Nine things you never knew about Guy Fawkes
We may be warned to remember, remember, the fifth of November - but not many of us know the true story behind Guy Fawkes, the most well-known conspirator behind the Gunpowder Plot.
The story goes that Guy Fawkes led his fellow conspirators to smuggle 36 barrels of gunpowder into a cellar of the House of Lords in a bid to destroy the building and kill the King. He was then hung, drawn and quartered. But is this really what happened?
As Bonfire Night preparations get underway, we take a look at some of the common misconceptions and lesser known facts about the nation's favourite villain.
1. Guy Fawkes did not die from being hung, drawn and quartered
The traditional death for traitors in 17th-century England was to be hanged from the gallows, then drawn and quartered in public. But, despite his role in the Gunpowder Plot - which the perpetrators hoped would kill King James and as many members of parliament as possible - it was not to be Fawkes's fate.
As he awaited his grisly punishment on the gallows, Fawkes leapt to his death - to avoid the horrors of having his testicles cut off, his stomach opened and his guts spilled out before his eyes. He died from a broken neck.
His body was subsequently quartered, and his remains were sent to "the four corners of the kingdom" as a warning to others.
2. Guy Fawkes was not the Gunpowder Plot's ringleader
There were 13 conspirators in the plot, which was masterminded by Robert Catesby. Catesby was a charismastic Catholic figure who had a reputation for speaking out against the English crown (and did you know, he is also a distant relative to Game of Thrones and Gunpowder star Kit Harington). But it was Fawkes who gained notoriety after the plot was foiled, for he had the perilous duty of sneaking into the cellar beneath the House of Lords and igniting the explosives. It was Fawkes who was caught red-handed with 36 barrels of gunpowder, and for two days he was the only conspirator who the King’s men had captured.
3. Guy Fawkes won the unlikely admiration of King James I
When asked why he had so much gunpowder, he replied that his intention was: “to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains”.
Fawkes admitted that he had planned to blow up the House of Lords, and expressed his regret at having failed to do so.
His steadfast manner earned him the praise of King James, who described Fawkes as possessing "a Roman resolution".
4. Guy Fawkes was actually Protestant by birth
Despite becoming the greatest enemy of the Protestant establishment, Fawkes was, in fact, born into the faith. However, his maternal grandparents were recusant Catholics, who refused to attend Protestant services.
In 1578, when Fawkes was eight, his father died and his widowed mother married a Catholic, Dionis Baynbrigge. Fawkes converted to Catholicism when he was a teenager.
5. Guy Fawkes has an island named after him
He is one of Britain’s most infamous villains, whose effigy has been burned and whose demise has been publicly celebrated for more than four centuries. It may come as a surprise, then, that there is an island named after him.
To the north-west of Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos Islands, a collection of two uninhabited, crescent-shaped islands is named Isla Guy Fawkes, or Guy Fawkes Island.
6. Guy Fawkes liked to be called by an Italian nickname
Aged 21 and a committed Catholic, Fawkes sold the estate his father had left him and went to Europe to fight for Catholic Spain against the Protestant Dutch republic in the Eighty Years War.
While he was abroad, he adopted the Italian variant of his name, becoming known as 'Guido'. This was thought to be an attempt to sound more continental and therefore more serious about his Catholic faith.
When he was caught by the King's men, at first he claimed his name was John Johnson. However after being tortured, he was forced to sign a confession to his role in the Gunpowder Plot, and this he signed as ‘Guido Fawkes’.
7. The Houses of Parliament are still searched once a year to make sure there are no conspirators hiding with explosives
Before the State Opening of Parliament, the Yeomen of the Guard search the Houses of Parliament to make sure there are no would-be conspirators hiding in the cellars. This has become more of a tradition than a serious anti-terrorist precaution.
8. The cellar that Fawkes tried to blow up no longer exists
It was destroyed in a fire in 1834 that devastated the medieval Houses of Parliament.
9. The gunpowder would have done little damage to Parliament
The 36 barrels of gunpowder that Fawkes planted in a cellar below the Houses of Parliament would have been sufficient to raze it to the ground, while causing severe damage to neighbouring buildings.
However, some experts now claim that the gunpowder had “decayed”, and would not have properly exploded even if ignited.
