Nov 5th is Guy Fawkes day, killed trying to restore a Catholic to British throne

Posted on Saturday, November 05, 2011 at 08:47 AM

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Guy Fawkes

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, ’twas his intent
To blow up the King and Parli’ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s mercy he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Hulloa boys, Hulloa boys, let the bells ring.
Hulloa boys, hulloa boys, God save the King!

George Washington called Guy Fawkes Day a grave insult to America's Catholics. After the Revolution, America stopped celebrating it

Millions of British still celebrate it with ‘Bonfire; night.

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), died trying to restore a Catholic to the throne of England.

The Guy Fawkes gunpowder plot of 1605 has been famous ever since.

According to Wikikpedia, Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a Catholic.

Fawkes later converted to Catholicism and left for the continent, where he fought in the Eighty Years' War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformers. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England but was unsuccessful. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England.

Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there.

Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the mutilation that followed.

Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, the failure of which has been commemorated in England since 5 November 1605.

His effigy is often burned on a bonfire, commonly accompanied by a firework display.

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Towngate | Nov 06, 2011, 03:38 PM EST

After the death of seven people and over thirty receiving treatment in an English west Country hospital following a 36-vehicle pile-up in the M5 Motorway in Somerset, thought to have been caused by smoke drifting across the motorway from a nearby private Rugby Club Bonfire and Firework display, there may be calls for this 'celebration' to be banned in Britain.

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DsM2shoes | Nov 06, 2011, 01:38 PM EST

Anyone who would use Wikikpedia for a source of information, including time and temp needs to have their journalism degree reviewed! Lived in Bayswater section of London in the late 60's. I recall the neighborhood kids making an effigy by stuffing old clothes with newspapers, propping it up on a cardboard box and crying "Penny for the geezer". And if I remember my European History correctly, the idea of installing a Catholic Monarch to the English Thrown was to facilitate Irish Independence. And his crime was not so much the destruction of the Monarchy and for that matter all of English Nobility but rather he sided with the Irish. The bastards. Ya gotta love the English, they know how to keep things within there proper prospective!

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BARNEYKX | Nov 06, 2011, 11:45 AM EST

He's the only man who went into westminster with the right intentions,to blow it to kingdom come

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warrenpoint00 | Nov 06, 2011, 01:07 AM EDT

Man epkib do you talk some length of toilet roll.

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EphraimKibbey | Nov 05, 2011, 02:53 PM EDT

@GeorgeDillon & @mcdolan - Back then they hung people for stealing anything worth more than a shilling (even kids) so they had to be inventive to "deter" worse crimes. In America we still have the death penalty as a "deterent" even though it doesn't seem to deter much and costs us many times what it would cost to inprison someone for life without parole. Of course, we imprison a large percent of our population as it keeps our unemployment numbers down. I wonder, if we just gave them a job and paid them what it costs to incarcerate them, would they be able to lead normal lives and stimulate the economy? Sorry, silly thought. Remember that today, Nov. 5/Guy Fawkes Day, is also Bank Transfer Day - remember to "thank" the banks that stole the world's economy - especially the ones that fired all their Irish employees, thousands in the US and now have commercials bragging about their loans to small businesses because each new job is important to a community.

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Tooreenagrena | Nov 05, 2011, 12:52 PM EDT

Vive Guido

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cillowen | Nov 05, 2011, 12:44 PM EDT

They have a new Pope to their liking - you know how they love their occupier Saxon Queen and all that goes with it. The Queen's papacy (or mapacy) that maintains the tradition of Henry VIII. The Irish, except for a few who were willing to put their lives on the line and in doing so, made all others believe that all of the Irish were a prideful people. All of that is but a sick joke - they yearn to serve mother like Americans and gain knighting recognition.

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slainte9 | Nov 05, 2011, 12:12 PM EDT

Guy Fawkes: the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions.

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kilkenny999 | Nov 05, 2011, 11:51 AM EDT

london could do with the assistance of another mr.fawkes today.

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mcdolan | Nov 05, 2011, 11:40 AM EDT

I am reminded of the fate of Braveheart, head chopped off, then cut into pieces and dragged through the city of London while his head was put on a spike for several weeks until the crows finished everything but the skull. And this brutality was sanctioned by the clerics of the time!

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GeorgeDillon | Nov 05, 2011, 09:11 AM EDT

English civilization was so advanced at that time. One of their favorite tricks was to half-hang a man but keep him alive. Then they would castrate him. Then they'd cut off his arms. They did that to lots of Catholics, Irish especially.

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