The Gun Powder Plot

The final years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign brought troubled times for Catholics all over England. During her reign, the penalties for practicing Catholicism dramatically increased, making life for Catholics much harder and more expensive. Mass in England could not be practiced publicly or privately. If a Catholic priest were discovered, he would be jaile

When King James I of England succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603, Catholics were hopeful that he would help re-establish Catholicism in England and bring limited tolerance for the Catholic religion. It seemed to some that the only chance to restore Catholicism in England would be Elizabeth’s succession by a more tolerant monarch, and many Catholics believed or hope that James could be that monarch. He was the son of Mary Queen of Scots, a Catholic, so he was assumed to be Catholic, or at least sympathetic towards the religion. The king was the creature of successive combinations of the nobility and clergy in a complicated struggle between the remnants of his mother's Catholic party, which favoured an alliance with France, and the Protestant faction, which wished an alliance with England. Rumors circulated that James had made promises of limited toleration, and intended to put an end to fining recusants. There were high hopes of improvement of Catholic life at the beginning of James’ reign.

Rather than attempts to assassinate only the king, Catesby had though of a plan to rid the Parliament completely of Protestant influence. Catesby realized that to kill only the king would be useless if the powerful Protestants in Parliament were still alive. The deaths of so many powerful Protestants would cause chaos and hysteria, and would create an atmosphere where the other Protestants were so preoccupied that the Catholics could rebel with some chance of success. Catesby justified the plot-taking place in the Parliament by asserting that the Parliament house was the place where the Protestants had been unjust to the Catholics, so it was only fitting that they would receive their punishment there.

Immediately after the plot was discovered, new laws against Catholics were formed, making life for Catholics even more complicated than before. One such law was the Penal Legislation of 1606. This law required Catholics who didn’t pay recusancy fines to not only attend Anglican services, but to receive the blessed sacrament of the lords supper. It also required all Catholics to take an oath of supremacy, renouncing the doctrine that the pope could depose kings. Another act passed in 1606 forbade recusants from living within London. It also forbade recusants from traveling farther than five miles from their homes. Catholicism in England had been defeated and discredited, and memories of the close call with the Gunpowder Plot left bitter views towards Catholicism for many Protestants.

On the morning of November 5 1605, the day the plot was supposed to take place, word had spread of Fawkes’ capture, and all the conspirators except Tresham fled to London to the countryside. On the night of November 7, the group of conspirators, along with a group of followers, arrived at Holbeche house, an estate owned by the recusant Littleton family. That night, an accidental explosion of gunpowder that was being dried in front of a fire injured several plotters. On the afternoon of November 8, the sheriff of Worcester arrived with a group of men and surrounded the house, after several attempts to convince the conspirators to surrender, a fight broke out. Robert Catesby, John Wright, Christopher Wright, and Thomas Percy were all fatally wounded. The other conspirators were

Some topics in this essay:
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