Guy Fawkes was born in York into a family of protestants. He became a
catholic at a young age, and served in the Spanish army between 1593
and 1604.
Robert Catesby became the leader of a catholic conspiracy in England,
which Fawkes joined on his return to England in 1604. The conspirators
main aim was to kill King James I and return the country to catholicism.
Catesby, hired a cellar beneath the Houses of Parliament and smuggled
36 barrels of gunpowder in. Guy Fawkes was to light the fuse on November
5th 1605 . The plot failed because one conspirator a Francis Tresham,
warned his brother-in-law the then Lord Monteagle that it might not be
safe to attend and Monteagle reported the matter to the government.
Fawkes was arrested on 4th November and subsequently hanged alongside
many of the other conspirators.
