The Life and Legacy of Guy Fawkes E-Book
2,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
- Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
- Serie: British Legends
- Sprache: Englisch
“Remember, remember, the fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot
We see no reason
Why Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot"
A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history’s most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors’ British Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of Great Britain’s most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.
In 1605, Guy Fawkes was one of over a dozen conspirators in the famous Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to assassinate England’s King James I. When the plot was discovered on the 5th of November, Fawkes and other conspirators were quickly convicted and executed, and the King asked his subjects to remember 5 November as “the joyful day of deliverance”.
Fawkes was but one of a countless number of failed assassins, but in a perversely ironic way, the King’s declaration ultimately turned 5 November into Guy Fawkes Day, a celebratory day that usually had children creating an effigy that would then be burned in a bonfire. While the effigy was usually Fawkes, others made it a custom to burn an effigy of the pope, a tradition that came to the Thirteen Colonies in America as well. Though he was only one of the plotters, Fawkes became the one most associated with the act, and he was viewed as a symbol of treason.
A strange thing happened, however, in the 19th century, as Fawkes began to undergo a sort of character rehabilitation, beginning with William Harrison Ainsworth's 1841 historical fiction Guy Fawkes; or, The Gunpowder Treason. Suddenly, Fawkes became an anti-hero who had the best interest of the public and was taking action to effect change. Other British literature of the century depicted Fawkes as a kind of action hero. In 2005’s Remember, Remember: A Cultural History of Guy Fawkes Day, writer J.A. Sharpe noted Fawkes is sometimes remembered tongue-in-cheek as "the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions."
With that new perception of Fawkes taking hold, Fawkes managed to become a symbol of defiance against government. The popular movie V for Vendetta reintroduced Fawkes to American audiences, and Fawkes and the Guy Fawkes Mask have taken on a new life as a rally cry and symbol for groups protesting the government. The major hacking network Anonymous uses the Guy Fawkes Mask as its hallmark, and the Guy Fawkes Mask was a common sight at Occupy protests across America in 2011.
British Legends: The Life and Legacy of Guy Fawkes looks at the life of the failed assassin and the Gunpowder Plot, but it also analyzes how Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot have been remembered over time and became a pop culture fixture. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about Guy Fawkes like you never have before, in no time at all.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 53
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
Ähnliche
British Legends: The Life and Legacy of Guy Fawkes
By Charles River Editors
A contemporary engraving of 8 of the 13 conspirators, by Crispijn van de Passe. Fawkes is third from the right.
About Charles River Editors
Charles River Editors was founded by Harvard and MIT alumni to provide superior editing and original writing services, with the expertise to create digital content for publishers across a vast range of subject matter. In addition to providing original digital content for third party publishers, Charles River Editors republishes civilization’s greatest literary works, bringing them to a new generation via ebooks.
Introduction
Guy Fawkes (1570-1606)
“Remember, remember, the fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot
We see no reason
Why Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot"
A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history’s most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors’ British Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of Great Britain’s most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.
In 1605, Guy Fawkes was one of over a dozen conspirators in the famous Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to assassinate England’s King James I. When the plot was discovered on the 5th of November, Fawkes and other conspirators were quickly convicted and executed, and the King asked his subjects to remember 5 November as “the joyful day of deliverance”.
Fawkes was but one of a countless number of failed assassins, but in a perversely ironic way, the King’s declaration ultimately turned 5 November into Guy Fawkes Day, a celebratory day that usually had children creating an effigy that would then be burned in a bonfire. While the effigy was usually Fawkes, others made it a custom to burn an effigy of the pope, a tradition that came to the Thirteen Colonies in America as well. Though he was only one of the plotters, Fawkes became the one most associated with the act, and he was viewed as a symbol of treason.
A strange thing happened, however, in the 19th century, as Fawkes began to undergo a sort of character rehabilitation, beginning with William Harrison Ainsworth's 1841 historical fiction Guy Fawkes; or, The Gunpowder Treason. Suddenly, Fawkes became an anti-hero who had the best interest of the public and was taking action to effect change. Other British literature of the century depicted Fawkes as a kind of action hero. In 2005’s Remember, Remember: A Cultural History of Guy Fawkes Day, writer J.A. Sharpe noted Fawkes is sometimes remembered tongue-in-cheek as "the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions."
With that new perception of Fawkes taking hold, Fawkes managed to become a symbol of defiance against government. The popular movie V for Vendetta reintroduced Fawkes to American audiences, and Fawkes and the Guy Fawkes Mask have taken on a new life as a rally cry and symbol for groups protesting the government. The major hacking network Anonymous uses the Guy Fawkes Mask as its hallmark, and the Guy Fawkes Mask was a common sight at Occupy protests across America in 2011.
British Legends: The Life and Legacy of Guy Fawkes looks at the life of the failed assassin and the Gunpowder Plot, but it also analyzes how Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot have been remembered over time and became a pop culture fixture. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about Guy Fawkes like you never have before, in no time at all.
Members of the hacking group "Anonymous" wearing the Guy Fawkes Mask. Photo by Vincent Diamante
British Legends: The Life and Legacy of Guy Fawkes
About Charles River Editors
Introduction
Chapter 1: Early Years
Chapter 2: The Gunpowder Plot
Chapter 3: The Legacy of Guy Fawkes
Chapter 1: Early Years
On April 13, 1570, Guy Fawkes was born to Edward Fawkes, a representative of the Church of England clergy in dioceses and a religious lawyer based in the ecclesiastical court at York in the North of England, and his wife Edith. Fawkes's family was a prominent Northern family; parents Edward and Edith were devout and regular worshippers at the Church of England, and his great-grandfather had been the Lord Mayor of London during the reign of King Henry VIII. Interestingly, it was Edith Fawkes's family who were recusant Catholics, the very elite and selective group of English families who had been allowed to remain Catholic even when King Henry VIII and his heirs (save for Queen Mary I of England, also known as the passionately Catholic "Bloody Mary") were tearing England apart in order to make the Church accountable to the Monarch, not the Pope. Edith's family, like the Howards (family name of the Dukes of Norfolk), were allowed to remain Catholic. Guy Fawkes even had a cousin who was a Jesuit priest, taking his marching orders directly from The Vatican.
King Henry VIII
These details are important because they explain the reasons why Guy Fawkes (soon to be known to the Spanish during his military campaigns as "Guido") took steps to explode the Houses of Parliament through gunpowder (known informally as the “Gunpowder Plot”) and kill the Protestant King James I of England (James VI of Scotland). It is also significant that when Guy was only eight years old his Protestant father passed away. At the time, unless a woman was in the clergy (nun) or was a wealthy heiress or widow, she had no choice but to remarry in order to sustain herself. Edith therefore married the Catholic Denis Bainbridge. Young Guy's Catholic proclivities might have come from his step-father Denis Bainbridge, from his time as a schoolboy at St. Peter's School in York, or from Guy's relatives in the Harrington clan. Each of these sources was known to provide safe houses and safe passages to Jesuit and other Catholic priests against the orders of the Church of England authorities. It was at St. Peter’s School that Guy Fawkes met the brothers Christopher and John Wright, both of whom would be part of his Gunpowder Plot. Fawkes also came to know Catholic priests Oswald Tesimond, Edward Oldcorne and Robert Middleton.
