by Ann Williams
The Assassins had a system of terrorists as well as secret agents who were positioned in enemy camps and cities. They worked closely with leaders of the Muslim states, and they gained a reputation as a reliable source to kill important persons in enemy states. One of the most important of the Muslim allies was the Seljuq ruler of Aleppo, Ridwan. It was with his help that the Assassins were able to set themselves up in the Syrian mountains, where several fortresses were erected. Here they managed to form their own state, and it is said that their influence over Aleppo and his people was immense, and that effectively they ruled the politics and economy of his state for a couple of decades.
The members of the Assassins were organized into classes according to their intelligence, courage and trustworthiness. The highest position held was the Grand Master, and below him were the Grand Priors, each in charge of a particular district. After these came the ordinary propagandists, and at the lowest level of order came the fida’is, who would readily kill at the order of the Grand Master. They underwent both intense physical and educational training. The devoted followers sought martyrdom and followed orders with unquestioned devotion, orders which often included assassination. In fact they became so skilled in the use of the dagger that it is said that they almost made assassination an ‘art’.
Out on a mission, the Assassins generally worked alone, and it would be very rare to see more than two working as a team. They usually dressed up as tradesmen or ascetic religious men and spent much of their time in a city in an effort to get well acquainted with the area, as well as the daily routines of their future victim. The actual murder was always performed with a dagger and in full public view, and they often chose to carry out the assassination inside a mosque on a Friday when it was full of worshippers. By doing it this way, the information about the assassination was soon widespread, which increased the fear of the people, and the Assassins’ inherent power over them. Because they chose to carry out the act in public, it was normal for the Assassin himself to be killed immediately after the murder by guards of their victim.
Information regarding this secretive group of assassins is quite limited because all Assassin books and records were destroyed when the fortress was eventually seized in 1256. It is known, however, that the Assassins mainly targeted Sunni Muslims and in the year 1092 the Muslim world was plunged into terror with the assassination of an illustrious sultan by the name of Nizam-al-Mulk.
Saladin, a great Muslim leader, whose real name was Salah al-Din Yusuf, considered himself as a title-holder of the Sunni orthodoxy, and on two occasions in the mid-1170s the Assassins attempted to take his life. The first attempt took place while Saladin was besieging Aleppo, and a number of Assassins penetrated the camp of Ayyubid on a cold wintry day. However, their plan was foiled when the emir of Abu Qubasis recognized some of the men from the sect. Feeling suspicious about their presence on his land, Qubasis approached the men, but they killed him before he had time to question their activities. The Assassins continued in the quest to reach Saladin, but the alarm had already been raised, and although members of his entourage were slain, Saladin managed to escape unharmed.
A second attempt was made on his life during the siege of the town of Azaz. Several of the Assassins disguised themselves as members of Saladin’s army and even distinguished themselves in several military operations. Saladin decided to reward some of his soldiers for bravery and arranged an inspection of his artillerymen. As he walked among his men, an Assassin sprang from the ranks and struck Saladin with a dagger, but the blow only glanced off his steel helmet. Saladin managed to throw his attacker to the ground, where he was cut to pieces by his loyal men. A second, third and fourth Assassin came forward in an attempt to kill their target, but these two were overcome by Saladin’s men, although several of his emirs were killed in the struggle. After these attempts Saladin decided to increase his security arrangements and started to sleep in a wooden tower that could only be reached by a rope ladder, which was pulled up by the occupant, making him a much more difficult target.
Incensed by these unsuccessful attempts made on his life, Saladin decided to attack the Assassin stronghold of Masyaf. However, after several mysterious warnings from the Grand Master himself, Saladin lifted the siege and attempted to maintain good relations with the sect. Legend has it that the sect’s leader, referred to as the ‘Old Man’, actually stole into Saladin’s tent, leaving a poisoned cake and a note on his chest as he slept, with the message ‘You are in our power’. Another account is that a letter was sent to Saladin’s maternal uncle, swearing that the entire royal line would be wiped out. Maybe these were just idle threats, but whatever the truth is behind these mysterious threats, Saladin certainly heeded these warnings and took no further action.
It appears that Christians were largely untouched by the Assassins, and it was not until the middle of the 12th century that they had even heard of the strange sect. However, Raymond II of Tripoli and Conrad of Montferrat, King of Jerusalem, were both victims of their attacks. It is thought that the assassins of Conrad could possibly have been hired by Richard the Lionheart.
Conrad was attacked by two Hashshashin, who, dressed as monks, stabbed him in the side and back when he was returning home after visiting his friend, Philip, Bishop of Beauvais. Apparently they had waited six months for an opportune moment to carry out the assassination. He was taken home by his guards, who managed to kill one of his attackers and capture the other. Conrad received the last rites before dying of his wounds and on his deathbed, he urged his wife Isabella to give the city over to Richard the Lionheart, although this story has been disputed. According to Saladin’s envoy the two Assassins confessed under torture that Richard was the instigator, and this was widely believed among the Franks, especially when Richard’s friend Count Henry of Champagne married Conrad’s widow and succeeded to the throne. This information is of course impossible to prove as fact. If, however, Saladin was responsible he did not live to profit from his action because he died the following year, in March.
The Assassins made a firm footing in Syria, and watched the consolidation of the fragmented states and the old Fatimid Empire of Cairo into a single state with great apprehension. They preferred that the Arab states of Syria remain fragmented so that they could play their potential enemies off one another, ensuring that their own power remain on a similar level to that of their rivals.
Following the capture of Masyad in 1260 by the Mongols, the Mamluk Sultan Baybars in 1272 dealt the Syrian branch of the Assassins a final blow. Following that attack, the Assassins were estimated to be around 150,000 in number, but they were sparsely scattered through Syria, Persia, Zanzibar and India and went by the name of Thojas or Mowlas.
THE MODERN EQUIVALENT
There have been comparisons made between the historical Assassin movement and al-Qaeda, possibly because the similarity between their tactics of using terror and political assassinations, and also their promise of reaching ‘paradise’ following their mission. Al-Qaeda, like the Assassins, is a truly secretive society whose leaders are purportedly hiding in mountain hideouts, with martyrdom as one of their key tactics. However, the Assassins, unlike al- Qaeda, were not known to target innocent civilians.
Part Two: 1600–1899
The Gunpowder Plot
Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot . . .
More than 400 years after the event the Gunpowder Plot and Guy Fawkes are still remembered. The nursery rhyme above continues to remind us why on the night of November 5 bonfires are lit in almost every town and village in Britain, accompanied by a spectacular display of fireworks. But how many people really know why we follow this ritual and burn an effigy, or ‘guy’, on this day each year.
In truth the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was nothing short of a desperate, but failed, attempt by a group of English Catholics to kill James I of England
, his family, and as many of the Protestant aristocracy as they could in one attack. This attack was aimed at the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening, at which they hoped to create the most carnage.
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, Catholics in England, who had been persecuted under her rule, had hoped that James I, her successor, would be more tolerant of their beliefs. But much to their horror, James I proved no more tolerant than the previous Queen, and so it was that a band of men, 13 in total, decided that violence was the only answer to make their cause heard.
THE CONSPIRATORS
Under the leadership of a man named Robert Catesby, a small group banded together. Among his fellow conspirators were:
Guido (Guy) Fawkes
Thomas Wintour
Thomas Percy
Thomas Bates
Christopher Wright
Robert Wintour
John Grant
John Wright
Robert Keyes
Ambrose Rookwood
Sir Everard Digby
Francis Tresham
In May 1604, Thomas Percy rented a house that was adjacent to the House of Lords. Their plan was to dig a tunnel underneath the foundations of the House of Lords and plant some gunpowder. Guido Fawkes, or Guy as he has become better known, was an explosives expert with considerable military experience. He had been introduced to Robert Catesby by a man named Hugh Owen. Although their plans to blow up the Houses of Parliament were known by a Jesuit priest, Father Henry Garnet – as he had learned of the plot through confession – he felt bound not to reveal their activities to the authorities. Despite his pleadings and protestations, the plot went ahead, but Garnet’s opposition to the plan still did not prevent him from later being hanged, drawn and quartered for treason.
For a while the group of men laboured away digging a tunnel to come out underneath the Houses of Parliament. However, the men were not used to such physical exercise and their progress was exceptionally slow. During the summer of 1604 London was hit by a particularly severe bout of the plague, and as a result the Opening of Parliament was suspended until 1605. By Christmas Eve the men had still not dug their tunnel anywhere near to the Houses of Parliament, and when they learned that the Opening had been still further postponed to October 3, the plotters decided to take advantage of the time and row the barrels of gunpowder up the River Thames from Lambeth and conceal it in their rented house. It was then that they heard by pure chance, that there was an empty coal cellar coming up for lease in a prime location.
Abandoning their original plan, in March 1605, Thomas Percy, using connections he had in the Royal Court, was able to rent the cellar, which turned out to be directly under the House of Lords. Fawkes, posing as Percy’s servant under the pseudonym ‘John Johnson’, filled the underground storeroom with 36 barrels of gunpowder. He secreted them underneath a pile of coal and wooden sticks that had been stored there for use as fuel when the weather turned cold. The barrels themselves contained more than 800 kg (1,800 lbs) of gunpowder and, had everything gone to plan, not only would it have destroyed the entire Houses of Parliament, but it would have blown out windows in the surrounding area within a 1km (1/2 mile) radius.
Everything was in place, and all the conspirators had to do now was to sit and wait. They decided it would be safer to split up as it would only cause suspicion if they were regularly seen together. So they left London in May and went to their various houses, or to different parts of the country to bide their time. The plan was to all meet up again in September, but once again they learned that the Opening of Parliament was to be postponed further.
Possibly the group of men had made their plans too early, or perhaps it was because of the many delays, but it would appear that their eventual downfall would be one of their own men Francis Tresham, who spilled the beans.
Just ten days before the Opening of Parliament, Lord Monteagle received a letter that read:
My lord, out of the love I bear for some of your friends, I have a care for your preservation. Therefore I would advise you, as you tender your life, to devise some excuse to shift of your attendance of this Parliament, for God and man hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this time. And think not slightly of this advertisement but retire yourself into your country, where you may expect the event in safety, for though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow, the Parliament, and yet they shall not see who hurts them . . . This counsel is not to be contemned, because it may do you good and can do you know harm, for the danger is past as soon as you have burnt the latter: and I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you.
Although the writer of this letter has never been identified for certain, Francis Tresham was Lord Monteagle’s brother-in-law and was most likely to have been the perpetrator.
Concerned about the contents of the letter Lord Monteagle showed it to Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury and Secretary of State. Thinking at first that it was just a hoax, the Privy Council were slow to have the vaults under the House of Lords searched. Therefore, it wasn’t until the evening of November 4 that the cellar was searched, firstly by the Earl of Suffolk and then, later the same evening, by Sir Thomas Knyvett. Keeping his composure until the end, Guy Fawkes casually let the officials into Percy’s rented cellar. Still posing as Mr John Johnson, Fawkes was searched and found to be carrying a watch, slow matches and touchpaper. It didn’t take long for them to uncover the gunpowder barrels, and Guy Fawkes was taken into custody. Far from denying his intentions, Fawkes stated quite proudly that their sole purpose had been to destroy the King and his Parliament.
Fawkes was taken into the bed chamber of the King, who assembled all his ministers even though it was one o’clock in the morning. During his interrogation, Fawkes never once tried to make a secret of his intentions, and he maintained an attitude of defiance throughout. Later the same morning Fawkes was summoned again and questioned about his accomplices, in particular the involvement of Thomas Percy. When he wasn’t forthcoming, Fawkes was taken to the Tower of London and interrogated further with the use of torture. At this time the use of torture was forbidden unless under direct instructions from the monarch or the Privy Council. In a letter dated November 6, King James I stated:
The gentler tortours are to be first used unto him, et sic per gradus ad maiora tenditur [and thus by increase to the worst], and so God speed your goode worke.
Fawkes was strong to the end and resisted giving any information until he eventually succumbed to the torture on November 8 by giving the names of his fellow conspirators. He made a full statement about their plot on November 9, and on November 10 he gave a signed confession, although his signature was barely legible due to his terrible state following his sessions on the torture rack.
As soon as Robert Catesby and Thomas Wintour learned that their plans had been foiled, they fled to Warwickshire to meet up with the remainder of the party. Failing to rally any support for their Catholic cause, they only managed to stay in hiding for a few days in the houses of friends and sympathizers. On the third day they were captured in a bloody raid on Holbeche House in Staffordshire. Catesby, Percy and the two Wright brothers were both killed, while Thomas Wintour and Ambrose Rokewood, who had both been wounded in the raid, were taken away to London to be questioned. The remainder were captured a few days later, although Robert Wintour managed to stay at large for about two months, before being captured at Hagley Park.
The conspirators were tried on January 27, 1606, in Westminster Hall. All of the men pleaded not guilty with the exception of Everard Digby, who attempted to defend himself by saying that it was because the King had gone back on a promise regarding Catholic tolerance. The trial only lasted one day and the verdict was never in doubt – guilty as charged. The trial was very popular as a public spectacle and there are records that people paid as much as 10 shillings to attend. Four of the conspirators were executed in St Paul’s Churchyard on
January 30 and the following day Fawkes, Winter and a number of others who had been implicated in the plot were taken to the Old Palace Yard in Westminster, where they were hanged, drawn and quartered. Francis Tresham the only one of the original 13 left alive, died while still a prisoner in the Tower of London.
IMPACT OF THE PLOT
For the Catholics living in England the Gunpowder Plot truly backfired, as it halted any moves towards Emancipation of the Catholics. It would be another 200 years before the Catholics would receive equal rights.
Of course most people remember Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot by celebrations that take place on November 5, or Bonfire Night as it has now become known. An Act of Parliament was passed to appoint that date in each year as a day of thanksgiving for ‘the joyful day of deliverance’, and this Act remained in force until 1859. Legend says that on November 5, 1605, the people of London celebrated the defeat of the plot by lighting fires and holding street parties. It is still a custom in Britain to let off fireworks and burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes on November 5, and in certain areas, for example Lewes and Battle in East Sussex, there are extensive processions to accompany an enormous bonfire.
The Houses of Parliament are still searched today by the Yeoman of the Guard before any Opening of Parliment, which since 1928 has been held in the month of November. However, this is upheld today due to a rather quaint custom rather than to stop any serious antiterrorist precaution.