Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot
Description
The failed gunpowder plot of 1605 was an attempt by English Catholics to assassinate King James I in order to bring back the Catholic monarchy to Great Britain after a while of harassment and oppression against Catholics.
The plot was to explode the House of Lords during the State of Opening Parliament by putting 36 barrels of gunpowder into the cellar and Fawkes lighting the fuse, blowing up the parliament.
Although it was prevented by an anonymous letter written to the authorities alerting them about the plot, Guy Fawkes was caught with the gunpowder barrels by the Parliament guards and arrested. Several perpetrators tried to make a stand by chasing after the High Sheriff of Worcester and other members of the police, ending up in a shootout. Eight of the survivors of the plot were sentenced to death, by hanging, drawing, and quartering.
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Great Britain was mostly ruled by protestants at the time of the plot; protestants refer to many religious groups that dissociate from the Roman Catholic Church. With Catholics having to face a lot of oppression against them due to the majority rule by protestants, being provided with no freedom, and many anti-Catholic laws put into place, enforcing the dominance of the Church of England, which is a protestant church.
Frustrated by this, they thought the answer was to eliminate the protestants ruling the parliament, hoping to revive Catholicism as the governing religion in Britain, invoking religious freedom.
The Catholic prosecutors had a desire for change, for not only religious but also political reasons. They thought they could disrupt the government, hoping that it would cause a revolt against the bureaucracy, resulting in a Catholic monarch occupying the throne.
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