of the cellars underneath Parliament in the early hours of November 5 prompted by the receipt of an anonymous warning letter.
The king ordered Sir Thomas Knyvet to conduct a search of the cellars underneath Parliament. Shortly after midnight, Fawkes was found leaving the cellar the conspirators had rented and was arrested. Inside, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of firewood and coal.
Fawkes gave his name as John Johnson, and was tortured over the next few days in an effort to extract from him the names of his co-conspirators. For three or four days Fawkes said nothing, nor divulged the names of his co-conspirators. In the end, the torture only revealed the names of those conspirators who were already dead or whose names were already known to the authorities.
On January 31st, Fawkes and a number of others implicated in the conspiracy were tried in Westminster Hall. After being found guilty, they were taken to Old Palace Yard in Westminster and St Paul's Yard, where they were to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Fawkes, weakened by his torture, was the last to climb the ladder to the gallows, from which he jumped, breaking his neck in the fall and thus avoiding the latter part of his execution.
The Fawkes story continued to be celebrated in poetry. The Latin verse In Quintum Novembris was written c. 1626. John Milton’s Satan in book six of Paradise Lost was inspired by Fawkes as the Devil invents gunpowder to try to match god's thunderbolts. Post-Reformation and anti–Catholic literature often personified Fawkes as the Devil in this way. From Puritan polemics to popular literature, all sought to associate Fawkes with the demonic. However, his reputation has since undergone a reformation, and today he is often toasted as "the last (or only) man to enter Parliament with honourable intentions." Guy Fawkes has, for many, become a symbol of rebellion against governmental, religious, and political oppression.
 |
I watch the movie V for Vendetta every year around November 5, which references Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot heavily. In the film (and the ten-issue comic-book series on which the movie is based), Guy Fawkes is depicted as a freedom fighter, rebelling against a tyrannical government. V, the protagonist of the film, emulates Guy Fawkes both in appearance and in action, striking against the oppressive (and notably religiously conservative) political leaders who have robbed the people of their freedoms. As Guy Fawkes fought against religious discrimination (according to one interpretation), V fights against those who discriminate against anyone who's "different."
In 18th-century England, it became a tradition for children to display a grotesque effigy of Fawkes, termed a "guy", as part of the Bonfire Night celebration. As part of the tradition, they would often stand on street corners begging for "a penny for the guy". The "guy" would be burned on a bonfire at the end of the evening. As a consequence, "guy" came to mean a man of odd appearance. Subsequently, in American English, "guy" lost any pejorative connotation, becoming a simple reference for any man.
Tonight we are celebrating our second annual Springfield (IL) Guy Fawkes Night, complete with an effigy created by my good friend Christopher, aka the bRAiNSaW, which we will burn at the end of the evening, according to tradition. Of course, we won't be burning it as an insult to "the guy"; we just like setting things on fire.
In session 1 of Beyond Belief 2006, Roger Bingham, the emcee of the event (which began on November 5, 2006) refers to the actions of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot as an act of extremist religious terrorism.
(If you haven't seen the entire video series of Beyond Belief, it really is worth taking the time to watch: Beyond Belief 2006.)
Agree with Bingham or not, few would argue that the Gunpowder Plot was motivated not only by political factors, but religious factors as well. My mind drifts to thoughts of airplanes flying into buildings almost a decade ago. Thus, for me, November 5 isn't just an excuse to throw a party: it's a time to reflect on the serious question of the culpability of religion: the wars started, the blood shed, the lives lost because of religious intolerance, blind fanaticism and the forgoing of reason which has lead to so many conflicts, including the infamous Gunpowder Plot.
Dead-Logic.com
Much of the content of this blog entry was written a year ago for the first annual Springfield Guy Fawkes Night. I used the following sites as resources:
- Guy Fawkes (Wikipedia)
- Gunpowder Plot (Wikipedia)
- Guy Fawkes Night (Wikipedia)
- Guy Fawkes: A Biography (Britania.com)
- Guy-Fawkes.com
UPDATE: Pictures of the event!
