Guy Fawkes History
PENNY FOR THE GUY : GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT
" And Edith Fawkes - mother of the celebrated Guy Fawkes - shall pay but only 2d weekly to the poor". This meagre sum was demanded by the City of York from the mother of Guy Fawkes following the death of her husband in the year 1579.
The future conspirator was then only nine and no one could foresee the train of "gunpowder, treason and plot" which he failed to ignite 26 years later beneath the august portals of the House of Lords.
In contemporary idiom, Guy Fawkes, this arch-villain, this traitor, was renegade, began life in 1570 and was baptised in St Michael's Church, York - a Protestant, who ended his life on the scaffold in Old Palace Yard, Westminster, a devout Catholic.
In many towns in Sussex and elsewhere during the bonfire night season, his name will be bandied around, his effigy burned; and the real culprit was not Guy Fawkes but a certain Robert Catesby. For it was he who conceived the plot while Guy Fawkes provided the technical "know-how" as a soldier of fortune.
With the death of his father, Guy Fawkes family found themselves unable to live up to the standards to which they were accustomed. When Edith Fawkes married for the second time they moved house and Guy Fawkes became a boarder at St Peter's School, York, where he completed his education.
The process developed along unexpected lines. It was at this ancient school, under the influence of its headmaster, John Pullen, that Guy Fawkes first acquired his catholic interests. A sensitive tolerant boy, he was easily impressed with the current stories of torture and persecution against the Catholic section of the population.
Very little is known of Guy Fawkes early manhood but some idea of the complexity of his character can be judged from the fact that he was willing to blow the King and their Lordships to high heaven, yet he fought for his country with valour and distinction.
Of the Gunpowder Plot itself, the highly coloured and imaginative illustrations are not true. Guy Fawkes was not caught match in hand at the safe end of a trail of gunpowder. He was, in fact, apprehended for some hours before the Lords were assembled. The time was midnight on November 4, 1605.
Earlier attempts to dig a tunnel from a nearby house to a cellar beneath the chambers of the House of Lords had proved abortive. It was by chance that Guy Fawkes learned of a cellar to let - an ideal cellar - just where it was wanted. And it was here Guy Fawkes stood guard. Beneath a pile of wood and faggots - so normal in any respectable gentleman's home - lay drums of gunpowder.
History does not record whether Guy Fawkes fully considered the consequence should his plan succeed. Had he done so, he must have realised that the very cause for which he laboured may well have been damaged incalculably. Civil War was a distinct possibility and the whole course of history might well have been changed.
So, as you set light to your bonfire, ignite your Chinese cracker or burn his effigy, spare a thought for this much maligned character, who even on the rack refused to disclose the names of his fellow conspirators.
Contemporary history could, were their names known, record those, who like Guy Fawkes gave their lives for their beliefs. The victim cares little about the venue of the execution be it Westminster or Dachau. Fawkes crime and the alleged firing of the Reichstag were not so dissimilar. And for the victims of Dachau there are no bonfires, nor fireworks and no annual festival.
THE DAMAGE CAUSED IF GUY FAWKES HAD SUCCEEDED ?
Area of London that would have been damaged had Guy Fawkes succeeded is marked in red.
Guy Fawkes could have made a very big noise in Whitehall, according to physicists.
Had the Gunpowder Plot succeeded, the blast from more than two tons of explosive would have made a bonfire of the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey and houses nearby, Severely damaged buildings in Whitehall and shattered windows more than half a mile away.
Britons have burnt Guy Fawkes in effigy since the era's most famous Catholic conspirator was caught red-handed and the reign of James I saved on November 5 1605.
To decide the true potential of the fuse that was never lit, the Institute of Physics in London invited a team at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, to work out what 2,500 kg of gunpowder - roughly the amount Fawkes packed into a cellar at Westminster - would do. Assuming the gunpowder would have been as powerful as TNT, they calculated it would have caused severe structural damage to an area up to 500 metres from the centre of the explosion.
All buildings within about 40 metres would have been destroyed, wooden poles 60 metres away would have snapped, roofs and walls more than 100 metres away would have collapsed and there would have been some damage up to 500 metres, even at 900 metres, some windows would have broken.
Geraint Thomas of the centre for explosion studies at Aberystwyth, said the team had used the weight of explosives to work out how the blast would have affected its surroundings.
" We know that the more energy we have, the more energy will be released when the charge is set off, " he said " Guy Fawkes was an expert in explosives and so knew what he was doing - if he had the gunpowder confined in barrels and well packed in, it could have been almost as powerful as the equivalent TNT explosion."
