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When King James VI of Scotland became the King of England (March 24, 1603), Catholics were hoping he would be more tolerant than his predecessor, Elizabeth I. Those hopes died on February 22, 1604, when James expelled all Jesuits and seminary priests. A few weeks later, on March 19, 1604, he made his opposition to Catholics clear in a speech before Parliament.
On May 20, 1604, Robert Catesby, devout Catholic and instigator of the plot, met with fellow conspirators Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright and Thomas Percy, and the plot was under way.Later on, Thomas Bates, Everard Digby, John Grant, Robert Keyes, Ambrose Rookwood, Francis Tresham, Robert Wintour and Kit Wright joined the conspiracy. Amazingly, they were able to rent cellars beneath the Houses of Parliament and started to accumulate firewood and barrels of gunpowder.
Treasham gave the game away when he sent a letter warning his brother, Lord Monteagle, not to be present in Parliament on November 5, 1605, the night of the planned explosion.
Monteagle, loyal to the monarch, showed the letter to Robert Cecil, the King’s Secretary of State. The authorities lay in wait and caught Guy Fawkes red-handed with fuses and matches.
Under torture, Guy Fawkes revealed the identity of his fellow plotters, several of whom were killed while attempting to flee. The remaining eight plotters were tried and found guilty on January 27, 1606. Bates, Digby, Grant and Robert Wintour were hanged, drawn and quartered on January 30, and Fawkes, Keyes, Rockwood and Thomas Wintour receieved the same punishment on January 31.
