Historical Analysis of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 - Research Paper Example

Historical Analysis of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 Introduction According to the official information given about the situation, the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was hatched by Catholics in England to bomb the House of Lords with the view of eliminating the Protestant and Anglican domination of power in England at that time. This paper takes a critical look at the situation and examines important components of the plot. The discussion will take a critical look at the situation of the Gunpowder plot and examine important components of the plot. This relates to the schism that came about as a result of Henry VII's break away from the Catholic Church. This led to Queen Elizabeth's attempts towards religious tolerance which failed. The end result was a deep dissatisfaction amongst Catholics in England which culminated in the Gunpowder Plot to assassinate King James. Supremacy and Uniformity Act & Penal Law in the 1500s England encountered the reformation in the era of Henry VIII who passed the Act of Supremacy of 1534 which made the Crown take over the English Church from Pope1. This was due to some fundamental disagreement concerning monogamy and his desire to divorce his wife which was unapproved by the Pope. Due to this, the Church was deeply divided. The Uniformity Act of 1534 required all priests in England to swear an oath to the King of England and not to the pope. Notable bishops and priests refused to do this and they were executed. This included John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester who refused to swear allegiance to the King of England. The society was therefore divided between the Catholics, who were influenced by the need to remain loyal to the Pope and Rome and the Anglicans who had decided to swear allegiance to the King of England. Also, the wind of Protestantism was blowing in Britain because many breakaway groups like the Calvinists and other such groups were fully operational in the country. The Protestants demanded a total breakaway from the Catholic Church and full derecognition of the Pope. However, the Anglicans maintained some of the traditions of the Catholic Church. Since the King had supreme power and authority, he managed to make important changes and reforms to the Anglican Church. He went further and married several women and had different children who were all capable of taking over from him. After his death in 1547, Henry VIII was replaced by Edward VI who reigned to 1553. Edward VI's mother was Jane Seymour and was a Protestant. He repealed six articles of the Uniformity Act and integrated some elements of Calvinism. Queen Mary took over in 1553 after the death of Edward VI. Mary's mother was Catherine of Aragon. She was a Roman Catholic and she promoted Catholicism in England during her reign. She defied all odds and married her cousin, Philip from Spain and this really angered many leaders in England who saw this as a major return to Catholicism. Mary's reign was said to be very bloody because she took so many steps to suppress Protestants and other views. In her reign, she burnt 300 people in the stake and this furthered her effort to return the country to its Catholic roots2. When Elizabeth I took over from Mary in 1558, there had been two important transitions ahead of her reign. Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn and was the last Tudor to reign. At this point, the different religious had emerged. This included the Catholics, Protestants and Anglicans. Within these sects, there were extreme groups and ideologies that sought to control affairs of the state in a more holistic manner. In order to prevent tensions in her reign, Elizabeth II passed the Act of Supremacy3. This was a kind of religious settlement that was meant to prevent further violence and promote national unity/stability. This Act canceled the pro-Catholic laws of Mary and the King/Queen of England was to become the head of the Anglican Church. People taking high public office were required to swear to the Queen. And although there were no direct laws that prevented other peoples from holding public office, there were some forms of discrimination that targeted people from other sects like Catholics and Protestants. Ideally, to take up public office, one had a better chance if he was an Anglican. Also, the Under the Act, the structure of the Anglican Church was to remain similar to the Catholic Church. However, some fundamental prayers and doctrines in the Church were to be changed and this differed from the practices of the Catholic Church which overtly placed emphasis on the Pope and the Roman State which drew parallels to Southern Europe, particularly Spain in that era. However, the Supremacy Act failed to come up with a clear statement of the position of England. The Anglican Church, which was the official church of the state was neither Protestant nor Catholic. Elements of the Protestant movement sought to eliminate Catholics from public life completely. These people became known as the Puritans. The Catholics also sought to come up with riots and other actions to protect their rights. The Duke of Norfolk, a Catholic, led a revolt in 1569 in the reign of Elizabeth I and this led to the deaths of between 200 and 300 people4. Thus, it became commonplace for Catholics to use revolts and riots to present their case. This is obviously because they were fewer and they were increasingly being seen to be a 'foreign' group rather than an English group. Due to the riots, Queen Elizabeth began persecution of Catholics and this led to more riots. Mary Stuart, Queen of the Scots, was a Catholic who led a revolt in 1567 and this led to her abdication in favor of her Protestant son, James VI of Scotland. Mary fled to England and was indicted for supporting various plots against Queen Elizabeth. In 1586, Mary, the former Queen of Scots was indicted for being involved in a plot let by Anthony Babington to assassinate the Queen of England and she was beheaded in 15875 At the time of the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, England was a highly divided society along sectarian lines. There were the Protestants and the Catholic group as well as the Anglicans who were seen to be the state religion. In the two groups, Protestants and Catholicism, there were extremists who were known as the Puritans and Jesuits respectively. The Puritans sought to eliminate the Catholic influence in England and the Jesuits believed in the use of force to defend the Catholic church around the world. Queen Elizabeth I died without a husband or children. So the rulership of England passed to the Stuarts. This gave way for King James VI of Scotland, a Stuart and the son of Mary to take over the Throne as King James I. Background of the Gunpowder Plot In 1603, Queen Elizabeth died and according to English tradition, she was to be succeeded by James, who was a Stuart and the first in his line to become king. James was the King of Scotland before he became king of England and Ireland. He was a Protestant but upheld the role of the Anglican Church in England's public services and offices6. James believed in the divine rights of kings and therefore refused to recognize the position and role of parliament in England7. Due to this, he had the obligation to resolve the dispute between Puritans and Anglicans in which the Puritans demanded that the requirement of becoming an Anglican before one can take up high public office be canceled. However, he failed to resolve the issue in the Hampton Court of 1604. Since the issue was not given an appropriate attention, the position of the Puritans remained dominant and the Catholics were naturally angered by it. This is because the Puritans were Calvinists who sought to purge the influence of Catholics in England8. On the other hand, King James' 9-year old daughter was raised Catholic. Thus, it was logical that if James was to be assassinated, the throne will pass to his Catholic daughter and the nation could become Catholic9. This led to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 which many historians have connected to Spain, which sought to expand Catholic Church to Northern Europe10 In pursuit of this, Guy Fawkes, the leader of the plot got 36 barrels of gunpowder to be placed under the House of Lords on the day of the reopening [November 5th 1605] of parliament which required all parliamentarians and the King to be present11. In this wise, the idea was to blow up parliament and initiate change that would cause power to be handed over to a new Catholic government. However, this was uncovered and Guy Fawkes and eight of the ten surviving conspirators were hanged in early 160612 According to Mark Nicholls, the “Gunpowder plotters were men engaged in a calculated and demonstrably pragmatic attempt to engender change in regime”13. This is because their planning was robust and there was an emotional desire for revenge that spurred on the ring leaders14. Although the chances of success was slim, these plotters would have succeeded if they were not stopped15. Spain's Involvement & The Treaty of London Spain had been the dominant superpower that opposed England's power in the era. King Philip II had opposed the reign and rules of Elizabeth I since she was seen to be Protestant in the eyes of the Spaniards16. Meanwhile, England and Spain fought several wars both at sea and in mainland Europe, particularly in the Low Countries where the 40 years war had raged on with no end in sight. In 1588, the Spanish King tried to invade England but this plot failed and on the advice of the Pope, Spain was to stay away from such acts of aggression against England since the local Catholic population could be opened to aggression from their fellow Englishmen who were not Catholics17. However, various efforts were made by different militant Catholic groups to get the support of Spain to topple the government in England. The death of Philip II however changed things dramatically18. When his son, Philip III took over, the treasuries of Spain was drained and England was also wasting a lot of money on that war and its interconnected wars. So in August 1604, Philip III and James I signed a treaty. The Treaty of London placed an limit on further Spanish state support of Catholic aggression in England. Due to this, many efforts of England's Catholics to overthrow the non-Catholic government of England did not get the support of Spain. Although the Catholic Church had supported the assassination of various protestant rulers throughout Europe, they failed to support attempts to use force in England19. Robert Catesby organized a delegation led by Thomas Wintour to King Philip III to solicit for support for the invasion of England and to this end, they said that the English Catholics would support such violent actions against King James' government20. However, King Philip III under the advise of the Pope refused to support the use of violence against the English21. Two reasons are attributed to this. The first is the Treaty of London and the second is the fact that the Pope had a longer term plan of getting England to become Catholic again and this did not include direct violence22. Due to the failure to get the support of Spain in this quest, Robert Catesby decided to carry out the plot unilaterally with his inner circle. Key Conspirators Robert Catesby, a Northamptonshire gentleman devised the plan of blowing up the House of Lords and killing King James I in order to get the power transferred to a Catholic regime23. This therefore means that he was the primary person who hatched the plan and came up with the idea of getting the king assassinated so there could be a regime change. In early 1604, Catesby shared the idea with Thomas Winter [spelt Wintour in old texts] who was his cousin and James Wright, a man from East Riding24. These men were Catholic like Catesby. The conspiracy was further developed amongst these three and some more conspirators were brought on board. The conspiracy between the three men was shared with Thomas Percy who was Wright's brother. This led to the inclusion of Guy Fawkes who became the key actor of the case and the one who was supposed to carry out the plot due to his expertise and role as a former soldier25. Guy Fawkes was introduced to the team by Thomas Winter, the cousin of Robert Catesby, the original conspirator26. Guy Fawkes was a soldier who was recruited by Thomas Winter. Fawkes was a Catholic dedicated to the Catholic cause and was a mining engineer who had fought under the Spanish forces in the Low Country [present-day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg]27. Guy Fawkes had not lived in Britain for the past ten years before the incident so he had the right kind of anonymity that was needed in London in that era, which was a close-knit community where people knew each other quite well28. The five men became the inner ring of the conspiracy. Other conspirators got wound into the plot. This include Christopher Wright, John Wright's brother and Thomas Bate, Robert Catesby's servant who was involved in the tunneling work whilst Ambrose Rookwood and Francis Tresham provided money for the purchase of gunpowder and weapons29. Also, in the actual operations, Thomas Percy was influential in providing important things like accommodation that hid the identity of the plotters Also, some other Jesuit priests were indicted for being given inside information of the plot. They include Henry Garnett and Oswald Tesimond, however, they failed to blow the whistle on the act and became secondary conspirators and were ignorant of the inner ring leaders30. Other Catholics in the wider English society rose up to riot and demonstrate after the plot was uncovered in November 5th. This was made up of a lot of Catholics however, the notable persons in this quest included Stephen Littleton and John Winter who were later condemned for high treason31. The Planned Execution of the Plot Robert Catesby was a distinguished gentleman and he took part in the attempted overthrow of Queen Elizabeth initiated by The Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux32. However, he was fined heavily and was not executed alongside the Earl of Essex. However, this did not cause him to abandon his quest for power and control. So Catesby went ahead and discussed the plot with Thomas Wintour and discussed the plot33. When new individuals were included in the situation, they came up with the plan to blow up parliament and kill the king and abduct the king's daughter and place her on the throne. Thomas Percy brought in Guy Fawkes who lived in a flat rented by Thomas Percy in London, close to Westminster34. Fawkes posed as a servant of Percy under the alias, John Johnson. They went ahead to plan the operation carefully. This led to the digging of a tunnel under the flat into the House of Lords. Through this, the 36 barrels of gunpowder were placed under the House of Parliament and Fawkes was supposed to light the fuse and run away from the scene whilst riots were initiated in other parts of England in support of a change in regime and the abduction of the King's Catholic daughter. However, Northcote identifies that there are some of the wives of these conspirators and other insiders who feared for the implications of the act and how it could destroy England's Catholic community35. In line with this, someone sent an anonymous letter to Salisbury who informed the king of a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill the king by 1st November. Due to this, the King organized a search party to look for suspicious things in the area. In the search, Guy Fawkes was discovered with firewood and matches and he was arrested and presented to the King on November 5th 160536. On hearing of Fawkes' arrest, all the co-conspirators fled. Fawkes was tortured and he gave out the information about the various conspirators and let out information about the actions that they intended to carry out. Implications of the Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot yielded a situation whereby religious differences were established in clear and uncertain terms in England. It gave room for the Catholic church to be viewed as a non-English entity and this led to the need to contain their expansion and their riots37. Although Spain was not directly involved, the plot sent a direct message that terrorist tactics by Catholics in England would not be tolerated. Due to this, the Spanish authorities and the Roman Catholic Church had to accept the realities and not push for major partisan cases against England's non-Catholic sects. The need to contain Catholics after this incident led to a situation whereby many Anti-Catholic laws were made in England. This is summarized under the Popish Precusants Act which sought to get England's Catholics to take separate oaths showing their allegiance to the state38. Eventually, Catholics in England were weakened as a collective group and this strengthened other Protestant and Anglican groups in the country. Conclusion On critical examination of the Gunpowder Plot, it is conclusive that the situation was a major incident that involved an internal attempt by Robert Catesby and other Catholic conspirators to use their own internal strengths to assassinate the king of England and Parliament in order to carry out a regime change. The plot was devoid of a major Spanish or Vatican support. The background to this incident involved the fact that England was divided into two main religious powerhouses after King Henry VIII's Supremacy Acts which segregated England to a Catholic and Protestant state. The alternative succession of Catholic and Protestant monarchs led to a trend which showed that leaders tilted towards laws that supported their sects. The failure of Queen Elizabeth's religious tolerance laws and King James' laws on religious freedom created a situation where Catholics were deeply dissatisfied. Due to the inability of the conspirators of the Gunpowder plot to secure external help from Spain, they decided to assassinate King James themselves. The plot involved important efforts by the conspirators but it failed due to an anonymous leakage of information. Bibliography Brice Katherine, The Early Stuarts 1603 -1640 (London, Hodder Education, 1994) Eder James and Roberts Seth. Barron's AP: European History (London: Barron's Online Bookstore, 2009) Fraser Antonia. The Gunpowder Plot (New York: Phoenix Publishing, 2005) Haynes, Alan. The Gunpowder Plot: Faith and Rebellion (London: Hayes and Sutton, 2005) Jonsen Albert and Edelston Stephen. The Abuse of Casuistry (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988) Keat Preston and Bremmer Ian. The Fat Tail: The Power of Political Knowledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) Nicholls, Mark. “Strategy and Motivation in the Gunpowder Plot” The Historical Journal Vol 50 (4) Dec. 2007 pp787 – 807 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) p787 Northcote, Parkinson. Gunpowder Treason and Plot. London: Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1976) Roth Mitchel. Crime and Punishment: A History of Criminal Justice System (Mason OH: Cengage, 2010) Russell Michael. The Chemistry of Fire Works(London: The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2008) Viault Birdsall. Modern European History (New York: McGraw Hill, 1990) Read More