The Gunpowder Plot
In 1603 the great Queen Elizabeth died without any children and the Tudor dynasty came to an end. Her successor was James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Stuart.
Now, he was also James I the first Stuart king of England.
For the first time, Scotland, England, the same monarch ruled all Ireland and Wales.
The English were excited about their new king, but James soon made himself unpopular by surrounding himself with Scottish courtiers, and tactlessly ignoring English customs.
To make matters worse, James was a fierce defender of the Divine Right of Kings. This was the idea of a king’s power came from God, and nobody could question his decisions.
His ideas offended members of Parliament, who wanted more power in government.
James loved to lecture his subJects. He called himself the “great schoolmaster of the whole land” – and he hoped to convert everyone to his Protestant beliefs.
This upset some Catholics, who were disappointed that the son of Mary Stuart would not let them worship in peace.
It wasn’t long before a number of Catholics began plotting against the king.
One group came up with a particularly daring plan: to use gunpowder to blow up the Houses of Parliament, with James I
inside.
But one of the conspirators warned a fellow Catholic, Lord Monteagle to stay away from Parliament.
Monteagle told the authorities at once.
At midnight on the 5th November 1605, soldiers searched the cellars beneath the Houses of Parliament, and found Guido, or Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators, with barrels of gunpowder.
The plotters were rounded and hanged.
The plotters were rounded and hanged.
The date went down In British history and is now celebrated every year with fireworks.
Meanwhile, Parliament was getting more and more frustrated with the King, who loved to show off his royal power and fritter away money on his friends.
This was especially offensive to a group of extreme Protestants known as Puritans, who thought that people should work hard and live a simple life. James’s quarrels with Parliament grew more and more serious, and when his son, Charles became King in 1625, the situation reached crisis point.
