THIS WEEK’S GREAT DAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19990, 5 November 1927, Page 8

THIS WEEK’S GREAT DAY

NOVEMBER S—THE5 —THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. (By Charles Conway.) On November 5, 1605, one of the most diabolical conspiracies in British history, commonly known as “Tbe Gunpowder Plot,” was discovered,' just in time to avert the annihilation of practically the whole of the three estates of the realm. When James I. succeeded to the English throhe he gave a solemn pledge to the Roman Catholics that they should not be molested in the observance of their religion; but, like most of the Stuart princes, the pledge was promptly broken, and the Catholics were subjected to considerable persecution. Robert Catesby, who had figured in many plots in the latter days of Elizabeth, became the leader of a small band of fanatics, who determined to make a desperate attempt to restore the old faith in Britain. Their plan was to destroy the King, the Lords and the Commons at one swift stroke by blowing up the House ot‘ Lords with gunpowder on the occasion of the opening of Parliament, after which it was their intention to seize the youthful heir to the throne, force him to embrace the Catholic faith and to establish a Catholic regency during his minority. The conspirators leased a house adjacent to the House of Lords, the cellar of which they proposed to reach by means of a tunnel. They burrowed beneath the ground for several months, and had completed about half their tunnel when they succeeded in renting one of the numerous vaults immediately below the House of Lords. This they used ostensibly for the storage of coal, but they secretly carried in thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, which were carefully concealed beneath a pile of coal and faggots, on top of which was placed a large number of heavy iron bars to give an added force to the explosion. The preparations were carried out with great skill and secrecy, and the plot could not have been discovered but for the act of one of the conspirators, Francis Tresham, who wished to save the life of his brother-in-law, Lord Mounteagle. Tresham sent Mount eagle an anonymous letter warning him to keep away from the opening of Parliament on November 5, as God and man had combined to strike a great blow on those present, but that none should know from whence it came. Mounteagle showed the letter to tho King, and it was desired to make a thorough search of the Houses of Parliament on the eve of the opening ceremony.

In the meantime the conspirators separated, leaving tbe actual firing of the gunpowder in the hands of Guy Fawkes, an English soldier, who had served with distinction in the Spanish army. On the night of November 4 a search revealed the. barrels of powder with the train laid in readiness for firing and when Guy Fawkes arrived on the scene in the dead of night he was seized.

Although subjected to terrible tortures in the Tower of London Guy Fawkes sturdily refused to give any information regarding his associates, many of whom succeeded in escaping from the country. Catesby and a few others were killed in a desperate fight when their hiding-place was discovered, but seven of the conspirators were capturefl and placed on trial with Fawkes on January 27, 1606. They were all condemned to death in the following words: “You are to be laid on hurdles and so drawn to your place of execution, where you are to be nanged, cut down alive, your members cut off and cast into the fire, your bowels burned before your eyes, your hands smitten off and your bodies quartered and divided at the King's pleasure. ’ ’

The ill-advised plot had a disastrous effect upon numerous loyal and innocent Catholics throughout Britain, and put back for many years the tendency towards religious tolerance which had been inaugurated in the latter days of Elizabeth's reign.—(Copyrighted).