Guy Fawkes Day 400

Remember, remember the fifth of November.
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

Four hundred years ago today, a Catholic plot to blow up Parliament and King James I was uncovered with the discovery of 36 barrels of gunpowder in a cellar underneath the House of Lords. Here's a cool flash presentation on the plot.

Guy Fawkes, who was discovered along with the gunpowder, was arrested and tortured until he gave up his co-conspirators, a group of 13 Catholic nobleman who hoped to put a Catholic monarch on the throne. Here's a transcript of the trial against the conspirators.

Fawkes was tortured, hung, castrated, disembowelled and decapitated and his head was placed on a pike outside Parliament as a warning to others. If Guy Fawkes were alive today, reckons Leo McKinstry, things would be different.

A support group would be formed to campaign for his release; a large section of the audience on BBC Question Time would work itself into a frenzy of indignation about his imprisonment. He would be made the honorary president of Leeds University Students Union. George Galloway would argue that it is the Government, not Fawkes, which should be in the dock.

After many delays his trial would collapse in farce over a procedural technicality about the collection of evidence by MI5. Released, he would be made a columnist on the Guardian and awarded an Arts Council grant to explore 'issues around terrorism.'

Via Stephen Pollard.