Guy Fawkes, the Gunpowder Plot and Bonfire Night

Sophie (age 7) & Ellie (age 5) are missing fireworks and Bonfire Night because of Coronavirus. So they tell the story of Guy Fawkes, the Gunpowder Plot, and how Bonfire Night came to be celebrated.----more----

 

England is Protestant. But Guy Fawkes and his Catholic friends dream of a Catholic England. They hope that the new King James will be kinder to Catholics because his mother had been a Catholic. But James is a Protestant and does not like Catholics.

 

Guy Fawkes and his friends decide to kill King James, his nobles and his bishops by blowing up Parliament. They carefully gather gunpowder and store it in a cellar under Parliament.

 

However, they are worried that some Catholic nobles will also be killed so they write to one of them to warn him to stay away. That noble might have been a Catholic but he was also a loyal subject of the King. He immediately went and told the King’s spies. The Kings soldiers burst into the cellar and find Guy Fawkes with the gunpowder and a trail ready to be lit. They capture him. But they still do not know who the other plotters are.

 

Guy Fawkes is taken before the King but he tells the King nothing. After days of torture Guy Fawkes finally tells the names of the other conspirators. They are rounded up, tried and horribly executed.

 

Every year since people in England have celebrated Bonfire Night on the 5th November by lighting Bonfires and setting off Fireworks and even burning a stuff “Guy”.

 

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If you liked this episode about Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night you might also like our episode on the Spanish Armada which talks about Protestant England.

https://www.historystorytime.com/e/the-spanish-armada-1541460413/

 

Or if you liked this episode about Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night you might like our Jamestown and Pocahontas episode about how the colony of Jamestown was founded (and named after King James)

https://www.historystorytime.com/e/the-jamestown-settlement-and-the-real-pocahontas/