Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder PlotNo one brings English history to life like Antonia Fraser. In bestselling books like "Mary Queen of Scots and "The Six Wives of Henry VIII, she has shown why she is the finest of comtemporary popular historians, one who by meticulous research portrays the dramas of the past in all their richness and revealing detail. Now, in "Faith and Treason, she re-creates the seventeenth-century terrorist conspiracy known as the Gunpowder Plot. In England, November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, when fireworks displays commemorate the shocking moment in 1605 when government authorities uncovered a secret plan to blow up the House of Parliament--and King James I along with it. A group of English Catholics, seeking to unseat the king and reintroduce Catholicism as the state religion, daringly placed in position thiry-six barrels of gunpowder in a cellar under the Palace of Wesminster. Their aim was to ignite the gunpowder at the opening of the parliamentary session. Though the charismatic Catholic Robert Catesby was the group's leader, it was the devout Guy Fawkes who emerged as its most famous member, as he was the one who was captured and who revealed under torture the names of his fellow plotters. In the aftermath of their arrests, conditions grew worse for English Catholics, as legal penalties against them were stiffened and public sentiment became rabidly intolerant. In a narrative that reads like a gripping detective story, Antonia Fraser has untangled the web of religion, politics, and personalities that surrounded that fateful night of November 5. And in examining the lengths to which individuals will go for their faith, she finds in this long-ago event a reflection of the religion-inspiredterrorism that has produced gunpowder plots of our own time. |
Contents
PART TWO The Horse of St George | 55 |
PART THREE That Furious and Fiery Course | 57 |
PART FOUR Discovery By God or the Devil | 159 |
Copyright | |
5 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Ambrose Rookwood Anne Vaux Anstruther Arbella Stuart Ashby St Ledgers Bates brother C.S.P. Domestic Caraman Catesby's Catholic Catholicism Church Coke confession conspiracy conspirators Coughton Coughton Court Council course court daughter death Earl Edwards Eliza Vaux England English Catholics equivocation Essex Everard Digby Father Garnet Father Gerard Father Tesimond Flanders Francis Tresham Gerard's Narrative Guido Gunpowder Plot Guy Fawkes H.M.C. Salisbury Habington Harrowden Henry Garnet hiding-places Hindlip Huddington Isabella Jesuits King James King's Lady Little John Loomie marriage Mary Queen Montague Monteagle Letter Nicholls Northumberland November Oldcorne Owen Papists Parliament Philip Plotters Pope Powder Treason Princess prison Protestant Queen Anne Queen Elizabeth Queen of Scots recusant reign religion Robert Catesby Robert Cecil Robert Wintour Robin Catesby Rome royal Scotland Scottish servant Sir Everard Sir Thomas Tresham sister Spain Spanish Suffolk Tassis Thomas Percy throne toleration torture Tower of London Waad Westminster wife William wrote