November 5th is the anniversary of the Gunpowder Treason Plot, an almost successful attempt by persecuted Catholics to blow away their Protestant opposition by detonating 36 barrels of gunpowder directly underneath the House of Lords on the opening day of parliament in 1605. Learn how crafty King James I avoided the fate of his father (being exploded), and why the man caught holding the fuse, Guy Fawkes, is an inspiration to anarchists and hackers and the origin for the word "guy." The events that would happen this night would topple the dominoes leading to Shakespeare's and Milton's greatest works as well as the colonization of America and establishment of it as a place of religious freedom.
Sources for this episode:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guy-Fawkes
https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/parliamentaryauthority/the-gunpowder-plot-of-1605/overview/the-plot-and-its-discovery/conspiracy-and-deception/
https://www.tudorsociety.com/5th-november-1605-the-gunpowder-plot/
https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/gunpowder-plot-what-history-behind-bonfire-night
