Guy Fawkes blow up Parliament in 1605

[Leistungsfähiger Amerikan]

"Remember, remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot; I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. "

Yea, I'm an American and know little about the plot, but I just remember it from "V for Vendetta". But Wikipedia teaches all! So, WI Guy Fawkes succedes in the gunpowder plot?

[Alex Richards]

With the King, the Prince of Wales and the Parliament dead, the plan was to place Elizabeth on the throne. She will probably be engaged to either the dauphin of France, or a habsburg male. Scotland, however, will probably move to install Charles on the throne as most Scottish nobles will be in the country. The Catholics in the country would be lynched by the huge protestant majority, and eventually the plotters would be overturned by a popular uprising, there only being about 1 catholic for every 20 protestants in the country.

Charles would be placed on the throne, a regency council established and Elizabeth married to a protestant German as OTL. Charles would then go on to marry a protestant German, and probably become a vocal supporter of containing France and Spain.

[Falastur]

Originally Posted by Alex Richards

Charles would be placed on the throne, a regency council established and Elizabeth married to a protestant German as OTL. Charles would then go on to marry a protestant German, and probably become a vocal supporter of containing France and Spain.

Correction: Henry would be placed on the throne. Charles had an elder brother who died in 1612, allowing himself to become heir.

[Justin Pickard]

Here's a slightly ridiculous piece from OpenDemocracy: Celebrating St Guido Fawkes' Day -

In the late evening of 4th November 1605 a group of brave men had assembled in a large cellar directly beneath the House of Lords. They were young, idealistic, tough and (as they saw it) true lovers of their country. They were also devoted to their religion – the Roman Catholic Faith – which had been persecuted with increasing severity, ever since the Protestant Elizabeth I succeeded the Catholic Mary Tudor on the throne, over the past forty years. The next morning the new Protestant King, the Scottish James I, was due to deliver his Speech from the Throne to the assembled Lords and Commons in the Lords chamber, directly above their heads. The half dozen men gathered in the cellar had come together with one single, simple and amazing idea. They would finally put an end to the intolerable persecution of Catholic England by blowing the King, his evil heretical counsellors and his Parliament into eternity with gunpowder ...

[seanthesheep]

Perhaps a little ASB here-sorry to lower the tone-but Are we under-estimating the reaction of the English people-had the plotters succeeded they would have partaken in a massive terrorist plot murdering a fair few of Englands leaders-this would have made them unpopular among a large proportion of the English people-The Protestants so anrgy at the Martyrdom of their King begin reprisal attacks on Catholics across the country (how long would it take to install this new Queen) and perhaps leading to an earlier Civil war?

[Andrew Hudson]

I think the plan was for Charles to be installed on the throne with a Regent. Henry was the Prince of Wales and was intended to be blown up with the rest of them.

As others have pointed out it may well have had the opposite effect from that intended and did its disovery did in fact worsen conditions for Catholics as James 11's actions did resulting in the "Bill of Rights" that ended some of the toleration of Catholics holding public office. Incidentially William of Orange landed at Torbay on November 5th.

The POD would have been James not delaying the opening of parliament or Lord Mounteagle not recieving an anonymous warning

[seanthesheep]

Are we not going to touch on the conspiracy theory that James and Cecil set it up in order to gain James some good PR? So as a result under no circumstances was the plot going to succeed?

[Sachyriel]

If the conspiracy was to succeed, would we ever know the perpetrators? Would it just be called "The House of Lords Explosion of 1605"... which differentiates it from the explosions in later history

[Alex Richards]

Henry's dead. Elizabeth was the plotters preferred queen.

Here's a link to a very good program by Richard Hammond where he actually carries out a replica of the plot. From it we learn that Guy would have been in Southwark by the time the blast went off, and that half the gunpowder could have refused to light, but the King would still be dead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9oDBXLjQcE

[corditeman]

Fawkes nearly succeeded, but his success would probably have doomed English Catholics and resulted in an early Puritan-style government. 'His Sainted Majesty King James Stewart' would have been revenged and this might have united England and Scotland in more than the name. The effect on Ireland is hard to assess - Protestant Charles the Second relied on Catholic Irish armies in the English Civil War, which is partly why Cromwell committed outrages like Drogheda.

Once again, any comments ?

[seanthesheep]

Originally Posted by Alex Richards

Henry's dead. Elizabeth was the plotters preferred queen.

Here's a link to a very good program by Richard Hammond where he actually carries out a replica of the plot. From it we learn that Guy would have been in Southwark by the time the blast went off, and that half the gunpowder could have refused to light, but the King would still be dead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9oDBXLjQcE

There is also an good dramatisation with Nick Knowles investigating the conspiracy theory, just pop 'Nick Knowles and the gunpowder plot' into google videos

[QuoProQuid]

There would be a huge backlash against Catholicism and many of those wronged would be searching for revenge. The Pope will be in severe danger.

[Don_Giorgio]

Originally Posted by QuoProQuid

There would be a huge backlash against Catholicism and many of those wronged would be searching for revenge. The Pope will be in severe danger.

In OTL in May 1606 Pope Paul V send a letter to James I to congratulate him for his ascension to the throne (ironically the letter was 3 years late) in which he made a reference to the Gunpowder Plot and asked not to harm innocent catholics for the crimes of few guilty catholics...
But IMO if Gunpowder Plot was successful i guess that some hotheaded english Protestant would try to do the same to the Vatican enfuriating thus the rest of Catholic Europe and uniting them against England...