This is the story of a group of men who plotted to kill a King and his advisers by blowing up the Houses of Parliament on 5th November 1605.

But before I begin, it’s important that you to understand what was happening in England at that time …

The story begins when Henry VIII was King.

Henry wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon so he could marry someone else, but there was a problem. The Pope wouldn’t let him divorce his wife because it was against the rules of the Roman Catholic Church.

Henry got over this little hurdle by setting up the Church of England. Therefore, he stopped being a Catholic and became a Protestant.

A couple of monarchs later, in 1558, his Protestant daughter became Queen Elizabeth I. There were a lot of Catholics in Europe, and the Queen was afraid they might invade and gang up on the Protestants. To keep them in their place, she persecuted the Catholics in England, which means she treated them very badly.

When Elizabeth died in 1605, King James VI of Scotland because King James I of England. At first, the Catholics were quite pleased about this, because James was the son of Mary Queen of Scots, who was a Catholic (and Elizabeth had hated Mary so much that she had her executed!). Also, James was married to Queen Anne of Denmark, who was a Catholic.

So the Catholics thought the new King would be much kinder to them – but he wasn’t!

A few of them were so fed up with what was going on that they made some drastic plans …

Five men plotted to kill James I and his advisers by blowing up the Houses of Parliament at the official opening of Parliament. They were led by Robert Catesby. The other plotters were Thomas Percy, Thomas Wintour, John Wright – and Guy Fawkes.

Guy Fawkes was born in York in 1570. His family were Protestants, but he later became a Catholic.

He joined the Spanish army as a ‘soldier of fortune’ and started to call himself Guido Fawkes.

He’d been fighting for Spain in Flanders for more than 10 years, when he met Thomas Wintour, who asked him to join the group of plotters. Guy Fawkes could be useful to the group because he knew about gunpowder.

He came back to England in 1604.

The plotters rented a house next door to the Houses of Parliament. They planned to dig a tunnel so they could get the gunpowder from the cellar of the house to the House of Lords - but this didn’t work out because it took too long. So they came up with another plan.

Thomas Percy managed to get hold of a cellar that was directly underneath the House of Lords. Guy Fawkes became caretaker of the cellar and pretended he was Thomas Percy’s servant. He called himself John Johnson.

The plotters managed to hide 36 barrels of gunpowder under firewood in the cellar after taking them one by one across the River Thames in the night.

Everything was ready for the opening of Parliament on 5th November 1605!

They had to figure out what they wanted to happen after the King had been killed.

The whole plot came about because Catholics were being persecuted, so it was very important that the next ruler would be good to Catholics. They decided that Princess Elizabeth, one of King James’ daughters, should become Queen after the explosion. They arranged for arms and ammunition to be stored around the country for the Catholic people to use in case they had to fight to get Princess Elizabeth on the throne.

Unfortunately, these big plans meant that they needed money to buy the weapons and then they had to find good hiding places. So more people became involved in the plot.

The plotters were very careful about who they told and made sure they only shared their secret with their relatives or people they knew very well. One of these people was Francis Tresham.

Now, Tresham’s brother-in-law was Lord Monteagle. As the House of Lords was likely to be a pretty dangerous place on 5th November, it is believed that Tresham wrote to Lord Monteagle, warning him to stay away from the opening of Parliament – and that’s when people started to get a bit suspicious …

The searchers had noticed that there was an awful lot of firewood in that cellar and a further search was arranged. Guy Fawkes’ found himself face to face with a magistrate, who was accompanied by soldiers!

He was quickly overpowered. The soldiers made a more thorough search and quickly found the barrels of gunpowder. Guy Fawkes was arrested and taken away to be questioned by King James himself.

Guy Fawkes still insisted that his name was John Johnson – even when he was tortured - and he refused to reveal the names of the other plotters. He didn’t know that spies had been watching him and they already had a good idea who was in the gang.

Meanwhile, the other plotters heard about what was happening in London happened and hid in Holbeche House in Staffordshire with their followers. Soon, they found themselves surrounded by an army led by the Sheriff of Worcestershire.

Of the original plotters, Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy and John Wright were killed in the fighting that quickly followed. The surviving plotters, including Thomas Wintour, were taken prisoner. Wintour and Guy Fawkes were executed as traitors after their trial at the end of January 1606.

Now, do you remember that letter to Lord Monteagle? We know for sure that the letter existed because it’s kept in the Public Records Office today. It is very likely that it was written by Francis Tresham, because he was the only one of the plotters to escape execution. He was taken to the Tower of London instead. Some people say he died of poisoning, but others reckon he might have been allowed to escape as a reward for giving the warning.

The Gunpowder Plot was really bad news for the ordinary Catholics. King James became even more suspicious of them and they were persecuted more than ever!

One year later, on 5th November 1606, bonfires were lit in London to celebrate that the plot had been foiled and the King had been saved – and in the UK we still light bonfires every year.

Sometimes, kids make a figure out of old rubbish or papier mache and dress it up in old clothes. This is called a ‘Guy’, after Guy Fawkes. This Guy gets thrown onto the bonfire.

Another tradition is for the kids to take their Guy out on the street and ask passers by if they’ll give them ‘a penny for the Guy’. The money raised is supposed to go towards fireworks.

Here’s yet another interesting tradition:

Every year, as part of the State Opening of Parliament, the buildings are searched by the Yeoman of the Guards. They wear their Tudor uniforms and are armed with pikes.

And here’s a famous traditional poem:

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes
‘Twas his intent
To blow up the King and the Parliament
Three score barrels of powder below
Poor old England to overthrow
By God’s providence he was catched
With a dark lantern and burning match
Holler boys, holler boys,
Ring the bells ring
Holler boys, holler boys,
God save the King!

(Traditional)

So now you know all about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, and you’ve read the poem, why don’t you write a story or poem of your own to remember the fifth of November? If you think the tale of Guy Fawkes is a bit of a gory story, you can write about other firework stuff instead. Why don’t you make up a poem about how exciting it is waiting for a firework display to start? Or describe how brilliant a firework looks as it explodes in the sky?