Blame It On The Jesuits

Another book review: Antonia Fraser's Faith and Treason/ The Story of the Gunpowder Plot.  This is a history book.  The research was interesting.  I was reading the footnotes as if they were narratives.

It took be over a month to read this. My fault, certainly not the author.  I had holidays, sickness...life issues that took precedence over what I wanted.  Anyway, I enjoyed this book.  I knew nothing about the story except for the fact that Catholics wanted to blow up Parliament and didn't succeed.

That is basically what happened but that's not the story.  Firstly, get this straight.  It was religious fanatics that attempted to blow up Parliament and the king.  These fanatics reasoned that it was the King's Parliament that made life miserable for Catholics, so they deserved to die.

Participants	Robert Catesby, John and Christopher Wright, Robert and Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, Guy Fawkes, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby and Francis Tresham
Location	London, England
Date	5 November 1605
Result	Failure, plotters executed

Here is the summary from Wikipedia.  Antonia Fraser puts human faces on the participants.  The first to be caught was the man guarding the gunpowder, Guy Fawkes.  He was a mercenary and soldiered for money. He was tortured until he gave a few names.  From then on the search yielded more and more results.

The convicted were hung, drawn and quartered.  They never planned an alternative or an escape route.  They were Catholics so their confessors were apprehended because they never told the authorities of their plans.  Of course not!  The seal of confession cannot be broken.  The Superior General of the Jesuits, Father Henry Garnet, s.j., was hung, drawn and quartered, also.  I could argue he died a martyr.

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to know more about the Gunpowder plot.