On 5th November 1605 a York man, Guy Fawkes, was discovered about to ignite 36 barrels of gunpowder underneath the Houses of Parliament. His aim was to spark a Catholic revolution.

Fawkes was born in York in 1570, probably at a house in Stonegate. He was baptised in St Michael le Belfry church on April 13. His father Edward, a church lawyer and a prominent Protestant in the city, died when Guy was only eight years old.

His mother remarried, to a Catholic, and they moved to the village of Scotton, near Knaresborough. Fawkes’ schooling continued in York, at St Peter’s. His schoolmates included brothers John and Christopher Wright, who were later destined to join the gunpowder plot. Christopher, or ‘Kit’, was the same age as Guy Fawkes.

In the 1570’s and 80’s York was a centre of the Catholic resistance. About the time that Fawkes himself converted he would have been aware of a particularly brutal example of the religion’s suppression. In 1586 Margaret Clitherow was publicly executed for protecting Priests in her home.

As an adult Fawkes inherited property in York, at Gillygate and Clifton. But on his 21st birthday he sold his estate and enlisted in the Catholic Spanish army. He spent his next ten years fighting for Spain, becoming commander of a unit of soldiers and an expert in explosives. In Madrid Fawkes met up again with Kit Wright and they joined a group of conspirators, who together plotted to murder King James and replace him with a Catholic monarch.

The plan was audacious and brutal. The plotters hired a cellar under Parliament and smuggled in the barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes stood guard. It was his role to light the fuse, then head to Flanders to raise forces who would join in the Catholic uprising in England.

After his arrest Guy was tortured. His school-fellows, John and Kit Wright, died in November 1605 when they were caught with other conspirators at Holbeche House in Staffordshire.

Then, in January 1606, Guy Fawkes himself was put to death in Westminster by hanging, drawing and quartering. His remains were sent to the four corners of the Kingdom as a warning to other plotters.

On the way home from my recent weekend in Oxford, we stopped off at Coughton Court. The beginning of November seems an appropriate time to visit Coughton Court because it and the Throckmorton family who owned it played a pivotal role in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

The plot was the climax of a series of Roman Catholic conspiracies against the Anglican Church and monarchy due to their persecution of Catholics and also the measures taken against them to stop them practicing their faith.

Catholic persecution started during the reign of King Henry VIII, who at the start of his reign was Catholic as was every Christian in England at that time. This changed when the Pope in Rome refused to annul Henry’s marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, in 1533. The request for annulment was made because Catherine had not produced an heir to the throne. The refusal from the Pope led to Henry declaring that his marriage to Catherine was over and him proclaiming himself as head of the English Church therefore breaking away from the Catholic Church.

During subsequent successions of monarchs the two competing denominations each learned to fear the other’s rise to power. The reigning monarchs of the day’s religious allegiance always led to suppression of the ‘other’ denomination. Heightened persecutions of Catholics were put in place when Elizabeth I re-established the Church of England after she came to power in 1558.  Catholic Mass became illegal and attendance at Anglican Church services was mandatory with non-attendance leading to heavy fines. All recusants were listed and their names known by the Government. The heads of Catholic families were frequently imprisoned and in 1593 an act was passed that restricted the recusants’ mobility to a 5 mile radius from their homes.

Catholics who did not wish to renounce their faith continued to worship in secret. The sacrament was given by Jesuits who had trained in Europe and came illegally to England. These services took place in secret chapels within homes of prominent Catholics. These precautions were necessary as the houses were regularly searched and if the priests were discovered they would be sentenced to death.

Gunpowder Plot Parliament Cellar - Image source Wiki

Against this backdrop ‘The Gunpowder Plot’, a scheme to blow up the Houses of Parliament killing the King and his Government, was conceived and led by Robert Catesby. There were 13 major players in The Gunpowder Plot; all were ‘recusants’, devout Catholics who rejected the Church of England and wished to practice their faith without persecution. Many were kinsmen of the Throckmortons and other Old Catholic families. They believed that if the Protestant King James and his government were removed from power they could start a rebellion and restore England to a Catholic country. One of the plotters, Sir Everard Digby, moved into Coughton Court which was to be the base for the conspirators.

Guy Fawkes Confession - Image source Wiki

The plot, however, was foiled, at the turn of midnight on November 5^th 1605 just hours before King James I was due to open Parliament. A bearded man dressed in a dark cloak was discovered acting suspiciously in the cellar beneath the House of Lords. When searched he was found to be carrying a watch and some matches. Closer inspection revealed 36 barrels of gunpowder hidden in bundles of firewood. The man, Guy Fawkes, was arrested and brought before the King for questioning where he admitted his intentions. Initially he refused to give his real name and denied the involvement of others. This led to him being tortured to reveal these facts leaving him a broken man hardly able to sign his confession.

Instead of the remaining conspirators using their planned route to join a Midlands uprising, the plotters now had to use the route as a means of escape. The conspirators were hunted down and captured. All were found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death. The Throckmortons were not directly implicated because Thomas’ permanent residence at the time was his house in Weston Underwood having rented Coughton Court to his cousin Digby in 1604. The heads of the so called traitors including those who had died trying to flee were placed on spikes as a chilling deterrent for any other would-be plotters to king and Government.

Each year before the annual state opening of Parliament the cellars of the Palace of Westminster are searched by the Yeoman of the guard. The legacy of a custom that was established after Guy Fawkes was discovered on the 5^th November 1605.

• Sources: The 2009 and 2012 editions of the National Trust guidebook to Coughton Court and The Gunpowder Plot and the connections with the Throckmortons of Coughton Court (Jarrold publishing and Coughton Court 2013)