Remember, Remember...

  When the leaves start to turn different shades and hues, and the weather begins to turn with an icy chill, and when the nights start to draw in, clocks go back; I am aware that the 'festive' season is drawing in.  As usual I tend to question the reasons and forces and behind our lives.  Halloween has passed and soon to be followed by Bonfire Night.  It won't be long before Christmas has come and gone for one more year.  As with every festive holiday I am always curious of the reasons behind their celebration and the extent to which that reason has been lost in the fog of time.  As I write this, Bonfire Night is three days away; then it will be time to take in your cats and dogs because fireworks will be being set off, cruel individuals will attach them to the tails of animals, many people will be burned, many toffee apples will be eaten.

  So why do we celebrate Bonfire Night?

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent

To blow up the King and Parli'ment.

Three-score barrels of powder below

To prove old England's overthrow;

By God's providence he was catch'd

With a dark lantern and burning match.

Holla boys, Holla boys, let the bells ring.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

And what should we do with him? Burn him!

  Bonfire Night or the even more colloquial Fireworks Night is traditionally and correctly titled Guy Fawkes Night.  And as we will see, it is like most of our other holidays, a bastardised concoction of disparate traditions rolled into one memorable package.  At its core it is a celebration of the failure of Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill King James I in 1605.  Let's talk history shall we...

  Guy Fawkes was born and educated in York.  His father died when Fawkes was 8 years old; after which his mother married a recusant[1] Catholic.  Fawkes later converted to Catholicism, sold the estates left to him by his father and travelled to Europe where he fought in the 80 Years War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch Reformators.  Fawkes became a Junior Officer, fought well at the siege of Calais in 1596 and was recommended for Captaincy.  During this time he assumed the name Guido Fawkes.  He then travelled to Spain to seek support and funds to launch a Catholic rebellion in England and although he was received favourably he was unable to secure the support he desired.

  Upon his return to England Fawkes Became involved with a small group of English Catholics who planned to assassinate King James I and replace him with his daughter (third in the line of succession) Princess Elizabeth.  They hoped this would end the Protestant/Anglican rule of England and return the country to a Catholic nation.  Further trips to the continent were made to secure support but it was not forthcoming.  The group rented a small ante-chamber that was located directly beneath the House of Lords.  Slowly they began to fill the room with barrels of gunpowder hidden beneath piles of firewood.  Guy Fawkes assumed a further moniker, that of John Johnson and declared that he was a servant of Thomas Percy (a member of the rebellious group who legitimately rented the small room).

  Fawkes was described by the Jesuit priest and former school friend Oswald Tesimond as “pleasant of approach and cheerful of manner, opposed to quarrels and strife ... loyal to his friends”.  Tesimond also claimed Fawkes was “a man highly skilled in matters of war”, and that it was this mixture of piety and professionalism which endeared him to his fellow conspirators.  Fawkes has been described as “a tall, powerfully built man, with thick reddish-brown hair, a flowing moustache in the tradition of the time, and a bushy reddish-brown beard”, and that he was “a man of action ... capable of intelligent argument as well as physical endurance, somewhat to the surprise of his enemies.”

  Fawkes’ role in the plot was decided after a series of meetings; he would light the fuse and escape across the Thames before fleeing to the continent.  Meanwhile a revolt in the Midlands would secure the Princess and set the rebellion in motion.  However, some members of the group were concerned that Catholic members of Parliament might be in the Houses at the time of the explosion and so created a letter that was distributed to a number of people warning them not to attend Parliament on the given date.  Needless to say, this letter found its way to the hands of King James who quickly ordered a search of the Houses.  Shortly after midnight on the 5^th November 1605 Guy Fawkes was caught leaving the chamber and the gunpowder was discovered.  Guy Fawkes was arrested immediately.

  Under interrogation Fawkes gave his name as John Johnson and admitted his intention to blow p the House of Lords and espoused his regret at failing to do so.  His steadfast manner earned him the admiration of King James who described him as having “a Roman resolution”.  The King’s admiration did not however extend far enough and on the 6^th of November he authorised the use of torture on John Johnson to reveal the names of his co-conspirators.  Fawkes was tortured for 4 days before finally breaking and revealing the names and details of the plot.  It is not known the extent to which he was tortured although the use of the wrack was authorised.  The signature on his confession, little more than a scrawl is testament to the suffering he endured at the hands of his interrogators.

  At the trial Fawkes and his seven co-conspirators were found guilty and sentenced to death. The Attorney General told the court that each of the condemned would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground.  They were to be “put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both”.  Their genitals would be cut off and burnt before their eyes, and their bowels and hearts removed.  They would then be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of their bodies displayed so that they might become “prey for the fowls of the air”.

  On the 31^st January 1606, Fawkes and three other members of the group were dragged to the Old Palace Yard outside Westminster, facing the building they had plotted to destroy.  His fellow plotters were in turn hanged, drawn and quartered.  Fawkes was left until last.  Aided by the hangman he climbed up to the noose and although weakened by torture Fawkes managed to jump from the gallows, breaking his neck in the fall.  He was killed instantly and thus spared the agony of the latter part of his execution.  His lifeless body was nevertheless drawn and quartered.

  In January 1606 the Thanksgiving Act was passed, and commemorating the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot became an annual event.  Coincidentally the celebrations for the pagan festival of Samhain, which included the burning of the "old guy" on a bonfire, were held about this time of the year and so other traditions such as ringing of church bells and lighting fireworks were added soon after the act was passed and the "guy" became a personification of Guy Fawkes.  The act remained in place until 1859.  Despite the repeal of the act taking place over 150 years ago, Guy Fawkes Night still remains a yearly custom throughout Britain.

  So what is it really all about now and why after 150 years of repeal do we still celebrate this night?  The significance is long since lost and even the poem at the top of this blog is a memory for older generations.  I know that come the 5^th of November I will not here those words uttered and I will not see a Guy Fawkes on a bonfire… a David Cameron or Wayne Rooney perhaps but not poor Guido.

  The V for Vendetta graphic novel and subsequent film used the image of Guy Fawkes to represent the idea of political anarchism, revolution, mutiny and dissidence.  Yet while his attempt to destroy the Houses of Parliament does suggest an anti-authoritarian morality we must not forget that Fawkes was simply going to replace one religious dictator with another.  It was all just a mindless dispute between Catholics and Protestants that has been the cause and motivation (along with greed and power) for most of the civil disputes and nation wars that Britain has endured.  Guy Fawkes was not a man with utopian idea, a free and equal society.  He was a dogmatic and extremist Catholic dissident.

  Perhaps then it is better that we forget the reasons behind this festival.  I for one do not wish to celebrate the survival of a dogmatic King or mourn the loss of an equally dogmatic rebel.  Perhaps it is better to enjoy it as a day of colour and energy in the dark months of winter?  Although I enjoy reading and learning the history behind our traditions; this is one festival where I think the reasons are better left in the misty history.

  I hope everyone enjoys Guy Fawkes Night, Bonfire Night, Samhain, and Fireworks Night; whatever it is you choose to do.  It would be nice if we could create a new meaning to sit on this date that transcends the history and outshines the fireworks.

  On a lighter note Guy Fawkes is often jokingly said to be “the only man to ever enter the Houses of Parliament with honest intentions”.  Never was a truer word spoken in jest.

Remember, Remember the 5^th of November

Gunpowder Treason and Plot.

Never was their a better reason

For The Gunpowder Treason

To gradually be forgot...

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recusant