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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.
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