“Remember, remember, the 5th of November,
The Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot.
I know no reason The Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.”
In the early hours of November 5th, 1605, Guy “Guido” Fawkes, a veteran of the Eighty Years War, having fought on the side of the Spanish Monarch, was found guarding a cache of gunpowder in the lower chambers of The House of Lords.
Fawkes was arrested, tortured, and convicted of treason. He was sentenced to death, and scheduled for execution, the following January. The method of execution was to be Hanged Drawn and Quartered. Fawkes cheated the hangman by leaping from the scaffold and breaking his neck.
Thereafter, November the 5th was observed, as Guy Fawkes Day, in remembrance of The Gunpowder Treason.
Few actually understand the context in which Fawkes, and his fellows, acted. Not the people that use Fawkes, as a symbol of terrorist treason, or the people that use him as a symbol of rebellion.
Those that use his imagine as a symbol of rebellion often rebel against the things that he represented.
Those that use him as a symbol of terrorism are often propagandists for imperialism, and maintaining the, status quo, establishment.
Without wasting much time, I’ll offer this video clip from Glenn Beck’s television program. Beck, an apostate Catholic, and cult member, uses Fawkes as a symbol of terrorism, and implies that anyone rebelling against the immoral establishment are terrorists.
Of course, you can look around the internet, and find all the many ways that Fawkes’ image is used. Most popularly in the Movie, V for Vendetta.
Most everyone has it all wrong and do not understand the proper context of the Gunpowder Rebellion. The reason is that the predominate culture in the Untied States, and Great Briton, is Protestant.
Protestant culture continues to edit the horrors of the Protestant Reformation, in England, out of it’s history books. It was the murderous tyranny of the English Reformers that Fawkes rebelled against.
Only a couple of years ago, I was given a Watch Tower magazine, by a Jehovah’s Witness. The main article was about the Reformation in England. The author did a pretty good job of describing events leading up to the English Reformation. How the whore mongering, and adulterous, [my words] Henry VIII couldn’t keep it in his pants, and needed a divorce.
The Watch Tower article jumped from King Henry VIII wanting a divorce to ‘Bloody’ Mary, Queen of Scots. The author edited out those who died refusing to sign the loyalty oath, to the king, declaring him head of the Church, in England. No mention of how Catholics were hunted down, and tortured to death, under Henry VIII, or later, under his bastard daughter, Elizabeth I. No mention of the tyrannical actions of James I, commissioner of the King James Bible.
After reading The Watch Tower article, I deposited it in an appropriate receptacle, for literary trash, the nearest garbage can.
Now, I don’t mean to pick on The Watch Tower, or Jehovah’s Witnesses, as the problematic system of lying, and covering up, is what keeps Protestantism, at large, in business.
The proper context for the actions of Guy Fawkes is that of man trying to liberate a people from murderous Religious oppression. Namely the oppression of Catholics from Protestant Reformers.
The bloody persecution began in 1534, under the adulterer, Henry VII, and continued on until the 18th century. No real relief came about until the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829.
Presently, in England, there are still laws preventing the Monarchy from marrying a Catholic. There are no laws preventing the Monarchs from marrying outside of Christianity completely. There are no laws preventing them from marrying a member of Judaism, or even Islam.
Remember Guy Fawkes in your own way. Shoot off fire works and remember a traitor. Put on a silly mask for the sake of mindless rebellion.
But I will think of a man who tried to liberate a people from religious persecution.
Additional reading online:
The Guy Fawkes Wikipedia page.
Guy Fawkes Night Wikipedia page.
The Eighty Years War Wikipedia page.
The Catholic Martyrs of the English Reformation.
‘The Penal Laws’ by Patrick Barry.
British Penal Laws throughout GB and the American Colonies.
2 Comments
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I swear if I hear one more quote from V for Vendetta… I know its the 5th of November.. stop telling me to remember, remember. geektalk
Sorry mate, no quotes from V for Vandetta here, only a passing mention. But, I’ll let you advetize your lap top batteries anyway.