Remember, remember!
The fifth of November,
The Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot!
I learned this English folk verse (circa 1870) in primary school. History.com summarizes the infamous plot it regales as follows:
The Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt to blow up England’s King James I (1566-1625) and the Parliament on November 5, 1605. The plot was organized by Robert Catesby (c.1572-1605) in an effort to end the persecution of Roman Catholics by the English government…
Around midnight on November 4, 1605, one of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes (1570-1606), was discovered in the cellar of the Parliament building with barrels of gunpowder.
Guy “Guido” Fawkes and his co-conspirators were all tried and executed. Ever since, Britons have been burning him in effigy … as a warning to others. In fact, before the annual State Opening of Parliament, the Yeomen of the Guard pay homage to Guy-Fawkes folklore by making symbolic searches of the House of Commons and House of Lords.
They bungled this plot spectacularly. Hell, reports are that the 36 barrels of gunpowder were of such poor quality, they would have gone off more like firecrackers than bombs even if Fawkes had been clever enough to set them a light.
Mind you, any good Catholic would swear that the Gunpowder Plot was every bit as heroic and potentially transformative as the 20 July Plot. The latter, of course, was the plot Claus von Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators hatched and botched to blow up Adolf Hitler.
Yet, since primary school, the only thing I’ve ever wondered about the former is why the British (and people throughout their Commonwealth) celebrate their most notorious traitor by burning him in effigy.
You’d think, for example, that the Americans had good cause to follow suit with Benedict Arnold. But chances are that most Americans don’t even know his name.