guy_fawkes : Who was Guy Fawkes

In his preliminary interrogation at the end of 1605, Guy Fawkes claimed to have converted to Catholicism at the age of 16. It is thought he left England for Flanders in 1593 or 1594, where he enlisted in the Spanish army as a gunpowder packer working with explosives. He left the Spanish armed forces on February 16th, 1603, to make a trip to Spain to muster Spanish support for an invasion of England on Queen Elizabeth's death, which never transpired.

King James I (a Protestant and the first sovereign to reign England, Ireland and Scotland simultaneously) took over the throne of religiously intolerant England on March 24 1603, and it was soon felt he was not at all sympathetic to bettering the Catholic's status in England – there were severe penal laws against the practice of the Catholic religion in England at the time. Disappointment with his new King is one of the possible reasons Guy Fawkes felt the need to take action against him. Sources disagree as to whether the plot was to actually destroy the Houses of Parliament and influence a Catholic uprising, or to kill King James (who had not kept his promise to stop the persecution of Catholics) and in the ensuing chaos place a more Catholic friendly royal on the throne.

For Easter 1604 Guy Fawkes was back in England, when he met up with Thomas Wintour, whom Guy Fawkes would eventually confess to having conceived of the Gunpowder Plot. However, it is felt that maybe Robert Catesby was more likely the leader of the gunpowder plot due to his Catholic connections. Initially there were only five conspirators, all from the nobility but for Guy Fawkes: Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy, John (aka Jack) Wright, Thomas Wintour and Guy Fawkes. They met at an inn called the Duck and Drake on the Strand in London in May 1604 where they made an oath together in regards to the gunpowder plot, which was sanctified with a mass and administration of the sacraments by a Priest. It was at that point that Guy Fawkes assumed the identity of John Johnson and said he was a servant of Thomas Percy.

One of the problems with the explosion was that it would potentially kill Catholics in the Houses of Parliament at the time, so on October 18th, 1605, Guy Fawkes met with Robert Catesby, Thomas Wintour and Francis Tresham to discuss how certain Catholic peers could be warned and thus removed from the explosion. A warning letter was delivered to Lord Monteagle, a former Catholic supporter, on October 26th that stated he should not attend the opening of Parliament, currently set for November 5th, 1605. (It is thought that Francis Tresham sent this letter.) Lord Monteagle passed the letter on to the king's chief advisor, Robert Cecil, and although the conspirators found out about the letter, they did not cancel their plans, convinced that the government knew nothing. (Some believe the Gunpowder Plot was the efforts of Robert Cecil to persuade the more Catholic-tolerant King James that the Catholics could not be trusted and that he should not repeal any laws against them.)

It seems that Guy Fawkes was completely ignorant of the existence of the Monteagle letter. On Wednesday October 30th he inspected the cellar again to ensure that the gunpowder was still hidden and ready for the explosion. As late as November 3rd, 1605, the conspirators met and were sure the authorities were not cognizant of their plans. All, but for Guy Fawkes, made plans to leave London. It was Guy Fawkes’s task to watch the cellar and fire the gunpowder the moment Parliament opened. He was to leave for Flanders the instance he had done this.

The Privy Council met in King James’s bedchamber early on the morning of November 5th, where Guy Fawkes was also brought in. The only information he gave was that his name was John Johnson and he was a servant of Thomas Percy. In a letter dated November 6th, 1605, King James ordered gentle torture of Guy Fawkes… proceeding to the worst. Guy Fawkes succumbed to the torture (most likely the manacles and the rack) on November 7th, giving his real name and that the plotters were merely five men. On November 8th he gave the details of the plot and on November 9th he named his fellow conspirators upon hearing that some had already been arrested.

The conspirators' trial began on Monday January 27th, 1606. Essentially it was a trial in name only, where the plotters plead not guilty, although a guilty verdict had already been handed down. Execution of the conspirators began on January 30th, 1606, with Sir Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant and Thomas Bates, who were all executed at the west end of St. Paul's Church. On Friday January 31st, 1606, the hanging, drawing and quartering of Guy Fawkes, Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood and Robert Keyes took place in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster "in the very place which they had planned to demolish in order to hammer home the message of their wickedness." Thomas Wintour was first, then Ambrose Rookwood and Robert Keyes, and finally Guy Fawkes.

The ultimate result of the Gunpowder Plot was to provoke hostility against all English Catholics, leading to even harsher laws against them (a semblance of religious equality did not come until 200 years later). To this day it is law in Britain that a Roman Catholic cannot hold the office of monarch, and the Queen is still Supreme Head of the Church of England. Also to this day, the Yeoman of the Guard searches the cellars beneath the Houses of Parliament before the session begins each November. However the actual cellar Guy Fawkes used for gunpowder storage was damaged by fire in 1834, then totally destroyed during the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in the 1800s.

The night the Gunpowder Plot was foiled it is believed that bonfires were lit across London in celebration. There are no accurate records of when "guys" (lifesize dolls made from found materials) first became a bonfire feature but is believed to be while James I was on the English throne (from March 24th, 1603 to his death on March 27, 1625). Then after the reign of Charles II (1685) children began making human effigies from straw and wood called "guys" and took them through the streets chanting "Penny for the guy" to get money with which to buy fireworks. It is thought the "guy" wasn't thrown into the fire until sometime in the 1700s and was not only representative of Guy Fawkes, but also of the Pope and the Devil. The "guy" usually has an evil looking face, sometimes wearing a brightly colored mask.

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained, and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

• For protecting them by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
• For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
• For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
• For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
• For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

• For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
• For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
• For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren.

• We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.
• We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.
• We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.

They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare.

That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,

and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved;

and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new States as follows:

New Hampshire:

Massachusetts:

Rhode Island:

Connecticut:

New York:

New Jersey:

Pennsylvania:

Delaware:

Maryland:

Virginia:

North Carolina:

South Carolina:

Georgia:

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