The Gunpowder Plot

In England in 1605, your religion could change your whole life. The country was Protestant. But some people were Catholic — they followed an older form of the Christian religion, led from Rome. The Catholics lived under hard laws. They had to pay money if they did not go to the Protestant church. Some were sent to prison.

In 1603, a new king came to the throne: King James I. The Catholics hoped that life would get better for them. But it did not. The king said he did not like the Catholic religion, and he sent Catholic priests away.

A small group of angry young Catholic men decided to act. Their leader was Robert Catesby. He made a shocking plan: they would kill the king and blow up Parliament, the building where the king and the leaders of England met. The men needed someone who knew about explosives. They found a soldier called Guy Fawkes. He had fought in many wars, and he knew all about gunpowder.

The plan was simple and terrible. On 5 November 1605, the king would open Parliament. On that day, the king, his son, and all the important leaders of England would be in one building together. If the men could blow up that building at that moment, they would destroy the whole government at once.

The men rented a cellar — a room under Parliament. Through the year, they quietly carried in barrels of gunpowder and hid them under wood and coal. In the end there were thirty-six barrels, more than enough to destroy the building. Guy Fawkes used a false name and pretended to be a servant. His job was to guard the gunpowder. When Parliament opened and the room was full of people, he would light the gunpowder and run.

But the secret was too big. Some of the men worried about the Catholic leaders who would also die. Then someone sent a secret letter to a man called Lord Monteagle. The letter told him to stay away from Parliament, because something terrible was going to happen there. Monteagle was afraid, and he took the letter straight to the king's men. Now the king's men were looking.

The king's men searched the rooms under Parliament. Just after midnight, in the early morning of 5 November 1605, they went down into the cellar. There they found a tall man standing next to a big pile of wood. He gave a false name: "John Johnson." When the men moved the wood, they found the thirty-six barrels of gunpowder. The man had matches with him, ready to light the fuse. They arrested him at once. The plan was stopped with only hours to spare.

At first, the man would not talk. But the king ordered his men to hurt him until he spoke. After days of pain, he told them the truth: his real name was Guy Fawkes, and he gave the names of the other men. By then, the other men had run away to the countryside. They hoped people would join them and fight, but no one came. Some of the men were killed by soldiers. The rest were taken back to London. In January 1606, Guy Fawkes and the others were put to death for their crime.

The plan failed completely. But the night was never forgotten. To celebrate that the king was safe, people lit bonfires across London — and they have lit them every year since. More than four hundred years later, on the evening of 5 November, people in Britain still light bonfires and fireworks. This is called Bonfire Night. A few men wanted to change history with gunpowder. Instead, they gave their country a night of fire that people still remember today.