Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November...

No, it's not just the line from a movie, but a remembrance of the failed gunpowder plot on this day, 1605, in Merry Old England. (Wikipedia Alert!)

At the time, however, it wasn't so Merry for Catholics. It was a tough time for the Recusants, those who kept to the Catholic Faith while facing stiff penal laws for doing so during the time of Elizabeth and her successors on the Throne of England.

Guy Fawkes, among others, was trying to establish some sort of freedom for Catholics on the Islands, and attempted an act of treason in trying to blow up Parliament. However, they were caught before the plan could be executed, and were summarily executed themselves.

However, it seems the joke was on them. Gunpowder was tightly controlled by the government at the time; so there is speculation that it was all a foil by the government to ensnare the Recusant Catholics. Anyone else love a good conspiracy theory?

For more, check Stephanie Mann's excellent blog: Supremacy and Survival or the Coming Home Network's 2006 Deep in History Conference on the English Reformation, a better series of lectures, I have not found.