The Gunpowder Plot: What Really Happened (Guy Fawkes, 1605)

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, animated and told from the inside: you're Guy Fawkes, in a cellar under the House of Lords with 36 barrels of gunpowder, the night before King James opens Parliament. How close did it come? Who wrote the anonymous letter that gave you away? And why does Britain still light bonfires every 5 November? 💥 You Were There #2. History told as if you were standing in it. ▶ Episode 1, Agincourt:    • Agincourt: 6,000 French Dead in 3 Hours (1...   🔔 Subscribe so you're there when it happens:    / @saad-ix   Next time: Rorke's Drift, 1879. Chapters 0:00 36 barrels under the House of Lords 0:38 The soldier from York 1:26 The oath at the Duck and Drake 2:13 The cellar and the gunpowder 2:55 The Monteagle letter 3:54 Midnight: the search 4:49 The Tower 5:26 The last stand at Holbeche House 6:30 Bonfire Night 7:37 How close it came What's in this episode • Guy Fawkes before the plot: ten years as a soldier for Catholic Spain, and the name "Guido" • Robert Catesby's plan: blow up the King, the lords and the bishops in one room, then crown nine-year-old Princess Elizabeth • The tunnel story, and why no trace of it has ever been found • The anonymous letter to Lord Monteagle: "a terrible blow this Parliament" • The search just after midnight on 4–5 November, and "John Johnson" • "A Roman resolution": the King, the torture order, and Fawkes's shaking signature • Holbeche House: the plotters burned by their own gunpowder, then 200 men against a handful • Bonfire Night, the word "guy", and the cellar search that still happens before every State Opening • Would it have worked? The 2005 test that rebuilt the House of Lords and blew it up How sure are we? Nobody knows who wrote the Monteagle letter; Francis Tresham and Monteagle himself are the usual suspects. The tunnel may have been invented by the prosecution. Whether Fawkes jumped from the gallows or slipped is uncertain. Sources: the Wikipedia articles on the Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes, Robert Catesby, Thomas Wintour, William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle and Holbeche House (drawing on Antonia Fraser, Mark Nicholls and others), and ITV's 2005 programme "The Gunpowder Plot: Exploding the Legend". Illustrations and narration made with AI tools; script and fact check by SAADIX. #GunpowderPlot #GuyFawkes #BonfireNight