Remember, Remember, The Fifth of November

Bonfire Night in Britain is the celebration for the deliverance, in 1605, of James I and his Parliament from a plot to blow up the House of Lords by Guy Fawkes and twelve other papist conspirators, who had rented vaults under Parliament where they stored their gunpowder. Tipped off by an anonymous 'grass', Fawkes, who had been sent to guard the gunpowder, was captured and dragged off to the Tower of London, where he was tortured for the names of the co-conspirators. He eventually gave the names of seven others. They were rounded up and all tried for High Treason in Westminster Hall. Found guilty, they were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, which means that they were to be taken down before they were dead and have their genitals cut off and burned before their eyes and then have their guts drawn; finally being quartered with the parts being distributed around the kingdom as a deterrent to other would be traitors. In fact Fawkes managed to kill himself on the way up the scaffold by jumping off it but they still cut him up.

The Good Old Days.

Anyway, all those of you back there in Blighty, enjoy the bonfires and the fireworks tonight.