Guy Fawkes

Guy Fawkes

From Citation Needed by Citation Needed Media

March 18, 2026 · 53 min · Season 1 · Episode 466

About this episode

This episode discusses the life and significance of Guy Fawkes, a key figure in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Guy Fawkes ( / f ɔː k s / ; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), [ a ] also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated in York ; his father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes converted to Catholicism and left for mainland Europe, where he fought for Catholic Spain in the Eighty Years' War against Protestant Dutch reformers in the Low Countries . He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England without success. He later met Thomas Wintour , with whom he returned to England. Wintour introduced him to Robert Catesby , who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters leased an undercroft beneath the House of Lords ; Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder that they stockpiled there. The authorities were prompted by an anonymous letter to search Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and they found Fawkes guarding the explosives. He was questioned and tortured over the next few days and…

Topics covered

  • Guy Fawkes
  • Gunpowder Plot
  • Catholicism
  • History

Keywords

  • English Catholics
  • Eighty Years' War
  • Spanish
  • Protestant

Mentioned in this episode

Places: York, Europe, Spain, the Low Countries, England

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