Not the House of Lords going up in smoke, but a firework display at Manchester Town Hall.
UNDER Elizabeth I and then James I, Roman Catholics in England were fined, imprisoned, or even executed for refusing to acknowledge the English monarch as Head of the Church.
Robert Catesby and his twelve co-conspirators planned to assassinate James, and set his daughter Princess Elizabeth,* aged just nine, on the throne, convinced that the public would welcome reunion with Rome.
The day was set for the 5th of November, 1605. Guy Fawkes smuggled thirty-six barrels of gunpowder into the undercroft beneath the House of Lords, but on the night of the 4th he was discovered, following an anonymous tip-off.
James attached great importance to the affair, and the celebration of the anniversary of his deliverance was enshrined in law until 1859.
It is still celebrated today, on the 5th of November. An effigy of Guy Fawkes is burned on a bonfire, fireworks are let off, and parkin* is shared out — though the origins of ‘Bonfire Night’ are now largely forgotten.
Elizabeth’s significance for British history goes far beyond her unwitting role in the Gunpowder Plot. See The Winter Queen.
A kind of gingerbread. See Delia Smith’s recipe at the Daily Mail.
Précis
A group of Roman Catholics, including Robert Catesby and Guy Fawkes, hoped to assassinate King James I and return England to the Catholic religion. The plot to blow up Parliament was foiled by an anonymous tip-off, and the King’s deliverance has been celebrated on the 5th of November ever since. (50 / 60 words)
