Death of Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes exact birthdate is unknown, but we do know he was baptised on the 16th April.
As the customary gap between birth and baptism was three days, he was probably born on the 13th April.
Guy Fawkes was the second of four children born to Edward Fawkes, and his wife, Edith.
In 1604 Fawkes became involved with a small group of English Catholics.
They planned to assassinate the Protestant King James I, and replace him with his daughter Elizabeth.
The first meeting of the five central conspirators, took place on Sunday 20th May 1604, at an inn called the Duck and Drake, in the Strand district of London.
On the eve of a general parliamentary session scheduled for 5th November 1605, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Guy Fawkes lurking in a cellar of the Parliament building.
Fawkes was detained and the premises thoroughly searched.
Nearly two tons of gunpowder were found hidden within the cellar.
Fawkes revealed that he was a participant in an English Catholic conspiracy to annihilate England’s Protestant government, including King James I.
Fawkes was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
On 31st January 1606, Fawkes and three others – Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood and Robert Keyes – were dragged from the Tower to the Old Palace Yard, at Westminster.
His fellow plotters were then hanged and quartered.
Fawkes was the last to stand on the scaffold.
He asked for forgiveness of the King and state.
Weakened by torture and aided by the hangman, Fawkes began to climb the ladder to the noose.
Fawkes then deliberately jumped from the ladder, and broke his neck dying instantly, therefore avoiding the agony of the latter part of his exEcution.
Regardless, Fawkes lifeless body was still quartered and, as was the custom, his body parts were then distributed to “the four corners of the kingdom” to be displayed as a warning to other would-be traitors.
Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated across Great Britain every year on the fifth of November.
As dusk falls in the evening, villagers and city dwellers across Britain light bonfires, set off fireworks, and burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes, celebrating his failure to blow up Parliament and James I.
Image credit~© St Peter’s Foundation
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