(`. Burn Me A fire In The Reptile House .`)
[I intended to upload this entry yesterday, but events overtook me and I didnt *sticks tongue out*
]
Across Britain on the night of November 5th, bonfires are lit, effigies are burned, and fireworks are launched all in commemoration of the capture, torture and execution of the country's most notorious traitor, Guy Fawkes. How civilised!
After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had had a rough time under her reign had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. They were wrong. This prompted a number of angry young men of the time to decide that something drastic most be done!
One, Robert Catesby suggested that the thing to do was to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so, they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics. And you thought terrorism was something new....
They promply got hold of thirty-six barrels of gunpowder and hid them in a cellar under the House of Lords.
But a crisis of conscience struck some of the conspirators: some innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack. Having second thoughts, one of the group sent an anonymous letter warning his friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th!
Of course, the warning letter then made its way to the King....
It was Guy Fawkes who was in the cellar of the parliament with the thirty-six barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th. Caught, tortured, forced to rat on his fellow conspirators. They, Fawkes included. were then executed in the rather savage manner set aside for trators of the day: they were hung, drawn by horses through the streets of London, and then cut into quarters. Their heads were set upon poles as a warning to others.
Even for the period which was notoriously unstable, what became known as the Gunpowder Plot did leave a resounding impression on the people of England. Ever since this failed coup, the reigning monarch of Great Britain only enters the Parliament once a year, on what is called the State Opening of Parliament. Prior to the Opening, and according to custom, the Yeomen of the Guard search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. This tradition is still observed to this day.
Penny-for-the-Guy anyone?
BTW.
The Reptile House is a building common in zoos where, obviously, the Reptiles are housed. It is the supposition of some that it was also used as a metaphor for the Houses of Parliament in The Sisters of Mercys early track Burn. Not that Andrew Eldrichs lyrics were ever particularly political you understand *whistles, walking away*
~~~~ How to Navigate My Journal ~~~~
[I intended to upload this entry yesterday, but events overtook me and I didnt *sticks tongue out*
]
Across Britain on the night of November 5th, bonfires are lit, effigies are burned, and fireworks are launched all in commemoration of the capture, torture and execution of the country's most notorious traitor, Guy Fawkes. How civilised!
After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had had a rough time under her reign had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. They were wrong. This prompted a number of angry young men of the time to decide that something drastic most be done!
One, Robert Catesby suggested that the thing to do was to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so, they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics. And you thought terrorism was something new....
They promply got hold of thirty-six barrels of gunpowder and hid them in a cellar under the House of Lords.
But a crisis of conscience struck some of the conspirators: some innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack. Having second thoughts, one of the group sent an anonymous letter warning his friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th!
Of course, the warning letter then made its way to the King....
It was Guy Fawkes who was in the cellar of the parliament with the thirty-six barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th. Caught, tortured, forced to rat on his fellow conspirators. They, Fawkes included. were then executed in the rather savage manner set aside for trators of the day: they were hung, drawn by horses through the streets of London, and then cut into quarters. Their heads were set upon poles as a warning to others.
Even for the period which was notoriously unstable, what became known as the Gunpowder Plot did leave a resounding impression on the people of England. Ever since this failed coup, the reigning monarch of Great Britain only enters the Parliament once a year, on what is called the State Opening of Parliament. Prior to the Opening, and according to custom, the Yeomen of the Guard search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. This tradition is still observed to this day.
Penny-for-the-Guy anyone?
BTW.
The Reptile House is a building common in zoos where, obviously, the Reptiles are housed. It is the supposition of some that it was also used as a metaphor for the Houses of Parliament in The Sisters of Mercys early track Burn. Not that Andrew Eldrichs lyrics were ever particularly political you understand *whistles, walking away*
~~~~ How to Navigate My Journal ~~~~