Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 to 31 January 1606) was a Roman Catholic revolutionary who along with other revolutionaries planned the Gun Powder Plot. The objective of the plot was to kill King James I of England and wipe out the entire Protestant aristocracy, by blowing up the Westminister. Fawkes was born in Yorkshire to Edward and Edith. He attended school in York where he is believed to have met many of the co-conspirators. As a soldier, Fawkes spent ten years fighting for the Spanish Catholics against the Dutch in Flanders. He adopted the name Guido during this period. The experience enhanced his knowledge of explosives.
The immediate reason for the Gunpowder Plot was the realization on the part of the conspirators that James I was not going to follow a policy of toleration towards the Catholic, a point proved in the Hampton Conference. In addition, Catholic Spain was weakened by the many wars and unable to provide assistance to any revolution.
Though Robert Catesby was the brain behind the conspiracy, Guy Fawkes was to execute it. The plotters rented a cellar under the House of Lords. By March 1605, 36 barrels of gunpowder were hidden in the cellar. The conspirators did want the fellow Catholics in the parliament to be killed. One of them wrote to his friend lord Monteagle about the plot. However, the letter was discovered and plot foiled. Guy Fawkes was caught red-handed as he tried to ignite the gunpowder. Fawkes was arrested and imprisoned. He was tortured but did not reveal the names of the co-conspirators. The fellow conspirators proudly proclaimed themselves after they had fled. Fawkes was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. However, Fawkes did not like to face the ignominy and he jumped the scaffold and broke his neck. Later he was hanged.
Guy Fawkes' name is celebrated in the works of John Milton (Paradise Lost) Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre), Charles Dickens (David Copperfield), and J.K Rowling (Chamber of Secrets). Songs of John Lennon and Jethro Tull also allude to Fawkes. Of course, the contemporary works condemned him. Anarchists continue to admire him and believe that he was the only man to enter the Parliament with honorable intentions. It is still a tradition in Britain to search the cellars of Westminster before the royalty made their annual appearance. November 5 is regarded as Guy Fawkes Day in England and celebrated with fireworks, bonfires and by burning effigies of the conspirator
