Read Online Terror Attacks : From the Zealots to Bin Laden (True Crime) by Anne Williams, Vivian Head - Free Book Online
Authors: Anne Williams, Vivian Head
Tags: nonfiction
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et sic per gradus ad maiora tenditur [and thus by increase to the worst], and so God speed your goode worke.
Fawkes was strong to the end and resisted giving any information until he eventually succumbed to the torture on November 8 by giving the names of his fellow conspirators. He made a full statement about their plot on November 9, and on November 10 he gave a signed confession, although his signature was barely legible due to his terrible state following his sessions on the torture rack.
As soon as Robert Catesby and Thomas Wintour learned that their plans had been foiled, they fled to Warwickshire to meet up with the remainder of the party. Failing to rally any support for their Catholic cause, they only managed to stay in hiding for a few days in the houses of friends and sympathizers. On the third day they were captured in a bloody raid on Holbeche House in Staffordshire. Catesby, Percy and the two Wright brothers were both killed, while Thomas Wintour and Ambrose Rokewood, who had both been wounded in the raid, were taken away to London to be questioned. The remainder were captured a few days later, although Robert Wintour managed to stay at large for about two months, before being captured at Hagley Park.
The conspirators were tried on January 27, 1606, in Westminster Hall. All of the men pleaded not guilty with the exception of Everard Digby, who attempted to defend himself by saying that it was because the King had gone back on a promise regarding Catholic tolerance. The trial only lasted one day and the verdict was never in doubt – guilty as charged. The trial was very popular as a public spectacle and there are records that people paid as much as 10 shillings to attend. Four of the conspirators were executed in St Paul’s Churchyard on January 30 and the following day Fawkes, Winter and a number of others who had been implicated in the plot were taken to the Old Palace Yard in Westminster, where they were hanged, drawn and quartered. Francis Tresham the only one of the original 13 left alive, died while still a prisoner in the Tower of London.
I MPACT OF THE P LOT
For the Catholics living in England the Gunpowder Plot truly backfired, as it halted any moves towards Emancipation of the Catholics. It would be another 200 years before the Catholics would receive equal rights.
Of course most people remember Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot by celebrations that take place on November 5, or Bonfire Night as it has now become known. An Act of Parliament was passed to appoint that date in each year as a day of thanksgiving for ‘the joyful day of deliverance’, and this Act remained in force until 1859. Legend says that on November 5, 1605, the people of London celebrated the defeat of the plot by lighting fires and holding street parties. It is still a custom in Britain to let off fireworks and burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes on November 5, and in certain areas, for example Lewes and Battle in East Sussex, there are extensive processions to accompany an enormous bonfire.
The Houses of Parliament are still searched today by the Yeoman of the Guard before any Opening of Parliment, which since 1928 has been held in the month of November. However, this is upheld today due to a rather quaint custom rather than to stop any serious antiterrorist precaution.
The original cellar in which Guy Fawkes placed his gunpowder barrels was damaged by fire in 1834, and it was totally destroyed when they rebuilt the Palace of Westminster in the 19th century. The lantern that Guy Fawkes carried to light his way to the cellar can be seen in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
The Boston Tea Party
I shall therefore conclude with a proposal that your watchmen be instructed, as they go on their rounds, to call out every night, half-past twelve, ‘Beware of the East India Company’.
From a pamphlet signed by ‘Rusticus’, 1773
The Boston Tea Party
Fawkes was strong to the end and resisted giving any information until he eventually succumbed to the torture on November 8 by giving the names of his fellow conspirators. He made a full statement about their plot on November 9, and on November 10 he gave a signed confession, although his signature was barely legible due to his terrible state following his sessions on the torture rack.
As soon as Robert Catesby and Thomas Wintour learned that their plans had been foiled, they fled to Warwickshire to meet up with the remainder of the party. Failing to rally any support for their Catholic cause, they only managed to stay in hiding for a few days in the houses of friends and sympathizers. On the third day they were captured in a bloody raid on Holbeche House in Staffordshire. Catesby, Percy and the two Wright brothers were both killed, while Thomas Wintour and Ambrose Rokewood, who had both been wounded in the raid, were taken away to London to be questioned. The remainder were captured a few days later, although Robert Wintour managed to stay at large for about two months, before being captured at Hagley Park.
The conspirators were tried on January 27, 1606, in Westminster Hall. All of the men pleaded not guilty with the exception of Everard Digby, who attempted to defend himself by saying that it was because the King had gone back on a promise regarding Catholic tolerance. The trial only lasted one day and the verdict was never in doubt – guilty as charged. The trial was very popular as a public spectacle and there are records that people paid as much as 10 shillings to attend. Four of the conspirators were executed in St Paul’s Churchyard on January 30 and the following day Fawkes, Winter and a number of others who had been implicated in the plot were taken to the Old Palace Yard in Westminster, where they were hanged, drawn and quartered. Francis Tresham the only one of the original 13 left alive, died while still a prisoner in the Tower of London.
I MPACT OF THE P LOT
For the Catholics living in England the Gunpowder Plot truly backfired, as it halted any moves towards Emancipation of the Catholics. It would be another 200 years before the Catholics would receive equal rights.
Of course most people remember Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot by celebrations that take place on November 5, or Bonfire Night as it has now become known. An Act of Parliament was passed to appoint that date in each year as a day of thanksgiving for ‘the joyful day of deliverance’, and this Act remained in force until 1859. Legend says that on November 5, 1605, the people of London celebrated the defeat of the plot by lighting fires and holding street parties. It is still a custom in Britain to let off fireworks and burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes on November 5, and in certain areas, for example Lewes and Battle in East Sussex, there are extensive processions to accompany an enormous bonfire.
The Houses of Parliament are still searched today by the Yeoman of the Guard before any Opening of Parliment, which since 1928 has been held in the month of November. However, this is upheld today due to a rather quaint custom rather than to stop any serious antiterrorist precaution.
The original cellar in which Guy Fawkes placed his gunpowder barrels was damaged by fire in 1834, and it was totally destroyed when they rebuilt the Palace of Westminster in the 19th century. The lantern that Guy Fawkes carried to light his way to the cellar can be seen in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
The Boston Tea Party
I shall therefore conclude with a proposal that your watchmen be instructed, as they go on their rounds, to call out every night, half-past twelve, ‘Beware of the East India Company’.
From a pamphlet signed by ‘Rusticus’, 1773
The Boston Tea Party
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