Tomorrow – Saturday – I am going to Leeds Castle to spend Guy Fawkes Night, to view the fireworks and bonfire. The English have a tradition whereby they every 5th of November commemorate the attempt to overthrow King James I in 1605 – commonly known as ‘the Gunpowder Plot’. This was in the time of the Church Reformation going on in Europe, and England was, at the time, Protestant. Queen Elizabeth I had died two years earlier and she had been very fiercely against the Catholics. Now James I (son of Mary, Queen of Scots, who’d been beheaded by the order of Elizabeth I not too long ago) was king. He tried to be less hostile against the Catholics, but was forced to take a stronger stance.
Eventually a group of people, one of whom was a man named Guy Fawkes, who had fought in the Spanish Army, decided they wanted to overthrow the king and make England a republic. A part of their plan was to bomb the Parliament. So they stored lots and lots of gunpowder in the basement of the Parliament. Unfortunately for them, however, their plan was discovered.
But every year since the English have lit bonfires, and had fireworks, on the 5th of November. I have never heard of this tradition before coming here, and last year it was only in the morning of that day that one of my friends suggested we go to Tyler Hill (near the Uni) for the celebrations that day. It turned out to be the 400-year anniversary and thus bigger fireworks than possibly ever before, and a massive bonfire and lots of funfair attractions. It was a great night.
This time I am spending it slightly differently. I am going to Leeds Castle. Apparently they have impressive fireworks and lots of other attractions that night, and I am keen to discover other ways of celebrating that day. I ignore my pneumonia (diagnosed by the doc today and given antibiotics and other remedies) and go there by car with a group from church – and I hope it will be as good as I expect!
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…yet I cannot help but wonder: what had happened if they had succeeded? If England 401 years ago had become a republic we may not have had the House of Lords, with its amazing gold-covered wood carvings. The world would never have known Princess Di because she wouldn’t have been princess – let alone married Charles! – and Buckingham Palace might have been turned into an office building. Or a presidential palace. Or a museum. Or something else. Would there be a Britain in the first place, or would England, Scotland and Wales (I am deliberately ignoring Northern Ireland) have been independent countries? What about the EU, would that have happened?
On the other hand: who cares? They didn’t succeed. I am going to a great celebration. And they have promised me that I can buy candy floss (sukkerspinn) there. What else matters, really?
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