Let The Bells Ring (Powder Treason timeline)

Hnau

Banned
1604
A few Catholic radicals angry over their subjugation under the Protestant government and poor treatment rally under Robert Catesby to assassinate King James I in a drastic scheme in order to overthrow the government and establish a Catholic monarchy. The plan is to cause an explosion under the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament, to kill the King as well as numerous other nobles.

May - Thomas Percy leases lodgings adjacent to the House of Lords. The plan is to mine under the foundations of the House of Lords to lay the gunpowder.
June - Severe plague hits London, and so the opening of parliament is suspended to 1605.
December - The conspirators have still yet to reach far enough underneath parliament with their tunnel.

1605
January - The plotters resume work on their tunnel, but discover that the opening of parliament had been postponed once more to October 3rd.
February - The conspirators learn of a coal merchant that had vacated the cellar under the House of Lords, and so Percy secures the lease.
March - The undercroft underneath the House of Lords is filled with 36 barrels of gunpowder concealed under a store of winter fuel. The barrels contain 1800 pounds of gunpowder.
May - The conspirators leave London for their homes in different areas of the country so that their congregation together would not arouse suspicion.
June - (POD) There is no outbreak of plague in Westminister. The opening of parliament is not postponed.
September - The conspirators meet once more. Guy Fawkes, a talented explosive engineer who has been in charge of the gunpowder involved in the plan, is left to execute the plot and light the fuse. The others leave for Dunchurch in Warwickshire to await news, planning to incite a revolt in the Midlands.
October 3rd - As King James I and the rest of Parliament engage each other above, Guy Fawkes lights a fifteen-minute fuse to the thirty-six barrels of gunpowder in the undercroft. He immediately begins moving very quickly to the bank of the Thames, where a boat awaits him to cross the river.

Fourteen minutes later: The fuse burns slightly faster than expected. Both the Houses of Parliament, rather than just the House of Lords, are blown to a fiery hell. The buildings of the Palace of Westminister complex and part of the Abbey are sundered. However, not even the walls remain of the House of Lords, being reduced completely to rubble. Everyone attending the State Opening is killed, their bloody remains scattered around the city in a 100-meter radius. Within a half-kilometer radius, windows shatter, especially every window of the Abbey, injuring and killing those near. Thick smoke chokes the crowded streets, people are stricken deaf from the shockwave, while blasted debris shards rain down from the sky. Fires around ground zero begin to spread in the littered environment. The sound is heard for five miles around.

The shockwave throws Guy Fawkes out of his boat into the Thames. After nearly drowning, he gets back on his boat, makes it to the other side, and pauses for a minute's time to admire the huge plume of smoke rise into the sky. A horse waits for him, and he rides off, glimpsing images of complete chaos. At the Bridge of London, he boards a ship departing for Flanders, and is never seen again.

The Westminister Massacre is followed by the Great Fire, as the close-together pubs, shops, and households near ground zero are reduced to ash. The entire episode causes hysteria among the surrounding population, believing it to be the supernatural work of the devil.

October - The other Gunpowder Plot conspirators capture Elizabeth in Warwickshire and crown her as the new queen. They then begin a rebellion to support her place as the monarch. Agents in London fail in capturing the new heir Charles, his brother killed in the explosion, and in doing so divulge the secret to the authorities that they killed the King so that the nation could become Catholic. As the news spreads, English Catholics are stunned that they must now participate in a rebellion against the Protestant majority. Catholics are imprisoned and slaughtered across the country. The Midlands Rebellion does succeed in gaining some ground, but a they are overwhelmed by angry Protestant militia. Surrounded, the rebels retire to the death of martyrs, while Elizabeth is freed.

Winter and Spring of 1605/06
Mob violence rips through England. Catholics are rooted out wherever they can be found and are in most cases executed. When they cannot be killed, most Catholics have their property confiscated and are forced into prison or exile from their former homes. 220,000 English Catholics perish in the massacres, while 40,000 are able to flee for refuge in France, Spain, and even Ireland. The remaining 40,000, only a tenth of the Catholic population before the Westminister Massacre, remain in hiding, or promptly convert to Protestantism.

The five-year-old Charles is crowned as King Charles I, King of Scotland and England. Remaining nobility, and the sons of those killed in the Westminister Massacre, set to rebuild the government. Reconstruction on Westminister and the Houses of Parliament begins promptly.

1609 - Taxes and duties on trade are amended to apply only to foreign merchants.
 

Constantinople

Banned
Hmm, I like this. Do you plan to continue it?
Why would they want Elizabeth to be queen? She was a good protestant, with the help of her brother of course.
 

Hnau

Banned
I believe just because she was young and she could be manipulated. However, these guys were crazy radicals: they thought that by committing a horrible atrocity they could claim England for the Catholics, a 5% minority? And now, for some stuff about colonization.

1606
April - [With the recent calamity, the regents of the crown decide not to sign a royal charter to the Virginia Company. Entrepreneurs are still looking to found and exploit a Nova Britannia.]

1607
June - Sir John Popham, an interested entrepreneur, dies when thrown from horseback.

1608
November 5th - The regents decide to give a royal charter to the Virginia Company of London and the Virginia Company of Plymouth to establish settlements on the coast of North America. They are given identical charters and identical territories, but no settlement could be established within 100 miles of another owned by the other Virginia Company.

1609
Taxes and duties on trade are amended by Parliament to apply only to foreign merchants.
February - The Plymouth Company sends their first ship, the Richard, holding 50 colonists, towards North America.
April - The Richard arrives in Maine. They begin to look for a site as a permanent settlement, settling on a site at OTL Pemaquid Point, establishing Gorges Colony. They begin the construction of a small fort.
June - The Richard leaves for England, leaving 35 men at Gorges Colony.
At the same time, the Virginia Company of London launches their own expedition of three ships, the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery, towards North America with 150 people total onboard.
August - The London Company runs into a large storm, perhaps a hurricane. After a three day battle with the tempest, the Godspeed and Discovery actually find each other and are able to fix whatever damages were made. However, the Susan Constant has been lost, and is far off-course. Indeed, the 75 men on the ship were battling a leak and had been swept quite a distance.
A day later, the crew of the Susan Constant finds land in the horizon. They run the ship in the reef and are able to get all of the passengers onto the island out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (OTL Bermuda). This will be named 'Newport Isle' after Captain Christopher Newport. The crew sets out to build a ship in order to reach the Americas.
September - The Godspeed and the Discovery, carrying 75 people first sights land at OTL Long Island. The crew is demoralized with the loss of their largest ship, carrying half of their colonists. However, they decide to stay around the area in case the Susan Constant turns up.
October - The two ships of the London Company expedition map Charles River (OTL Hudson River), Gosnold Island (OTL Long Island) and other nearby areas. However, the crew does not want to stay here for the winter with so few supplies, and so after trading with some natives and trying to find the gold on the beaches, they leave for England.
December - The Godspeed and the Discovery arrive back at England, and the London Company is devastated that their operation was a failure, except for the mapping of coastline and rivers.
Meanwhile, Gorges Colony suffers from the freezing conditions, but not one person dies.

1610
February - Two Plymouth Company ships, the First Supply, laden with 100 colonists and supplies, leaves for Gorges Colony.
March - A London Company fleet, led by Henry Hudson, leaves for North America, heading in a more southerly direction hoping to find the missing Captain Newport, though most believe the Susan Constant had sunk.
April - The crew of the Susan Constant, stranded at Newport Isle, have built a ship named Providence. Thirty men are left on the island to maintain the claim and also because they wish to return straight to England. If the Providence sinks or suffers other tragedy, the men plan to build a ship to sail to England.
May - The First Supply arrives at Gorges Colony. It will bolster the fort there, and leaves the colonists with a ship to use. The nearby river (OTL Kennebec) is explored and named the Gilbert River after the colony president. The colonists have been successful in trading for fur with the native Abenaki, and now desire to expand their industry by building a ship out of native timber.
The forty men of the Providence make it to Chesapeake Bay and have no idea where they are or where the other colonists are. They decide to head north, believing at the very least that they may come across the Plymouth colony.
June - The crew of the Providence have traveled all the way to OTL Rhode Island, named then Hopeless Isle, but decide to turn back towards Newport Island. By a stroke of good luck, however, the London Company's second expedition happens to cross paths. They sight each other and meet for a joyous reunion. It is decided to move to the Charles River to set up a settlement, Charlestown, afterward they would return to Newport Isle to gather up the other men.
July - 130 men and four ships establish the Charlestown settlement at the mouth of the Charles River (OTL Hudson). A fort is quickly built, and it is discovered the area is plentiful with game.
August - A ship from Charlestown leaves to find Newport Isle and rescue the men there.
September - The men on Newport Island, already attempting to build a ship of their own to sail back to England, are rescued by a ship commanded by Henry Hudson. They decide to return to England, though a handful remain to keep the claim.
November - Another group of supply ships reach Gorges Colony, and find that the colony has built a ship and is working on another. Many, however, decide to leave for England. A significant number remains at the fort, a majority new colonists brought by the supply ships.
 

Hnau

Banned
Implausible. The Gunpowder Plot was a fool plan, you can't expect to change an entire nation with such a small event. Only 5% of the country was Catholic. I don't see how it could have worked that way, I really can't. Too much vengeance in the air.
 

Hnau

Banned
Well, great. In my researching I accidentally figured out that of the thirteen major investors of the Virginia Company... ten were members of Parliament, and the others were other nobles. You know what that means?Most likely: No Virginia Company or anything like it and no British colonization drive, until some other figures come around.

That sucks. A large part of this timeline is going to have to be retconned, and I had spent a really long time writing TTL different colonization events. :(
 

Hnau

Banned
So, planning to revise this. Some changes: Because most of those who organized the campaign to settle North America died in the Westminister Massacre, the formation of such ventures is delayed until at least when Charles comes to age... colonization might be delayed indefinitely, if other powers get there first (in which the only way the British could take colonies in the Americas would be through war).

Still, Henry Hudson discovers H. Strait, H. Bay and claims it for the Dutch and returns alive. With no rumors from John Smith of a southerly corridor to the Pacific, he never makes that surprise expedition to that part of the Eastern Seaboard. That could be very interesting.

Otherwise, look forward to a Protestant conquest of Ireland, and a much different Thirty Years' War, in which a much different King Charles I joins forces with the others to beat back the Catholics. Fun fun!

My sticking point, my friends, is who becomes the regent for poor parentless five-year old King Charles I? I have committed myself to research and have found A) I have no idea how regency would work for the British throne at this time period and B) Who is there that could seize power as a regent? Its terribly important. Any help? Please? :(
 
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