The Real Guy Fawkes

by Nick Holland

  Even with Keyes’ assistance, the task seemed almost insurmountable. The wall was made of stone around ten feet thick7 and difficult to breach. Moreover the conditions in which the men worked were becoming increasingly difficult as the proximity of the Thames led to water flooding the tunnel periodically, which then had to be emptied by barrels passed from man to man in a chain.8

  Guy made it clear to Catesby that further help was needed if they were to progress, and so Catesby made an obvious choice for the seventh man to join the conspiracy: Jack’s brother, friend of Catesby, brother-in-law of Percy, and school friend of Guy Fawkes, Kit Wright.9 Tall and strong, Kit was noted for his piety and for having a ruddy tan,10 perhaps a legacy of his time spent alongside Guy under the blazing sun of Valladolid.

  It is probable that another of the thirteen conspirators was enlisted as a miner too: Thomas Bates. Bates was of lowly birth, even compared to Guy Fawkes and Robert Keyes who were from less exalted backgrounds than the others, but for many years he had proved a loyal servant to Robert Catesby at Ashby St. Ledgers. Bates was no menial, however, but more of a trusted right-hand man of Catesby, with his own lodgings, his own suit of armour, and his own servant. Catesby knew that Bates would die for him if asked to, and so he too seemed an obvious addition to the group. Bates’s loyalty to his master never wavered, and in choosing to follow Catesby he would leave behind a widow and children. Although Bates was a committed Catholic he was not as militant as many of the others in his beliefs, and Father Gerard states that just before his death Bates claimed that it was ‘only for his love to his master that he was drawn to forget his duty to God, his King, and country’.11

  Bates was also valuable to the plot because he would not look out of place doing menial tasks, making him perfect to drive deliveries of armaments around the country.

  There were two further important considerations: money and horses. It was these that led to a meeting at the Catherine Wheel Inn12 in Oxford in early 1605. The Catherine Wheel Inn was one of the network of inns throughout the country known for its Catholic sympathies. In May 1589, two Jesuit priests, Richard Yaxley and George Nichols, had been saying mass in the inn. That night they were arrested along with two laymen, Thomas Belson and Humphrey Prichard who was a barman at the inn. All four were tortured and then hung, drawn and quartered.13

  Sixteen years later, the four people gathered in a room at the inn were Robert Catesby and Thomas Wintour and the men they had summoned, John Grant and Tom’s brother Robert. Robert Wintour was reticent at first, saying that it seemed impossible for the plan to succeed without either ‘foreign aid or some great men at home to join therein’.14 Catesby’s counter-argument was that there was no hope of foreign aid, and no great men that he would trust. Catesby’s natural powers of persuasion, and the desire not to lose face in front of his brother, saw Robert Wintour take the oath and join the plot.

  John Grant was easier to convince. A wealthy landowner, and importantly for the plot’s chances of success the owner of a stable of horses, he was known not only for his devotion but for the ferocity with which he met the searches that all Catholic landowners had to put up with. Most of the Catholic gentry had grudgingly learnt to accept regular raids on their property that would inevitably leave them lighter in goods and money. John Grant however was known for meeting them head on:

  His [Grant’s] courage was inferior to none in that company. This he had demonstrated often in facing up to the King’s pursuivants when they came to search his house, a process which brought with it the danger of losing not only everything else he possessed but even life itself, thanks to the violence and insulting behaviour which those kind of people commonly use. On a number of occasions, he sent them packing after the kind of reception which made sure they did not trouble him again thanks to the experience they already had of him.15

  Such was the reputation Grant had gained that he was seldom raided, and when the pursuivants, as the search parties were known, did arrive they came in large numbers and in fear of being thrown into the moat surrounding his home at Norbrook House in Warwickshire. This location was crucial to the plotters, as it was near Coombe Abbey where Princess Elizabeth lived, and its reputation and natural protections also made it an ideal place to store firearms and other weapons for the Midland uprising that Catesby had planned.

  Once again there were family ties linking John Grant to others involved in the plot, for he was the brother-in-law of two of the men sitting with him at the Catherine Wheel Inn, having married Dorothy Wintour in 1602.16 Marriage played an important role in Robert Wintour’s reception into the plot too, for his union had made him far richer than the likes of Catesby could ever dream of.

  Robert Wintour married Gertrude Talbot, daughter of John Talbot of Grafton. John Talbot was heir to the Earldom of Shrewsbury, but was one of the wealthiest landowners of England in his own right. Talbot was seen as a leader of England’s Catholics, and he would spend over twenty years in prison for his beliefs. The marriage brought him further riches, but Robert Wintour was a wealthy man before his wedding. As the eldest son of George Wintour he inherited Huddington Court in Worcestershire along with the family’s salt making business, a very lucrative enterprise.17

  Catesby’s plot was taking shape: he had men under Guy Fawkes’ command digging the tunnel, he had amassed a supply of gunpowder ready for the opening of Parliament in October, he had a man in the Midlands who could ready horses and take charge of the abduction of Lady Elizabeth, and another who could help bankroll the operation in Robert Wintour.

  In Guy’s tunnel, however, a sudden omen of bad fortune shook their confidence. One day a ringing noise was heard, seemingly out of nowhere. After consulting with each other, the men gained a supply of holy water (probably from Father Tesimond who was constantly in touch with Catesby) and sprinkled it on the wall. The ringing returned, louder and stronger, and so the tunnellers resorted to covering a whole section of wall with holy water before they would proceed.18 The sound of bells continued for several days, and must have been greatly disconcerting to the men in the mine. It was certainly a sign from Heaven, they would have conjectured, but was it a sign of God’s favour or displeasure?

  Not long after this disquieting incident, the ever wary Guy heard another faint noise coming from above. Holding out his hand to silence the digging operation, Guy could clearly discern a sweeping or dragging noise. The only thing to do was to investigate where the noise was coming from and what was causing it – after all it could have been government spies who were aware of their presence or it could be a structural problem that would render their tunnel unstable.

  Guy took charge of proceedings, as he’d done as an officer on the killing beaches at Nieuwpoort, and volunteered to make the investigation himself. Back above ground, he calculated where the noise must have been coming from and upon entering found a group of grime-faced porters removing heavy sacks of coal. It was these bags dragging upon the ground that had caused the faint sweeping noises in the tunnel directly below. But, taking a look around his blackened surroundings, Guy realised that they represented a wonderful opportunity.

  After consulting with the porters, Guy was conveyed to the owner of the cellar, Ellen Bright. She was the widow of a coal merchant, and leased the cellar from a Mr Skinner.20 Guy introduced himself as John Johnson, servant to the Gentleman Pensioner Thomas Percy, and asked why the stocks of coal were being removed? Mrs Bright explained that she was selling all of her coal, and vacating the cellar. We can conjecture that this was due to a change of circumstances brought on by the death of her husband, or that she simply had no desire to run the business on her own and wanted the money for her retirement, but whatever the reason, it was the answer Guy had been hoping for. Taking leave of the widow, Guy promised to return to speak to her again after talking to his master.

  All eyes were on Guy at his reappearance in the tunnel: would they be able to continue as before or was he bringing news that would halt their enterprise? Wearing his customar
y calm exterior, Guy called for Catesby and Thomas Wintour to join him before explaining what he had discovered. The cellar above them had previously been used as a kitchen area for the House of Lords, and was directly underneath the Parliament chamber. If they could take hold of the cellar, there would be no need for this tunnel beneath it, as they would have the perfect ready-made repository for their gunpowder.20

  Thomas Percy was sent to negotiate the purchase, and Guy went with him21 having presumably gained a rapport with Mrs Bright on their first conversation. The widow needed little persuading; the deeds were signed on 25 March 160522 and the destruction of King and Parliament moved a step closer.

  The mining operation ceased immediately, to be replaced by night-time journeys between their old property and the new one. Once all the barrels of gunpowder had been placed into their cellar, Guy, and the plotters he engaged on the task, proceeded to cover the barrels with wood they had gathered for the purpose. Thomas Wintour stated in his confession that they used one thousand billets and five hundred faggots23 – another indication of just how much gunpowder they had (as we shall see, Guy added more barrels of gunpowder later).

  With the gunpowder now covered, they next brought in items of furniture, and mattresses, along with everyday objects such as cutlery. This provided a level of comfort should Guy or Percy have to spend time there, but it was done primarily to hide the true purpose of the cellar from anyone who should enter it.24 They also stocked it with a year’s supply of wine and cider.25 While the room they rented is commonly referred to as a cellar, and I will refer to it as such simply because it was underneath the Parliament chamber of the House of Lords, it was not subterranean but a large ground-level property. It joined onto the ‘Painted Chamber’ at the north end of the parliament buildings and onto the ‘Prince’s Chamber’ at the south26.

  The gunpowder was now in place, and all the men had to do was wait for Parliament to be opened. On that glorious day, Guy Fawkes, Catesby, and their companions would be ready.

  Chapter 17

  God’s Lunatics

  For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground

  And tell sad stories of the death of kings;

  How some have been deposed; some slain in war,

  Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;

  Some poison’d by their wives: some sleeping kill’d;

  All murder’d: for within the hollow crown

  That rounds the mortal temples of a king

  Keeps Death his court.

  William Shakespeare, Richard II

  By good fortune Guy and his fellow conspirators had managed to place a vast supply of gunpowder directly underneath the House of Lords, but while the destruction of the House of Lords, and all within it, now looked within their grasp, there was more work to be done if their ultimate aim of returning England to Catholicism was to succeed.

  During their conversations about the plot, the men had discussed what would happen in the aftermath of the explosion. They foresaw England being plunged into a chaos of confusion, and those who remained calm would have the upper hand. They would need a strong force with which to counter any anti-Catholic uprising that should occur, and this necessitated a journey overseas to try to rally troops and assistance. It was Guy Fawkes who was chosen for this important and sensitive task.1

  One reason for Guy’s journey to Flanders, and beyond, in the late spring of 1605 is that he was seeking expert advice on the building of fortifications in advance of an anticipated outbreak of unrest after the explosion. Once the gunpowder was in place in their new cellar, Catesby had sent Guy to reconnoitre potential sites for the building of such fortifications, along with ‘two or three others’,2 but when Guy reported back, Catesby suggested to him that they should seek expert advice from people with long experience in this field. By this, he meant William Stanley and Hugh Owen. This was the other reason for Guy’s journey.

  One of Guy’s most useful qualities, as far as Catesby was concerned, was that he still had links to the English Regiment in Flanders. While Catesby had given up hope of aid from Spain or France in the event of their uprising, he still felt it possible that the English Catholic exiles abroad could be persuaded to return and support their endeavours, and Guy’s reputation within the English Regiment made him the perfect man to advance this cause.

  Father Tesimond, in his narrative written in the years after the gunpowder plot, stated that Guy ‘would be able to find out if it were possible, and by what means, to get a substantial quantity of gunpowder from those countries. This would be needed for the war which would probably break out as a result of the confusion and change of regime’.3

  While gunpowder was still available via their old channel of the Evelyn family, Catesby had already spent a huge amount on the plot, and with a greater part of the expenditure still to come he was hoping to persuade William Stanley and the like to supply gunpowder, and guns along with it, for free. This was an important and sensitive task, and the fact that Guy was chosen for it says much for his character and intelligence as did his selection for the diplomatic mission that became known as ‘The Spanish Treason’.

  Guy Fawkes had a more senior role within the gunpowder conspiracy than he is often credited with. While Catesby was the founder and leader of the plot, and Thomas Wintour his trusted deputy, Guy seems to have been the next in command. He is entrusted with a succession of vital roles within the plot, and is also privy to information known only by Catesby and Thomas Wintour in addition to himself. Father Tesimond gives evidence of this when he refers to the induction of Sir Everard Digby into the plot: ‘As far as I am able to find out, Sir Everard knew nothing of this plot until a month before it was due to be put into execution. The other plotters knew nothing about him, apart from the two mentioned above [Catesby and Wintour] and Mr Guy’.4

  In his initial examination, Guy (then still posing as John Johnson) admitted leaving London around Easter, travelling to Dover, and sailing from there to Calais,5 although he could not remember which boat he had sailed on, doubtless to protect the skipper of the boat from a future interrogation. After arriving in France, Guy made his way to the English seminary at Saint-Omer, founded by Father Persons eleven years earlier.6 This may seem a strange move by Guy, delaying as it did his meeting with Owen and Stanley in Belgium, but doubtless Guy was hoping to recruit some people to their cause from the seminary.

  Seminaries such as Saint-Omer were not only full of English Catholics training to be priests, they also contained English exiles of a more militant nature, and his visit to Saint-Omer, and later to the seminary at Douai, was a recruitment drive as much as a spiritual visit. Guy, acting on the instructions of Catesby, may even have had someone specific that he was seeking out, as Tesimond coyly notes: ‘They commissioned Mr Guy with other particular negotiations, but I will say no more about them, either because they are uncertain, or else they could touch the reputation of English gentlemen still living in these parts’.7

  It could be that Tesimond was here referring to William Stanley, for when Guy did finally talk to him he found Stanley less accommodating than he had expected. The reason, one that was kept from Guy and that he and the other conspirators would have found almost unbelievable, was that Stanley was contemplating abandoning his cause and petitioning Sir Robert Cecil for a pardon and permission to return to England.8 William Stanley was never to gain this pardon, and died in Belgium in 1630 aged 80.9

  It may be that Stanley’s hopes of a return to England were not that he was seeking a peaceful old age in the country of his birth, however, but rather that he intended agitating against the King and his councillors from England instead of from overseas. When Guy arrived in Belgium after Easter 1605 he was greeted warmly by Hugh Owen, but informed that Stanley was away at the Spanish court again. This may have been on official duty, as William Stanley had been appointed Governor of Mechelen by the Spanish in 1600,10 or he could even now have been trying to persuade the Spanish authorities to turn against the peace ag
reement with England.

  With Stanley missing, Guy made his way to the camp of Ambrogio Spinola in Ostend. Spinola was born into an aristocratic family in Genoa, but had now become a general of the Spanish army in Flanders.11 Once again Guy had found an ideal place to talk to potential recruits who could be used if war broke out in England as a result of the plot. Among the men Guy met in Ostend was Captain William Turner,12 who had served as a soldier in Ireland; this was just the kind of man Guy and Catesby needed, and Guy passed on some, but not all, of the details of their planned action.

  By July, word reached Guy that William Stanley had returned to Brussels, and Guy met him there in company with Hugh Owen and the Jesuit priests Fathers Baldwin and Tesimond.13 As Owen had expected, Stanley was unwilling to commit any direct support for the English plan, although he may have agreed to provide some measure of financial or practical support in the form of gunpowder. The subject of fortifications would have been discussed at this meeting as well, and it is likely that there were subsequent meetings between the men as Guy spent a further month in their company.

  It was dangerous for Stanley, Owen and Baldwin to spend so long in Brussels, but, unbeknownst to them all, the damage had already been done. Captain William Turner was a double agent working for Robert Cecil, and following his conversation with Guy, and further conversations with Hugh Owen, he sent a damning report to Sir Thomas Edmondes, the English ambassador in Brussels and a conduit to Sir Robert Cecil.

  In this letter, Captain Turner claimed that Hugh Owen had recruited him for a pending invasion of England. Around 300 English cavalrymen, with infantry support, would join forces with 1,500 Spanish troops at Dover before capturing the English fleet at Rochester and then spreading across the country. Turner said that he had been told to wait in Dover for the coming of Father Tesimond and Guy Fawkes who would then take him to meet a Robert Catesby. After this meeting, they would be taken to meet friends of the nobility who would have arms and horses in readiness.14