Original subtitles

(upbeat music)

- Westminster, the heart of London.

For a thousand years, it's been the centre of power.

It was here on a November morning 400 years ago

that a group of Catholic rebels planned

to blow up parliament, and change the country forever.

It would become one of the most famous events

in British history, forever known as the Gunpowder Plot.

(energetic music)

But how much do we really know

about the Gunpowder Plot and the men behind it?

In this programme, we'll uncover the incredible details

of this shocking event.

We'll count down the months, weeks, and days

as the Gunpowder plotters

planned their attack on Parliament.

And we'll reveal just how close they came to succeed.

(explosion)

The plotters have got 36 times

more than that. - Yes.

- In this episode, Guy Fawkes is caught red handed.

One of the guards threatened to draw his dagger,

but thought better of it.

He knew the king wanted the suspect alive.

We discover the brutal role the Tower of London played

in extracting his confession.

You are manacled in by your wrists and ankles

as you're stretched, almost pulled limb from limb.

And we follow the desperate attempts to catch his fellow

plotters before it was too late.

(gun shooting)

- Whoa. (laughing) - Well done.

- You can feel that there's quite a recoil on that.

- This is the amazing story of the Gunpowder Plot.

(upbeat music)

As midnight approached on the 4th of November, 1605,

Guy Fawkes was hiding in a cellar

underneath the House of Lords.

At his feet were two and a half tonnes of explosives.

In just over nine hours time, Fawkes' targets,

King James, his ministers, lords, and bishops

would be gathered together just a few feet above his head

for the state opening of Parliament.

If Fawkes' timed the explosion right,

the men who ruled Britain would soon be dead.

Meanwhile, the rest of the 13 strong gang

were preparing the second phase of the plot.

They sought to launch an armed uprising and seize power.

But not everything had gone to plan.

Just a few hours earlier, Fawkes had been discovered

by the King's guard.

And he talked himself out of trouble

by claiming that he was a servant named John Johnson,

and that he was storing firewood

for his master, Thomas Percy.

The guards had no idea that behind the bundles of firewood

were 36 barrels of gun power.

They bought his story and left.

But they were still suspicious,

so they reported their concerns directly to the King.

King James immediately ordered

a second search of the cellar,

and armed guards were hastily dispatched.

Their orders were clear, find a man called John Johnson

and take him alive.

Fawkes had no idea that the king's men were onto him,

and at that very moment,

they were on their way to arrest him.

(upbeat music)

Just after midnight,

Fawkes heard noises in the corridor outside.

When he opened his cellar door to investigate,

(door opening) a lamp was thrust in his face.

There was a short violent struggle.

One of the guards threatened to draw his dagger,

but thought better of it.

He knew the king wanted the suspect alive.

And moments later, more armed guards arrived,

grabbed Fawkes, and wrestled him to the ground.

With his hands bound, he could do nothing,

as the guards entered the cellar and began their search.

Inspecting the mysterious pile in front of them,

they pulled back the covers.

And what they found must have astonished them.

Dozens of barrels full of gunpowder.

Fawkes had been caught red handed.

According to one source,

he defiantly turned to his captors and told them,

you were lucky to catch me outside the cellar,

otherwise you would not be talking about it now,

because you all would've been blown sky high.

If only Fawkes had not opened the door,

he may have had time to ignite the explosives.

The plot to blow up Parliament was in ruins.

At 4:00 AM on the morning of the 5th of November,

Fawkes was led the few hundred yards from Parliament

to Whitehall palace.

He was flanked by armed guards

as he entered the king's private quarters.

At the king's side was his chief minister and spy master,

Sir Robert Cecil.

Remarkably, Cecil wrote an account

of this extraordinary moment, which still survives today.

The first thing that strikes me is Fawkes' demeanour

when he's brought before the king.

Cecil writes that, "He was no more dismayed,

nay scarce any more troubled than if he were taken

with a small robbery by the highway."

So Fawkes has just been discovered

armed the teeth with gunpowder.

And Cecil says he's no more troubled

than if he were picked up for a petty crime.

It's astonishing.

I think it really tells you something about Fawkes'

strength of character, that he manages to remain

at least outwardly calm and nonchalant.

When asked his name, Fawkes simply repeated

what he told the guards earlier,

that his name was John Johnson.

He was a servant to Thomas Percy.

When he was asked what he was doing in the cellar,

Fawkes has said to have said to James,

he meant to have fired the match,

that if he had not been apprehended that night,

he had blown up the Upper House when the King,

lords, bishops and others had been there.

This is the king.

He's used to people bowing and scraping before him,

and now he's awoken at 4:00 AM

and brought face to face with a man

who says he planned to kill him.

It's an extraordinary moment,

it's not every day you meet your would be killer.

Robert Cecil knew that Fawkes could not have acted alone.

There was no way he could have assembled

that quantity of gunpowder single-handedly.

He must have had accomplices, and Cecil knew

he had to catch them before they committed

any acts of violence.

He would have to make Fawkes talk, and fast.

(upbeat music)

It was before dawn when the first news of Guy Fawkes' arrest

reached one of the gang members.

They immediately warned fellow plotter, Thomas Percy.

(knocking door)

Meanwhile, the king's spy master, Sir Robert Cecil

was desperate to fight anyone else

who was involved in the plot.

Fawkes needed to be interrogated

and squeezed for the names of his accomplices.

(upbeat music)

Within hours of being caught red-handed

trying to blow up parliament, Guy Fawkes was brought here,

to the Tower of London.

Now the king's spy master, Sir Robert Cecil was convinced

that Fawkes did not act alone,

and he was desperate to catch his co-conspirators

before they could commit any further acts of violence.

He planned to interrogate Fawkes to get him to reveal

the names of the plotters and their plans.

(energetic music)

By 1605, the Tower had a terrifying reputation.

In the century leading up to the Gunpowder Plot,

Henry VIII and Elizabeth I had imprisoned, tortured,

and executed countless traitors.

I can only imagine what Guy Fawkes was thinking

as he was led past these walls.

But Fawkes knew that the longer he could hold out

against the interrogation,

the more time he would buy for the rest of the gang to flee

or to carry out the wider Catholic Rebellion.

The interrogation began in a state room

overlooking Tower Green.

Behind me is the king's house.

Now, not many buildings like this survive in London,

they were destroyed by the Great Fire.

But this is pretty much how these buildings would've looked

to Guy Fawkes as he approached for his interrogation.

Now today, this is the private residence

of the Constable of the Tower,

and it's very unusual to be allowed inside.

(curious upbeat music)

Now, outside these buildings form

quite a charming Elizabethan scene, it's almost,

it's quite pretty like a chocolate box.

But inside, the atmosphere changes dramatically.

There's a sort of understated grandeur here,

but it is also quite intimidating, especially when you think

how Guy Fawkes must have been feeling

as he was led up the stairs.

Guy Fawkes would've been stealing himself

for what he knew was a terrible ordeal ahead of him.

But every single minute

that he could resist the interrogation

bought his co-conspirators more time.

The room Fawkes was interrogated in is just up here.

(anxious music)

I have to say this is not what I expected

from an interrogation cell.

It's quite a well lit, bright, pretty room.

Over here you've got a view of Tower Green,

you can see the spot where Anne Boleyn was executed.

On the other side of the room,

we've got a view of the river.

But this is the very room

where Guy Fawkes was brought on November the 5th, 1605.

And this is where his interrogation would begin.

The comfort of this room probably wasn't the first thing

on Guy Fawkes' mind.

He'd just been caught red handed,

and he'd admitted that he was trying to kill the king.

And he knew that his captors would stop at nothing

to get the information they wanted

about his co-conspirators.

He must have felt that the walls were closing in.

The interrogation was carried out

by two of the king's most senior ministers.

When they began their questioning,

all they knew about the man before them

was that he called himself John Johnson.

He claimed to be a servant of known Catholic, Thomas Percy,

and he admitted planning to blow up the King and Parliament.

But if they thought he was gonna give them anything more,

they were wrong.

Guy Fawkes stuck to his story,

and the only name he gave them

was a name they already had, that of Thomas Percy.

Unless he talked, the authorities had no way of knowing

how many co-conspirators he had,

or what they planned to do next.

They had no idea that blowing up Parliament

and assassinating the king

were only the opening act of a massive plot to seize power.

As Fawkes' interrogation continued,

a hundred miles north in rural Warwickshire,

more members of the gang

were preparing to launch an armed uprising.

They believed that the king was dead,

and parliament destroyed.

Now, they were counting on their supporters

in the Catholic heartland of the Midlands

to spark a civil rebellion.

Catesby was heading north to join them,

completely unaware the plot had been foiled

until Percy and the gang brought him the news.

Tracy has come to Dunchurch in Warwickshire

to meet author and Fawkes researcher, Nick Holland.

- I want to find out how Catesby felt

when he discovered the House of Lords was still standing.

What was Catesby's reaction?

- He must have been absolutely dismayed, obviously,

he'd not thought that was going to happen,

he thought God was on his side and it would all go smoothly.

So he had to make a big decision, would they flee?

That would've been the sensible thing we'd think.

Or would they carry on with their initial plan

to come to Dunchurch and start a rebellion,

start a revolution?

- And what did he decide?

- Well, Catesby, perhaps unsurprisingly,

he was a man of action, he wasn't easily deterred,

he still thought he could succeed in his plan,

so he said, let's press on,

let's go to Dunchurch and start a evolution.

- So stick with the plan even though

the big part of it has failed, the king is still alive,

but Catesby wants to press on,

that's incredibly risky, isn't it?

- It is incredibly risky.

He was risking himself,

he was risking all the other plotters,

but really he had a bigger plan as far as he was concerned.

- To carry out their bigger plan of attack,

the Armed Catholic Rebellion,

plotters had lured Catholic gentry

to Dunchurch Green on the pretence of a hunt.

- This is Dunchurch Green.

And right ahead of us is the rendezvous point,

it was the Old Red Lion inn-

- This building here? - This building here.

And Catesby expected to find

hundreds of men waiting for him,

all armed, ready for a hunt.

But the reality was quite different.

- So what numbers are we talking?

- We think there were around 80 people waiting for Catesby,

and it's not nearly as many as he was expecting.

- Not exactly an impressive rebel army, is it?

- It's not enough to take control of England.

- If Catesby still felt he could win 80 people round

to the idea of an armed uprising

against the forces of the king, he was kidding himself.

Half of them just turned around and left.

So this is a disaster, isn't it?

It's already a tiny army for Catesby,

and now that's been halved.

Morale must be at rock bottom, where do they go next?

- So Catesby comes up with an audacious plan.

He decides to raid Warwick Castle,

and there they'll steal weapons

and they'll steal horses that they need,

and he still thinks he can win the day.

But really he'd made a fatal error.

And from that moment on, the conspirators' fate was sealed.

- So really now there's no way out.

- There's no way out,

and things are going to get a lot worse very quickly.

(bright upbeat music)

- On the 6th of November, 100 miles south,

Guy Fawkes was still being interrogated

inside the king's house in the Tower of London.

24 hours after his capture in a cellar beneath Parliament,

Fawkes was now sat in front of the king's spy master,

Sir Robert Cecil.

King James had personally written a list of 16 questions

that were to be put to Fawkes,

but Fawkes still refused to answer,

he wouldn't give up the names of his accomplices.

Now, Robert Cecil was getting desperate.

He still didn't know how many plotters were out there,

or what they were trying to accomplish.

But Cecil's luck was about to change.

The plotters in Warwickshire would soon make

a catastrophic mistake.

(upbeat music)

Recklessly they had decided to steal horses

from Warwick Castle.

When the theft was discovered,

the sheriff of Worcestershire and his men

set out to track down the culprits.

Before long, the sheriff had begun to gather intelligence

from local villagers, and within a few hours,

he had the names of the suspects.

The gang of thieves were all well-known local Catholic men

from good families, and their names included,

one Robert Catesby, and Thomas Percy.

Now, the sheriff actually had no idea

of the plot to destroy parliament,

or that Thomas Percy was a wanted man,

but he was suspicious.

He was on the alert for any signs of Catholic rebellion.

So he decided to send word of the theft

to the king's spymaster, Sir Robert Cecil in London.

As the messenger sped towards the capital,

Guy Fawkes was still under intense interrogation

in the Tower.

For more than a day, Cecil had been attempting

to get answers from Fawkes,

who were still hiding behind the alias of John Johnson.

Apart from the name Thomas Percy,

Fawkes refused to give up the identities

of the other plotters.

Cecil needed to break him.

Now he moved Fawkes to the torture chambers,

deep beneath the White Tower.

The order came from King James himself.

Now, torture had been illegal for almost 400 years,

it could only be used on direct instruction

from the monarch.

So King James wrote to the tower's lieutenant,

Sir William Wade, and instructed him

that the gentler tortures are first to be used upon him.

And then step by step, you may employ the harsher.

Now that's actually quite chilling.

It suggests that James knew a thing or two

about torture techniques,

and that he really understood the value

of gradually intensifying the pressure on the victim.

(tension music)

Sir William Wade would oversee the torture.

Wade had a fearsome reputation

for ruthlessly hunting down Jesuit priests.

Forbes's torture began with him being manacled by the wrists

to his cell wall.

He hung for several hours in agony.

But still he refused to give up the names

of his fellow plotters.

(upbeat music)

On the 7th of November, the king's right hand man,

Sir Robert Cecil finally received

the message from the sheriff of Worcestershire,

and it was a bombshell.

A group of men were on the run

after stealing horses from Warwick Castle.

Cecil knew they had to be connected

with the foiled attack on parliament.

What he didn't know was that amongst the men

was the ringleader of the Gunpowder Plot, Robert Catesby,

and his right hand man, Thomas Percy.

Percy was the only man that Fawkes had given up so far.

Cecily immediately knew

this was the breakthrough he'd been looking for.

It was an incredible stroke of luck,

but now thanks to the sheriff's report,

he had the plotters in his sights.

Within just two days of Fawkes' capture,

the net was closing in on his accomplices.

The gang were being pursued by the sheriff of Worcestershire

and a group of 200 armed men.

Even Robert Catesby, the plot's mastermind

realised the game was up.

His hopes of sparking a Catholic revolution

and seizing power were over.

The plot had failed.

And all they could do now was flee for their lives.

(gentle upbeat music)

Battling with heavy rain, the weary gang took refuge

in a manor house, but their desperate situation

was about to get even worse.

While trying to dry some damp gunpowder

next to an open fire, one of the gang set off an explosion.

It injured several of them, and one of them was blinded.

(explosion)

It's a twist of fate that this was the only explosion

during the entire Gunpowder Plot.

(upbeat music)

With the sheriff's men closing in and three of the gang

too badly injured to flee,

the plotters knew their time was up.

Now all they could do was wait for the inevitable.

(gentle upbeat music)

Two days after his arrest,

Guy Fawkes was facing the most terrifying form of torture

in the Tower of London's arsenal.

The Rack.

It may look quite rudimentary,

but that's probably part of what makes it so intimidating.

It's fairly simple, here's how it works.

You are manacled in by your wrists and ankles,

and then these chains are attached to wheels

with ratchet mechanisms that are gradually tightened

as you are stretched, and almost pulled limb from lib.

As Tower Lieutenant, William Wade

prepared to put Fawkes on the rack,

he gave his prisoner a warning.

"I told him if he held his resolution to be so silent,

I would never give him over

until I had gotten the inmost secret of his thoughts

and all his accomplices.

And therefore, I willed him to prepare himself."

He's saying, I won't let up on the torture

until you give up your secrets.

The following morning, seven of the plotters,

including Thomas Percy and mastermind, Robert Catesby

were also fearing for their lives.

Hold up in a Stafford shear manor house,

they knew they were being hunted.

By 11:00 AM on the 8th of November,

the sheriff of Worcestershire and his troops

had them surrounded.

Catesby, Percy, and their five accomplices were exhausted,

some badly injured, and hopelessly outnumbered

as they prepared for one last stand.

(gentle upbeat music)

But how did Catesby and his men plan to defend themselves?

Tracy's meeting gun experts,

Jonathan Davies and Ian Fletcher to find out.

- Catesby and his men were planning this armed uprising.

What sort of weapons

would they have potentially had access to?

- Well, Catesby as a gentleman have had a rapier and dagger,

but what he would really want were firearms.

This is the musket, a heavy weapon designed

to knock a man off his horse

and to put a bull through a man in armour.

- And how effective were they?

- Extremely effective.

That would be firing an ounce and a half ball

at about a thousand feet per second.

So if that hit you,

it would go straight through and out the other side.

- Catesby and the other six plotters

would've had to know how to load a musket quickly,

and that was no small feat.

First, gunpowder needed to be inserted

into a small pan on the side.

Then more powder dropped into the barrel,

followed by a lead ball.

Before ramming the gunpowder in

to ensure the maximum possible explosion.

Finally, a burning cord connected to the trigger

would've ignited the powder in the barrel, or not.

- Oh, no, misfire. - Ah.

- There's, it's a flash in the pan.

The priming powder has gone flash,

but it hasn't ignited the main charge.

About a third of ignitions fail.

- Do you think I can have a go?

So this goes right against my shoulder?

- Yes, yes.

And then put finger on the feet trigger there,

then pull it very, very slowly.

That's it, keep going.

(gunshot)

- Whoa. - Well done.

- Can feel that, there's quite a recoil on that.

But it's certainly a very powerful weapon,

I could really feel the kick back there.

But accuracy, and the time it took to load,

you really had to know what you were doing.

- Yes, you need to have trained men,

trained, experienced, and willing.

- So Catesby and his men were under siege

at Holbeche Hall surrounded by the sheriff's men.

What chance did they realistically have?

- None whatsoever.

200 well armed men determined to bring traitors to justice

or at least bring them to their deaths.

(gunshot) - Wow.

- According to one account,

Catesby called out to the sheriff and declared

he would not be taken alive.

Then the troops opened fire.

(gunshots) A barrage of musket balls

crashed through the manor house.

In the volley of gunfire, the two leaders

in the most famous plot in British history,

Robert Catesby and Thomas Percy were killed.

They were taken down by the very same musket ball.

When the troops ceased firing and entered the house,

all except three of the gang had been killed.

As the sun went down on the 8th of November,

just three days after the Gunpowder Plot was foiled,

11 of the 13 plotters were either captured or dead.

For those Who were still at large,

it would only be a matter of time

before they too were caught.

(gentle upbeat music)

The following morning, Guy Fawkes began his fourth day

in the Tower of London.

He'd endured 24 excruciating hours of the rack,

refusing to name his fellow plotters

in the hope that they'd carry out the rest of their plan.

His torturer described him as being

in a most stubborn and perverse humour,

as dogged as if he were possessed.

But finally, even Fawkes could take no more.

By nightfall, on the 9th of November,

he'd given up every name.

And one document shows just how brutal it must have been.

Now this is Guy Fawkes' signature before his interrogation.

And compare it to this.

This is the signature on his confession

after he'd been on the rack.

It's barely legible.

And the hand,

and probably the mind that wrote this was broken.

It's a stark reminder of what Guy Fawkes went through.

On the one hand, he was a man willing to commit mass murder

by blowing up parliament,

but there's no denying he was a very brave and loyal man

willing to endure terrible suffering

to protect his friends and their cause.

(upbeat music)

By the 10th of November, the entire plot had been exposed.

Three days after Guy Fawkes had confessed

and given up the names of his fellow plotters,

a 12th member of the gang was arrested.

His name was Francis Tresham.

Tresham had been one of the last recruits to the plot,

and some of the plotters suspected him

of writing the anonymous letter warning

that an attack on parliament was imminent.

Like Guy Fawkes, Tresham was brought here,

to the Tower of London for questioning.

Tracy's meeting historian Nicola Tallis

to look at the evidence against Tresham.

- So Nicola, it takes three full days

from Guy Fawkes' naming Tresham for him to be

arrested and brought here to the tower, doesn't it?

- Yeah, that's absolutely right.

And that raises lots of interesting questions in itself,

because why do they wait that amount of time

before rounding him up?

Is it because he has played what's considered to be

a relatively minor role in the Gunpowder Plot?

Or is there something more shady going on?

- Well, that is intriguing.

And would you say there were any other causes for suspicion,

any other red flags, if you like?

- Well, his treatment here, for example, raises suspicions

because Tresham was allowed visitors

in the form of his wife and his servants.

And that puts him at complete odds

with his fellow conspirators,

none of whom are afforded that sort of treatment.

- Not only was Tresham allowed to receive visitors,

he was also permitted visits from his personal doctor

when he was sick.

And when Tresham's health deteriorated, Sir William Wade,

the left tenant of the Tower,

wrote to the king's right hand man, Sir Robert Cecil.

- In this letter, he tells Cecil

about the fact that Tresham is getting worse and worse,

but there's also another very intriguing reference here.

So it says that for my own opinion, if he escape,

it must be by great care.

- Oh, okay, so tell me more.

- Yeah, so there are two ways of looking at this.

Tresham is already sick by this point and may die,

therefore escaping the punishment

that would be coming his way.

Or he could be talking about escape

as in the literal sense of the word.

And somebody is actually plotting to remove Tresham

from the Tower.

- The plot thickens, yet again.

Eight days later,

Tresham's doctor declared him dead at the Tower.

But then there's a twist in the tale.

Shortly afterwards, a contemporary account

claimed to have spotted Tresham in Caligh.

One piece of research offers an intriguing clue

as to what might have happened to him.

- This tells us that Francis Tresham was actually successful

in escaping from the Tower and made it as far as Madrid

where he lived under the alias of Matthew Bruninge.

And historians have actually compared

and analysed Bruninge's handwriting

with that of Francis Tresham,

and the similarities are remarkable.

- So that's extraordinary.

Tresham might have actually lived out his days in Madrid

with the knowledge of the English authorities.

I mean, was he even working for Cecil

all along from the very moment that he entered the plot?

- Yeah, absolutely.

That's also a very credible theory.

- As for the eight members of the gang,

the Gunpowder Plot was deemed so dangerous

that an Act of Parliament would be passed

just to seal their fate as traitors.

I've come to the parliamentary archives,

high up in the Palace of Westminster's Victoria Tower.

4 million documents are stored here,

usually in total darkness, including original copies

of every single law.

But I'm interested in just one.

So here it is.

Now this document is over 400 years old.

I've been given special access to it,

and I have to handle it very carefully.

It has a very elaborate name.

It's called an An Act for the Attainder of Offenders

in the Late, Most Barbarous, Monstrous,

Detestable and Damnable Treasons.

And the strength of that language is to really ram home

that these are the worst crimes

that anyone could possibly commit.

An Act of Attainder is a law passed by parliament

declaring someone guilty of a crime.

In this case, this declares Guy Fawkes

and the other surviving plotters,

and you can see their names written right here

as being guilty of treason.

Crucially, this Act was passed before their trial.

The trial itself would be purely for show.

All that mattered

was that the plotters were found guilty of treason

and executed.

They wouldn't be hung like common criminals,

and they wouldn't be beheaded like nobleman.

Instead, they were to face that most terrible ordeal of all,

the traitor's death.

The day of reckoning was upon them.

(upbeat music)

In Janurary 1606, four of the eight gunpowder plotters

held at the Tower of London were put to death for treason.

Then it was the turn of Guy Fawkes to face the scaffold.

On the 31st of January, 1606,

Guy Fawkes was taken from his cell in the Tower of London.

He was tied behind a horse and dragged two and a half miles

to Old Palace Yard in the heart of Westminster.

He was to be executed in the very shadow of the building

he had attempted to destroy.

(crowd shouting)

A huge crowd had gathered in this very spot

to see his punishment.

According to one eyewitness who watched Guy Fawkes

climb the scaffold,

it was clear that he'd been tortured because,

he was scarcely able to move.

Fawkes would've been only too aware of

what lay in store for him.

He was to be cut down while he was still alive,

to be drawn and courted.

It was a truly gruesome spectacle,

intended to send a clear message to anyone who witnessed it.

If you commit treason against the king,

this is the terrible fate which awaits.

But the baying crowd didn't get the spectacle they wanted.

The executioner's rope snapped his neck

and he died instantly.

After enduring months of torture,

Fawkes had managed to avoid the agony of a traitor's death.

The executions of the Gunpowder gang were used

as a terrible public warning for anyone

who threatened King James.

The Tower of London never forgot their treason.

Hidden away far from the tourist trail is a very different,

very secret memorial to the 5th of November.

Tracy is visiting the ancient King's house on Tower Green

to get a glimpse of it for herself.

(gentle music)

- Well, there it is,

an impressive plaque over on the wall there,

and I don't actually get to this very often,

so it's really exciting for me,

I've read about it so many times,

but to see it in the flesh is really quite special.

(gentle music)

This memorial was made on the orders of William Wade,

the left tenant of the tower who interrogated Fawkes.

And if you look here, you can see Fawkes' name listed

alongside the other plotters,

Robert Catesby, the ringleader, Thomas Percy,

and then here, in rather large letters, Wade himself.

Is quite a lavish monument,

and it marks an event of national significance.

Wade was clearly proud of his role

in exposing the gunpowder plot.

So why did he tuck away his memorial plaque here

in the council chamber?

Well, I think the clue to that is in the location.

Because this is where high status prisoners

would've been interrogated.

So this really is psychological torture,

because those who were interrogated here by Wade,

would've known full well what happens

to the Gunpowder plotters.

It was a warning, and it must have struck terror

into the hearts of any other would be traitors.

(gentle music)

- By planning to blow up parliament,

the Gunpowder plotters had risked everything

to improve the lives of Catholics.

But their attack had not only ended in failure,

but actually made the persecution worse.

(upbeat music)

Catholics were now banned from standing as MPs,

or holding any public office.

In 1613, it was even proposed that Catholics

be made to wear red hats or multicoloured stockings

to make them identifiable in public.

Now, thankfully, parliament rejected the idea,

but it gives you a sense

of the extreme anti-Catholic feeling

in the years following the Gunpowder Plot.

(bright upbeat music)

Things might have changed in the 400 years

since the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot,

but there's one thing that's endured, the bonfires.

Historian, Rebecca Riddel explains more.

So the bonfires on Bonfire Night that we have now

are quite celebratory, quite joyful.

Where does that come from?

- I think we have to remember that it actually was

a celebration of the king and the country

being delivered from this potentially catastrophic event.

And so King James very much wanted this day marked

the 5th of November, and we have an Act of Parliament

that goes through in 1606

that stipulates that it needs to be commemorated legally,

everybody has to mark that occasion.

And bonfires were a really well established

way of commemorating and marking key events.

And that had been going on for decades, centuries even,

before the Gunpowder Plot.

- James I insisted everyone

had to attend a church service on the day,

and people celebrated with bonfires in the evening.

In the 1600s, people threw figures to burn on the fire

shaped like the Pope, or the devil.

Guy Fawkes himself only became the face of Bonfire Night

in the 1700s.

So we still doing this 400 years later,

which seems amazing to me,

and we shouldn't we still be celebrating it now.

- I think what we perhaps would benefit from remembering is

what the conspirators were planning to do

is absolutely horrific and awful.

But a consequence of that was that we had centuries

of discriminatory laws against Catholics.

So I think maybe keep that in mind

while we're watching Bonfire Night as well.

(fireworks popping) (celebratory music)

- The law that insisted the failure of the Gunpowder Plot

was celebrated every year remained in place until 1859.

And we still mark the occasion today.

(bright upbeat music)

The nursery rhyme goes,

"Remember, remember the 5th of November,

gunpowder, treason and plot."

(fireworks popping)

And when we gasp at the fireworks,

or we huddle around the bonfire on a crisp, autumn evening,

how many of us are thinking

about the people who almost blew up parliament,

or the terrible fate they suffered after they were captured?

Are we celebrating an act of rebellion,

or are we giving thanks that the plotters were caught,

a disaster averted?

Maybe it's a little of both.

If Guy Fawkes had succeeded, the course of British history

would've been changed forever.

And there's no doubt that his plan to blow up parliament

has forever sealed itself into our national memory.

(fireworks popping)

(upbeat music)