The+Gun+Powder+Plot

The year 1603 marked the end of an era. After 45 years on the English throne, Elizabeth I was dying. All signs suggested her successor would be James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Queen of Scots - the queen who had been executed in 1587 on Elizabeth's orders.

In 1605, a group of Catholic conspirators plotted to assassinate King James I of England (and VI of Scotland) by blowing up the House of Lords during the opening of parliament.

They hid kegs full of gunpowder in the cellars beneath the chamber where the king and the rest of the political elite would assemble. Enough powder was stored to completely destroy the building and kill everyone present.

One of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, was tasked with igniting this huge bomb. Thankfully the plot was uncovered just 12 hours before parliament was due to open. If the plotters had succeeded history would be very different today!

The traitors were sentenced to torture as punishment. They would be hanged until half-dead, upon which their genitals would be cut off and burned in front of them. Still alive, their bowels and heart would be removed. Finally they would be decapitated and dismembered; their body parts would be publicly displayed, eaten by the birds as they decomposed.

The failed gunpowder plot is the reason why Fawkes' effigy is still burned on bonfires on 5th November.