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This was plotted by English Roman Catholics, the leader being Robert Catesby. These also included Thomas Winter, Thomas Percy, John Wright, and Guy Fawkes.

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What was the Gunpowder Plot?

Why did the Gunpowder Plot take place?

What happened to the Gunpowder Plot conspirators?

What happened in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot?

Gunpowder Plot, the conspiracy of English Roman Catholics to blow up Parliament and King James I, his queen, and his eldest son on November 5, 1605. The leader of the plot, Robert Catesby, together with his four coconspirators- Thomas Winter, Thomas Percy, John Wright, and Guy Fawkes-were zealous Roman Catholics angered by James's refusal to grant more religious toleration to Catholics. They apparently hoped that the confusion that would follow the murder of the king, his ministers, and the members of Parliament would provide an opportunity for the English Catholics to take over the country.

Assembling the conspirators

Catesby had conceived of the plot as early as May 1603, when he told Percy, in reply to the latter's declaration of his intention to kill the king, that he was "thinking of a most sure way." Subsequently, on or about November 1, 1603, Catesby sent a message to his cousin Robert Winter at Huddington, near Worcester, to come to London, but Winter refused. On the arrival of a second urgent summons shortly afterward, he obeyed, and at a house in Lambeth, probably in January 1604, he and John Wright were initiated by Catesby into the plot to blow up Parliament. Before putting this plan into motion, however, it was decided to try a "quiet way" to obtain the repeal of the Penal Laws, a body of laws that essentially criminalized Roman Catholicism. Winter was sent to Flanders to enlist the aid of Juan de Velasco, duke of Frias and constable of Castile, who was conducting the negotiations for a peace between England and Spain. Winter, having secured nothing but vain promises from the constable, returned to England about the end of April, bringing with him Fawkes, a man devoted to the Roman Catholic cause and recommended for undertaking perilous adventures.

Subsequently Catesby, Winter, and Fawkes, along with Percy, who joined the conspiracy in May, met in a house behind St. Clement's Church. There they swore an oath of secrecy together, heard mass, and took Communion in an adjoining apartment from a priest stated by Fawkes to have been Father John Gerard. Later several other persons were included in the plot, including Winter's brother Thomas, John Grant, Ambrose Rokewood, Robert Keyes, Sir Everard Digby, Catesby's cousin Francis Tresham, and Catesby's servant Thomas Bates. The Jesuits Oswald Tesimond (also known by the alias Father Greenway) and Father Henry Garnet were also cognizant of the plot. On May 24, 1604, a house was hired in Percy's name adjoining the House of Lords. From the cellar of this house the conspirators proposed to work a mine. They began digging on December 11, 1604, and by about March had gotten halfway through the wall. They then discovered that a vault immediately under the House of Lords was available. This was at once hired by Percy, and 36 barrels of gunpowder (some sources say fewer), amounting to about 1.5 tons (some 1,400 kg), were brought in and concealed under coal and firewood. The preparations being completed in May 1605, the conspirators separated. Fawkes was dispatched to Flanders, where he imparted the plot to Hugh Owen, a Welsh Roman Catholic expatriate whose intrigues in England dated to at least the Ridolfi Plot against Elizabeth I in 1571. Sir Edmund Baynham was sent on a mission to Rome to be on hand when the news of the plot's success came so that he could win over the pope to the cause of the conspirators.

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Gunpowder Plot | Definition, Summary, & Facts

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Gunpowder Plot, conspiracy of English Roman Catholics to blow up Parliament and James I, his queen, and his eldest son on November 5, 1605.

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He was a British soldier, who, at one point, left Protestant England and enlisted "in the Spanish army in the Netherlands."

-Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Guy Fawkes.
Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guy-Fawkes.

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One of the conspirators "received an anonymous letter" before the day of the planned explosion. In this letter, they learned that some of their secret must have been out. However, they "decided to go ahead with their plan, especially after Fawkes inspected the undercroft and found that nothing had been touched."

-Gunpowder Plot facts. wikt:tolerant. (n.d.). https://kids.kiddle.co/Gunpowder_Plot.

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Following the Gunpowder Plot, "interest in the demonic was heightened." William Shakespeare's Macbeth was partially inspired by the plot because of its "apparent devilish nature", and examples of this are seen frequently throughout the play.

-Gunpowder Plot facts. wikt:tolerant. (n.d.). https://kids.kiddle.co/Gunpowder_Plot.

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Through torture, "Fawkes revealed he was a participant in an English Catholic conspiracy to annihilate England’s Protestant government and replace it with Catholic leadership."  This later led to Fawkes, and those remaining who had been involved, being sentenced to death in London.

- History.com Editors.
(2009, November 9).
Gunpowder Plot. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/gunpowder-plot.

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The plot was discovered when Guy Fawkes was found "lurking in a cellar under the Parliament building." The premises were searched, and "thirty-six barrels of gunpowder were found, and Fawkes was taken into custody."

- History.com Editors.
(2009, November 9).
Gunpowder Plot. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/gunpowder-plot.

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In remembrance of the Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated each year across Great Britain! This celebration occurs on November 5th, the same date that Parliament established as a day of public thanksgiving in 1606.

- History.com Editors.
(2009, November 9).
Gunpowder Plot. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/gunpowder-plot.

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This conspiracy was an attempt to "replace the country’s Protestant government."

- History.com Editors.
(2009, November 9).
Gunpowder Plot. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/gunpowder-plot.

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Some believe that if this plan was successful "the violence of the act would have instead resulted in a more severe backlash against suspected Catholics."

-Gunpowder Plot facts. wikt:tolerant. (n.d.). https://kids.kiddle.co/Gunpowder_Plot.

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Taken place on November 5th, 1605, the "Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt to blow up England’s King James I and the Parliament."

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The Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt to blow up England's King James I (1566-1625) and the Parliament on November 5, 1605. The plot was organized by Robert Catesby (c.1572-1605) in an effort to end the persecution of Roman Catholics by the English government. Catesby and others hoped to replace the country's Protestant government with Catholic leadership. Around midnight on November 4, 1605, one of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes (1570-1606), was discovered in the cellar of the Parliament building with barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes and other men involved in the plot were tried and executed for treason. Every November 5, the British celebrate Guy Fawkes Day by burning Fawkes in effigy.

Gunpowder Plot Discovered

At about midnight on the night of November 4-5, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Guy Fawkes lurking in a cellar under the Parliament building and ordered the premises searched. Thirty-six barrels of gunpowder were found, and Fawkes was taken into custody. After being tortured, Fawkes revealed he was a participant in an English Catholic conspiracy to annihilate England's Protestant government and replace it with Catholic leadership.

Did you know? From 1604 to 1611, King James I sponsored an English translation of the Bible that became known as the Authorized King James Version.

What became known as the Gunpowder Plot was organized by Robert Catesby, an English Catholic whose father had been persecuted by Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) for refusing to conform to the Church of England. Guy Fawkes had converted to Catholicism, and his religious zeal led him to fight in the army of Catholic Spain in the Protestant Netherlands.

Catesby and the handful of other plotters rented a cellar that extended under the House of Lords building, and Fawkes planted the gunpowder there. However, as the November 5 opening meeting of Parliament approached, Lord Monteagle (1575-1622), the brother-in-law of one of the conspirators, received an anonymous letter warning him not to attend Parliament on November 5. Monteagle alerted the government, and hours before the attack was to have taken place Fawkes and the explosives were found. By torturing Fawkes, King James' government learned the identities of his co-conspirators. During the next few weeks, English authorities killed or captured all the plotters and put the survivors on trial

Gunpowder Plot: Aftermath

Fawkes and the other surviving chief conspirators were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered in London. Moments before the start of his execution, on January 31, 1606, Fawkes jumped from a ladder while climbing to the gallows, breaking his neck and dying.

Following the failed Gunpowder Plot, new laws were instituted in England that eliminated the right of Catholics to vote, among other repressive restrictions.

Guy Fawkes Night

In 1606, Parliament established November 5 as a day of public thanksgiving. Guy Fawkes Night (also referred to as Guy Fawkes Day and Bonfire Night) now is celebrated annually across Great Britain on November 5 in remembrance of the Gunpowder Plot. As dusk falls, villagers and city dwellers across Britain light bonfires, set off fireworks and burn effigies of Fawkes.

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The Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt to blow up England's King James I (1566-1625) and the Parliament on November 5, 1605. The plot was organized by Robert Catesby (c.1572-1605) in an effort to end the persecution of Roman Catholics by the English government.