Remember Remember the Fifth of November

On November 5, 1605 Guy Fawkes was arrested for treason. The plot was discovered after an anonymous letter was left at the home of one Lord Monteagle (left apparently as a favor to some mutual acquaintances) warning him not to set foot in Parliament that day. It is quite the sordid little tale which I am not going to recount completely (there is a pretty good/short biography here). Long story short: houses were searched, Guy Fawkes alias John Johnson was discovered with some suspicious materials in his possession (Fawkes was posing as a servant under the alias John Johnson so that he could keep an eye of the gunpowder in its hiding place and later set it off). The letter had suggested that Parliament would receive a "terrible blow, yet they shall not see who hurt them". Some quick thinking (and some other stuff happened before, during, and after) and Bam! mental leap to someone is going to blow up the Parliament building with gunpowder. Since the authorities had not liked the cut of Fawkes/Johnson's jib and they hadn't found any WMDs the first time, they searched again and this time found Fawkes with the gunpowder (also, once again, some other stuff happened). Guy Fawkes was captured and tried as a traitor with his co-conspirators and found guilty for plotting against the government. After the trial he was sent to the Tower of London to await his punishment where he was subsequently tortured and starved. When it came time for the execution Fawkes was so weak from disease, etc. that he could barely make it to the gallows. Oh yeah, not only was he found guilty, he was found so guilty that he was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered! The most horrific form of execution ever practiced in Britain (well "officially" anyway). That's uber-guilty! Pretty stiff price for a guy who didn't actually end up doing anything, on the other hand what have we seen happen to suspected "terrorists" today who really haven't even been thinking about doing anything (*cough* Bush *cough*) so maybe we haven't gotten any better. At least Fawkes was caught red handed and would have destroyed the Parliament buildings and everyone in them if he hadn't been. The papers say that his death was met with thunderous applause from the assembled unwashed masses but who knows if that's true (I hear they liked a good hanging back in they day). The following year (in 1606 for those who haven't been paying attention) it became an annual tradition/yearly custom for the King and Parliament to commission a sermon to commemorate the event, these became known as "Gunpowder Plot Sermons". This, along with the famous poem, are meant to warn people of what happens to traitors and that treason would never be forgotten. In addition, Guy Fawkes Day is commemorated with fireworks (how ironic) and bonfires culminating with the burning of effigies of Guy Fawkes. I must admit that I knew very little about Guy Fawkes (and confess to still knowing very little) and his historical context or any of the various other anthropological bric-a-brac that I should know if I really want to speak intelligently about the subject. However, I do know that without any real info, the story and poem very easily took on a revolutionary and even positive and inspiring connotation (in my mind anyway) and was not the cautionary tale to strike fear in the hearts of traitors and patriotism in the hearts of...well...patriots everywhere that it was originally intended to be. Probably because Guy Fawkes has been repeatedly romanticized in various formats from books to paintings (for me it was primarily from "V for Vendetta", I know it's not as intellectual as 18th century woodcuts or something but hey, at least it's not The Simpsons). Makes you think about the duality of such symbols, one person's cautionary example is another person's Robin Hood, as well as how stories change through time. I for one had the Robin Hood version of Fawkes in my head but you know what? Fawkes was obviously a loony (he was going to blow a bunch of people up remember and he said he would have blown himself up too if he had too, that's just crazy talk I don't care how much you romanticize it) and he was xenophobic (some people say he wasn't really a political activist he was just racist, reportedly he told King John he was planning to blow all the Scots back to Scotland) and also he was in league with the Catholic Church (yeah I know not everyone thinks that's bad) on the plot. But see, all that doesn't matter if you're in the right mindset. The "Damn the Man" and all that mindset. It reminds us that a symbol will end up being what you need it to be regardless of what the "truth" was (if there even is such a thing). I wonder what I (or you) would have thought of that poem if I (or you) just read it without any preconceived notions? Bah! Scratch that! That's impossible and it probably wouldn't make any sense anyway, such is culture I suppose.

p.s. View an old newspaper article from the time here and there is a transcript of the trial here. Also, it turns out there is a Center for Fawkesian Pursuits with a bunch of pictures, Fawkes is definitely portrayed differently in earlier vs. later depictions.