Remember, Remember, the 5th of November

The Gunpowder Plot (word for word what my 11 year olds learned in class)

Who goes there, friend or foe?

"John Johnson," came the reply, but it was too late. The cloak of secrecy had been lifted.

The plot to blow up Protestant King James 1 at the opening of Parliament was all but dead. Guy Fawkes, the man responsible for igniting the powder kegs, was about to be arrested and the dream of England returning to its Catholic ways lay in tatters. The date? November 4th, 1605.

It took just three days of torture in the Tower of London for this strong and powerful man to be broken, three days for him to betray his oath of secrecy by revealing the names and whereabouts of his co-conspirators. The rack, after all, is an evil tool, stretching its prisoner until the arms and legs are pulled from their sockets.

On January 27th, 1606, the remaining eight plotters were put on trial for high treason. All were found guilty. All were sentenced to death.

Hung until almost dead, they were then cut from the gallows, disemboweled, beheaded and sliced into quarters. Even the four fleeing plotters, who had been shot at Holbeche House, were taken from their graves and had their severed heads sent to London to be impaled on spikes and displayed for all to see throughout the city.

Designed to show others who wished to harm the King that they would never succeed, this grisly sight must have burned in the minds of all who say it. And yet to ensure that the defeat of such a treacherous plot would never fade into the mists of time, shortly after the executions the government ruled that November the 5th should be 'a day of thanksgiving'.

Ever since, this day has been known as Bonfire Night, a time when crowds gather to burn effigies of Guy Fawkes all over Britain.

The gunpowder plot may have been thwarted but it will never be forgotten.

Remember, remember

The fifth of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason,

Why gunpowder treason, 

Should ever be forgot!