Even though James I’s mother and wife had both been Roman Catholics, and he had tried to marry his son to a Catholic princess, he enacted severe penalties against the Catholics in England and banished their priests from the country. In 1604 a plot was formed by a group of desperate Catholics to kill the king, ministers and members of Parliament. To accomplish this the plotters rented a cellar under the Parliament House, in which they stored barrels of gunpowder. The plan was to touch a match to this during the opening of Parliament when the king was present, and blow up the entire government at once. One of the thirteen conspirators, Sir Guy Fawkes, was appointed to keep watch over the powder. Somehow word leaked out, the cellars were searched and Fawkes was arrested. Eventually all of the conspirators were tried and executed or died defending themselves. From that time on the fifth of November has been celebrated in England as ‘Guy Fawkes Day’, as per the nursery rhyme:
Remember, remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder treason and plot; I see no reason why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot.
The early prayerbooks after 1604 contained a special thanksgiving service on 5 November for deliverance of the king and Parliament. To this day children burn Guy Fawkes in effigy