Born a protestant in York but became a Catholic when his widowed mother married a Catholic. A professional soldier, he fought for Spain but when he realised that Spain would not invade Britain and replace the Protestant James I with a Catholic monarchy he joined the conspirators who planned to blow up Parliament on the day it opened, which in 1605 was to be November 5th, much delayed due to an outbreak of plague. At first the conspirators rented a nearby property from where they started digging a tunnel towards Parliament but then a cellar actually under Parliament became available so they, gratefully, rented that, and stocked it with 36 barrels of gunpowder, very nearly a ton. Fawkes was given the job of lighting the fuse.
But someone chose to warn Baron Monteagle who was sympathetic to the Catholic cause and was due to attend the opening of Parliament. The letter-writer was probably Tresham, one of the conspirators and Monteagle's brother-in-law. Monteagle passed the information on to the authorities who initiated a search and on 4th November Fawkes was found in the cellar with the gunpowder. Some of the conspirators died while being held and questioned in the Tower of London, allegedly of natural causes. Those remaining were executed in the usual gruesome fashion, four on 30 January in St Paul's Churchyard and the other four, including Fawkes, the following day in Old Palace Yard, Westminster.
The picture source website tells this story, using pictures at every opportunity.
This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Guy Fawkes
Commemorated ati
Gunpowder Plot
Monteagle was at dinner when he received the letter so he passed it to a serv...
Other Subjects
Ensign Eliane Sophie Plewman, Croix de Guerre
Elaine Sophie Browne-Bartroli was born on 6 December 1917 in Marseille, France, the daughter of Eugene Henry Browne and Elsa Francesca Browne née Bartroli. In addition to the information shown on ...
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Born Herefordshire. Related via the Boleyn family to Queen Elizabeth I. Married a daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham. Became a favourite of the Queen. However he performed badly as Lord Lieuten...
Violette Szabo, GC, CdeG
British secret agent in WW2. Born in Paris as Violette Bushell of a French mother and English father who met in WW1. With 4 brothers she was a bit of a tomboy. From Violette Szabo Museum "The Bushe...
John Derifall
Burnt at the stake in Bow (or possibly Stratford) for his Protestant beliefs.
John Denley
Protestant martyr. He was believed to have been a Baptist, which was rather dangerous in the reign of Mary I. Whilst returning from a visit to Maidstone, he was stopped by Edmund Tyrell, a justice ...
Previously viewed
Gold Brothers
The Gold brothers, Warren (1938 - 2015), David and Harold, started with market stalls in Petticoat Lane. They opened the first Lord John, a men's clothes boutique, in Carnaby Street on 13 February ...
Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them