Bonfire night held each November 5^th is a night of celebration and well it should be, as it marks a very important event that happened over 400 years ago in London. It celebrates the night that King James I and all of House of Lords lives were saved by a mysterious letter. This event would become known as the gun powder plot and here is what happened on that night so very long ago. 

In the early 16 hundreds, the U.K. was a place where Protestants and Catholics did not live together in harmony. The Catholics had been treated harshly and unfairly for a number of years and when King James I took over the English throne, the Catholics in England rejoiced as they believed he would make their lives easier. Instead, King James treated the Catholics even more harshly and ordered all the priests to leave England. This angered the Catholics and several of them came together determined to kill King James and all the Lords of parliament. 

A man by the name of Robert Catesby would become the instigator and the leader of a small group of men who joined him, and together they would form a plot to blow up the house of Parliament. The most well known of these men is Guy Fawkes. The other conspirators included Thomas and Robert Wintour, John and Christopher Wright, Robert Keyes, Thomas Percy, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby, Francis Tresham and Thomas Bates. 

For months these men laid their plans. They would wait until the opening of Parliament on November 5, 1605 and then blow up the House of Lords with King James and all of the members of Parliament inside. They rented a house next door to the Parliament and slowly and carefully without being seen they transported barrels of gunpowder into the cellar of the Parliament. 36 Barrels of gun powder in all they hid. Enough gunpowder to blow the building up 200 times over. 

On the night of November 4^th Guy Fawkes hid himself in the cellar of the Parliament waiting for the King to arrive and the house to assemble the next day. He was then to light the fuse and blow them all to kingdom come. 

However, before morning arrived and the plot could be carried out a member of Parliament known as Lord Monteagle received a letter advising him not to attend the opening of Parliament and explaining that all in attendance would die. No one knows for sure who sent the letter to Lord Monteagle, but many suspect it may have been Thomas Percy one of the conspirators and Lord Monteagle's brother-in-law. 

Regardless of who actually sent the letter Lord Monteagle was alarmed by the message and notified the authorities. Guy Fawkes and the barrels of gun powder were discovered and Fawkes was taken away to the Tower of London where he was questioned and tormented until he gave up the names of the other men who were part of this dangerous plot. 

The authorities chased after the men. Some were shot and others were taken to the Tower of London where they were later tried hanged and quartered. Over the centuries most of the men have been forgotten but, Guy Fawkes lives on, burned in Effigy on bonfire night every November 5^th.

This is an original news article © The Kids Window

One in a series of articles about British history written for children. 

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