Why Did the Gunpowder Plot Fail?

A.Z. Birule
Nov 5 · 3 min read
Multiple fireworks go off in front of a forest in the dark.
Multiple fireworks go off in front of a forest in the dark.
Photo by Zuza Gałczyńska on Unsplash

It’s the 5th of November, and there are way too many fireworks outside. You’re either skipping around a bonfire with your friends, probably singing way too loudly, or sitting inside grumpily trying to soothe your dog.

Then comes the age old question: why do we even celebrate the 5th of November?

And, of course, the story of Guy Fawkes is well-known already — catholic dude didn’t like the protestant king and wanted him dead, but failed and got caught red-handed.

But why did he fail?

The actual answer is a story that will make you face-palm and think, ‘I could have done way better than that.’

The Gunpowder Plot was stopped because of an anonymous letter sent to a member of parliament. In reality, we don’t 100% know who sent the letters — but historians pretty confidently place bets on Francis Tresham because the guy was Not Subtle At All.

So who was Francis Tresham anyway?

Francis Tresham was a catholic who hated King James just as much as the plotters did, which is what made them approach him in the first place. Additionally, they believed he would fund their plot because his father had just died and passed on a large sum of money — their “sugar daddy”, if you will (and please do).

However, they had their doubts about Tresham — Tresham wasn’t as extreme as Guy Fawkes or Robert Catesby, so when he heard the plan would kill both protestants and catholics he wanted nothing to do with it. What an unreasonable guy, right?

He even went as far as to try and persuade the other plotters to give it up, but didn’t succeed. They were so suspicious of him that Catesby actually interrogated him at knife-point but — surprise surprise — it didn’t go anywhere.

Seemingly faced with no decision, Tresham eventually decided to write to his brother-in-law, Baron Monteagle, about not going to parliament on the 5th of November. He tried to be real sly about it, not even signing who it was, but historians agree it was pretty obviously him due to factors you can Google yourself, and it wasn’t long before Monteagle reported it to the king and nope’d out of there real quick.

When Fawkes and his accomplices were arrested, Tresham tried to squirrel his way out and offered to “help out” the officers, but was soon charged with treason and heresy.

A large, orange bonfire reaches the top of the image before a black sky. At the bottom, heads on onlookers is cut off.
A large, orange bonfire reaches the top of the image before a black sky. At the bottom, heads on onlookers is cut off.
Photo by Charlie Ellis on Unsplash

In summary, the whole plot — which took a lot of effort to plan out, and something both Fawkes and Catesby were quite proud of — could have gone through if Tresham had just kept his mouth shut. His intention was only to warn his brother-in-law away, but apparently the guy wasn’t subtle in the slightest and gave himself away very obviously.

Moral of the story: if you’re ever conspiring a murder of a king, don’t tell other people about it!

A.Z. Birule

Written by

Massive history nerd and serial hater of pandas (fight me). I have a background as a writer so hopefully my articles will be decent, but if not then tough.

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