Remember, remember the fifth of November….. Spare a thought for Guy
November 6, 2006 |
Remember, remember the fifth of the November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
On midnight tonight 401 years ago the soldiers of the King of England caught Guy Fawkes about to set an eight hour fuse in a cellar under Westminster Abbey. The Catholic plotters, wild eyed recusants, wanted to blow up King James 1, the parliament and virtually the entire elite of Protestant England on the morning Parliament was due to open. The plotters were incompetent and comic.
Those conspirators that weren’t killed in the immediate aftermath of the plot were tortured to extract confessions, tried for treason, found guilty and dragged on sleds to Old Palace Yard where they were hanged, drawn and quartered. Their heads were stuck on pikes around the Tower.
James 1 of England was a hideous and duplicitous king. He ratted out the Catholics of England and played every end into the middle. His departure, via an explosion (or any other way) shouldn’t have worried anyone interested in good government. The act of destroying a government was an act of terrorism so can never be forgiven. What really is amazing out of this is how James dined out on this event for the rest of his forgettable reign and used it to torment the Catholics of England. It was spinning writ large.
