On this day in history…

13th November:

1536 – Murder of Robert Pakington, mercer and member of Parliament, at Cheapside, while making his way to mass at St Thomas of Acre Chapel.
1537 – Burial of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Henry VIII’s daughter, Mary, acted as chief mourner.
1553 – Lady Jane Grey, her husband Guildford Dudley, his brothers Ambrose and Henry, and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer were tried for treason at a public trial at London’s Guildhall. They were all found guilty as charged, with the men being sentenced to being hanged, drawn and quartered, and Jane to be burned alive, or beheaded.
1601 – Burial of Lady Mary Ramsey (née Dale), famous philanthropist, at Christ Church in London.
1612 – Death of Sir George Carew, administrator, member of Parliament and diplomat, from typhus at his home in Tothill Street, Westminster, London. He was buried at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster. Carew’s served as secretary to Lord Chancellor Hatton and served Elizabeth I and James I as an ambassador.

This weekend, people around the UK will have been marking the 5th of November by attending firework displays, letting off fireworks in their backyards, lighting bonfires and burning “the guy”. For many, it’s just a bit of fun, for others it’s time to worry about the pets, and for others, it’s a time to remember the plot that sought to kill a king.

On the night of 4th/5th November 1605, Guy Fawkes was caught with thirty-six barrels of gunpowder in the cellars beneath Westminster. The idea was to blow up the House of Lords at the opening of Parliament on the 5th November, and to assassinate King James I.