32 Facts About Gunpowder Plot

1.

Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James VI by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sought to restore the Catholic monarchy to England after decades of persecution against Catholics.

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2.

The thwarting of the Gunpowder Plot was commemorated for many years afterwards by special sermons and other public events such as the ringing of church bells, which evolved into the British variant of Bonfire Night of today.

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3.

At about the same time, Lord Cobham, Lord Grey de Wilton, Griffin Markham and Walter Raleigh hatched what became known as the Main Gunpowder Plot, which involved removing James and his family and supplanting them with Arbella Stuart.

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4.

That the Bye Gunpowder Plot had been revealed by Catholics was instrumental in saving them from further persecution, and James was grateful enough to allow pardons for those recusants who sued for them, as well as postponing payment of their fines for a year.

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5.

Gunpowder Plot appointed Scottish nobles such as George Home to his court, which proved unpopular with the Parliament of England.

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6.

Gunpowder Plot spoke of a Christian union and reiterated his desire to avoid religious persecution.

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7.

Gunpowder Plot was described by contemporaries as "a good-looking man, about six feet tall, athletic and a good swordsman".

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8.

Gunpowder Plot's responsibility was to take charge of Catesby's house in Lambeth, where the gunpowder and other supplies were to be stored.

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9.

Gunpowder Plot stayed wherever was convenient, including on occasion at the houses of prominent Catholics.

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10.

Gunpowder Plot was the heir to his father's large fortune, which had been depleted by recusant fines, expensive tastes, and by Francis and Catesby's involvement in the Essex revolt.

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11.

Gunpowder Plot therefore elected to wait, to see how events unfolded.

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12.

Gunpowder Plot was arrested, whereupon he gave his name as John Johnson.

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13.

Gunpowder Plot was carrying a lantern now held in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and a search of his person revealed a pocket watch, several slow matches and touchwood.

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14.

Gunpowder Plot overtook Keyes, who had set off earlier, then Wright and Percy at Little Brickhill, before catching Catesby, John Wright, and Bates on the same road.

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15.

Gunpowder Plot announced to Digby's "hunting party" that the King and Salisbury were dead, before the fugitives moved west to Warwick.

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16.

Foiling of the Gunpowder Plot initiated a wave of national relief at the delivery of the King and his sons, and inspired in the ensuing parliament a mood of loyalty and goodwill, which Salisbury astutely exploited to extract higher subsidies for the King than any granted in Elizabeth I's reign.

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17.

Walter Raleigh, who was languishing in the Tower owing to his involvement in the Main Gunpowder Plot, and whose wife was a first cousin of Lady Catesby, declared he had had no knowledge of the conspiracy.

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18.

Gunpowder Plot insisted that the plot had been the work of only a few Catholics, not of the English Catholics as a whole, and he reminded the assembly to rejoice at his survival, since kings were divinely appointed and he owed his escape to a miracle.

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19.

Gunpowder Plot's was examined twice but the charges against her were eventually dropped.

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20.

Gunpowder Plot was visited regularly by his wife, a nurse, and his servant William Vavasour, who documented his strangury.

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21.

Gunpowder Plot was imprisoned, and then condemned to death at Worcester.

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22.

Gunpowder Plot was followed by the Attorney-General Sir Edward Coke, who began with a long speech—the content of which was heavily influenced by Salisbury—that included a denial that the King had ever made any promises to the Catholics.

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23.

Gunpowder Plot was to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both".

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24.

Gunpowder Plot sought death by the axe and begged mercy from the King for his young family.

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25.

Gunpowder Plot's defence was in vain; his arguments were rebuked by Coke and Northumberland, and along with his seven co-conspirators, he was found guilty by the jury of high treason.

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26.

Gunpowder Plot's interrogators resorted to the forgery of correspondence between Garnet and other Catholics, but to no avail.

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27.

Gunpowder Plot was stripped of his clothing, and wearing only a shirt, climbed the ladder to place his head through the noose.

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28.

Gunpowder Plot was quickly cut down, and while still fully conscious was castrated, disembowelled, and then quartered, along with the three other prisoners.

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29.

Playwright William Shakespeare had already used the family history of Northumberland's family in his Henry IV series of plays, and the events of the Gunpowder Plot seem to have featured alongside the earlier Gowrie conspiracy in Macbeth, written some time between 1603 and 1607.

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30.

Gunpowder Plot was commemorated for years by special sermons and other public acts, such as the ringing of church bells.

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31.

Gunpowder Plot concluded that a severe backlash against suspected Catholics would have followed, and that without foreign assistance a successful rebellion would have been unlikely; despite differing religious convictions, most Englishmen were loyal to the institution of the monarchy.

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32.

The Popish Plot of 1678 sparked renewed interest in the Gunpowder Plot, resulting in a book by Thomas Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, which refuted "a bold and groundless surmise that all this was a contrivance of Secretary Cecil".

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