Ready for another UK history lesson?
Post Henry VIII and his little tiff with the Catholic
Church, the country was in severe upheaval – shifting between Protestantism and
Catholicism based on which King or Queen was in power at the time. In 1603, when Protestant Elizabeth I died
without children, her nephew, James was next in line to the throne. As James
was a Protestant, Parliament was also in favor of him becoming king. The Catholics
however were upset that there was going to be another Protestant monarch. They
also became very angry when James passed a law that imposed heavy fines on
people who did not attend Protestant church services.
In May of 1604,
Robert Catesby devised the Gunpowder Plot, a plan to kill James and as many
Members of Parliament as possible. It
was intended to be the beginning of a great uprising of English Catholics. Catesby
was jointed by Thomas Percy, Guy Fawkes along with about 10 other people. The conspirators
plan involved blowing up the Houses of Parliament on 5th November. This date
was chosen because the king was due to open Parliament on that day. At first
the group tried to tunnel under Parliament. This was then scrapped when Percy hired a
cellar under the House of Lords, in which 36 barrels of gunpowder, overlaid
with iron bars and firewood, were secretly stored. Fawkes, because of his munitions experience in
the Netherlands, was given the task of creating the explosion. The Plot was discovered when the cellars were
searched the night before the opening of Parliament. Fawkes was caught
red-handed and although his fellow conspirators fled, they were cornered and
either died resisting arrest or were captured and executed.
On the night that the Gunpowder Plot was foiled, on
November 5th, 1605, bonfires were set alight to celebrate the safety of the
King. Since then, November 5th has become known as Bonfire Night. The event
is commemorated every year with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes on
a bonfire.
Alright, history over.
On Friday night, our town had their annual bonfire celebrations.
We wondered why they couldn’t have tried to blow up Parliament
in the summer – many less layers would have been required!
About 3 months ago, the city put a notice in the local
newsletter asking for scrap wood donations.
Apparently someone had some extra pallets to get rid of...
They lit it around 6:30 – I wouldn’t be surprised if it
took until the next night to finish burning out. We got as close to it as we could to try to
take as much warmth as we could find. It
still wasn’t much. You kinda expect your
finger tips and toes to get cold. What I
didn’t see coming was for the soles of my feet to be numb even with two pairs
of socks and lined Wellies.
The evening concluded with a fireworks display. I do love things exploding in the air...
Happy Bonfire Day from the UK!
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