27 January – The fate of the Gunpowder Plotters

On this day in history, 27th January 1606, in the reign of King James I, the eight surviving conspirators of the November 1605 Gunpowder Plot were tried at Westminster for high treason.

Why am I talking about something that happened during the reign of King James I, in the Stuart period? Well, because the Gunpowder Plot actually had its origins in Elizabeth I’s reign.

Let me tell you more in today's talk.

More on the Gunpowder Plot video:

Also on this day in history, 27th January 1596, Sir Francis Drake died of dysentery in Portobelo harbour, Panama. Find out more in my video from last year.

Also on this day in history:

• 1501 – Death of Thomas Langton, Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop-elect of Canterbury, from the plague. He had been elected Archbishop on 22nd January, but died before his consecration. He was buried at Winchester Cathedral, in the chantry chapel.
• 1510 – Death of Sir Thomas Brandon, soldier, courtier and diplomat. He was buried at the London Blackfriars on 29th January. Brandon served Henry VII as Master of the Horse and Henry VIII as Warden and Chief Justice of the Royal Forests to the south of Trent.
• 1541 – The parsonage, lands and right to appoint clergy in Haverhill, Suffolk, were granted to Anne of Cleves. Her marriage to Henry VIII had been annulled in the previous July.
• 1548 – Archbishop Thomas Cranmer wrote to Bishop Bonner informing him that the Lord Protector had decided “that no candles should be borne upon Candlemas Day, nor also from henceforth ashes or palms used any longer.”
• 1550 – Execution of Humphrey Arundell, rebel, at Tyburn. He was hanged as a traitor after leading the rebel forces in the Cornish Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549.
• 1556 – Execution of Bartholomew Green, Protestant martyr, at Smithfield, with six other Protestants. Green was a zealous evangelical and also appears to have been behind the circulation of a bill denouncing Philip of Spain and Mary I, and supporting Elizabeth.

Transcript:

On this day in Tudor history, 27th January 1606, in the reign of King James I, the eight surviving conspirators of the November 1605 Gunpowder Plot were tried at Westminster for high treason.

Why am I talking about something that happened during the reign of King James I, in the Stuart period? Well, because the Gunpowder Plot actually had its origins in Elizabeth I’s reign.

As I’ve explained in previous talks on the topic, Elizabeth had continued the work of Henry VIII, and Edward VI, and had made England a Protestant country. By the end of her reign, England was a dangerous place for Catholics, with the threat of persecution and even death hanging over them. As Elizabeth’s health deteriorated, the Catholics pinned their hopes on James VI of Scotland, who was married to a Catholic, and who was the son of the late Catholic queen, Mary, Queen of Scots. Although he himself was a Protestant, the Catholics felt sure that he would be sympathetic to their cause. They were to be disappointed.

I’ll give you a link to my video on the Gunpowder Plot, but spoilers – it was a plot to blow up the House of Lords at the opening of Parliament on the 5th November, and to assassinate King James I, and it was uncovered on 5th November 1605, when Guy Fawkes was caught with thirty-six barrels of gunpowder in the cellars beneath Westminster.

Back to 27th January 1606 and the trials of Guy Fawkes, Robert and Thomas Wintour (Winter), John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates and Sir Everard Digby. Jesuits Henry Garnet, Oswald Tesmond (Tesimond) and John Gerard were said to have “traitorously move[d] and persuade[d]” the conspirators. The other conspirators had died shortly after the plot had been discovered; John Wright, Christopher Wright, Thomas Percy and Robert Catesby were shot dead at Holbeche House in a siege on 8th November, and Francis Tresham died in the Tower of London on 23rd December 1605.
Those tried on 27th January 1606, were tried by a commission which included the Earls of Salisbury, Nottingham, Suffolk, Worcester, Devonshire and Northampton, with Sir John Popham acting as Lord Chief Justice. The men all pleaded “Not Guilty” to the charges laid against them which included a plot to:
“First, To deprive the King of his Crown.
Secondly, To murder the King, the Queen, and the Prince.
Thirdly, To stir Rebellion and Sedition in the Kingdom.
Fourthly, To bring a miserable Destruction amongst the Subjects.
Fifthly, To change, alter, and subvert the Religion here established.
Sixthly, To ruinate the State of the Commonwealth, and to bring in Strangers to invade it.”
which would be put into effect in the following manner:
“First, The King, the Queen, the Prince, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, the Knights and Burgesses of the Parliament, should be blown up with Powder.
Secondly, That the whole Royal Issue Male should be destroy'd.
Thirdly, That they would take into their Custody Elizabeth and Mary the King's Daughters, and proclaim the Lady Elizabeth Queen.
Fourthly, That they should feign a Proclamation in the name of Elizabeth, in which no mention should be made of Alteration of Religion, nor that they were Parties to the Treason, until they had raised Power to perform the same; and then to proclaim, All Grievances in the Kingdom should be reformed.”

They were all found guilty of treason and sentenced to the “Reward due to Traitors, whose Hearts be hardened”, i.e. to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant and Thomas Bates were executed on 30th January 1606 at St Paul’s Churchyard. On 31st January 1606, Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes and Guy Fawkes were executed in the same manner at Westminster, in the Old Palace Yard. Henry Garnet was executed on 3rd May 1606, but John Gerard managed to flee from England, with the financial support of Elizabeth Vaux, and died a natural death in 1637 at the English College in Rome. Oswald Tesmond also escaped. He fled to Calais pretending to be an owner of a cargo-load of dead pigs. He died in Naples in 1636.
So most of the plotters came to sticky ends.

Have you seen Kit Harington’s “Gunpowder” miniseries? Although it wasn’t completely accurate, it was good to see Robert Catesby getting some attention and it did bring home to viewers just how Catholics suffered at the time.