Guy Fawkes belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The group planned to assassinate King James I and his government by blowing up the Parliament House with gunpowder and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there.

Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the drawing and quartering that followed.

Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, which has been commemorated in England since 5 November 1605. In England, November 5th has variously been called Guy Fawkes Night, Guy Fawkes Day and Bonfire Night; the latter can be traced directly back to the original celebration of 5 November 1605 when Londoners burned Fawkes’ effigy on a bonfire.

Celebrate Guy Fawkes Day this year on Friday, November 5 with Fireworks and a Bonfire!