Guy Fawkes: Who Is This Guy, Anyway?

Guy Fawkes
Bridgeman Art Library

The End Is Nigh
Fawkes never got close to setting off his charges. The plot was discovered when the cellars were searched the night before the opening of Parliament. Fawkes was caught, while his fellow conspirators fled; they were subsequently cornered and either died resisting arrest or were captured and executed. When Fawkes was asked what he was doing in possession of so much gunpowder, he reportedly answered that his intention was "to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains." On Jan. 31, 1606, Fawkes and three others were executed at the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, opposite the building they'd attempted to destroy. The 17th century engraving above records the scene.

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