Watch: Who was Guy Fawkes?
It's a pleasant evening.
They seem to be building some sort of stabby, torturey… with lots of sharp…
Oh dear.
I suppose that'll be for me.
Shut it, Fawkes!
The name's Guy Fawkes, friends call me Guido.
I've been put here, in the Tower of London, because I may have been a little bit… naughty.
You see, for a while now, Catholics like me have been treated rather badly simply because our Protestant King doesn't like what we believe.
SHUT IT!
So some friends and I thought if we… offed the King, then things might change.
We knew he'd be in Parliament on November 5, so we plotted to blow him sky high with a load of gun powder.
It was called the Gunpowder Plot.
Bit obvious really. Some of the gang realised that innocent people would be working in Parliament.
They started having second thoughts.
Especially my old friend Francis Tresham, who wrote a warning letter to his cousin Lord Monteagle.
Lord Monteagle then passed the letter to the King's guards.
Well… the plot was blown, no pun intended.
This left old muggins here with the rather embarrassing job of trying to explain what I was doing underneath the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder.
Which brings us back here.
Right, come on Fawkes, it’s torture time.
Apparently, as a warning to other potential plotters, they’re going to cut me up and send me to the four corners of the kingdom.
Mother did always say I'd go far.
The life of Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes was born in April 1570 in York, England. His parents were Protestants but during his childhood Guy converted to Catholicism.
When he was 21 he left England to join the Catholic Spanish army, where he fought in the Eighty Years War.
During his time in the Army he adopted the Italian version of his name and became known as 'Guido'.
What was the Gunpowder Plot?
In 1605 Guy Fawkes joined a group of fellow English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, in a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in order to kill King James I and his Government. Fawkes was responsible for lighting the fuse to the barrels of gunpowder, which they hid under the Houses of Parliament.
Spoiler alert - The plot was unsuccessful and Guy was caught and punished, along with the other conspirators. Guy Fawkes is remembered today because of the failed plot.
The Life of Guy Fawkes through images
Image caption, Click through the images to explore the life of Guy Fawkes.
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Remember, remember, the fifth of November!
Over four hundred years after the Gunpowder plot, we still remember how Guy Fawkes and his fellow plotters failed to blow up Parliament and kill King James I.
Bonfire night is celebrated every year on 5 November.
Bonfires, fireworks and sparklers are lit in parks and gardens all over the country. Sometimes we even burn a dummy called a ‘Guy’ on the bonfire. This is supposed to represent Guy Fawkes.
Since the Gunpowder Plot, whenever the King or Queen visits Parliament, there is a tradition that the royal bodyguards, called the Yeoman of the Guard, search beneath the Houses of Parliament for any potential plotters hiding explosives.
Activity: Quiz – Guy Fawkes
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