tickfen wrote on Nov 5
th, 2010 at 12:02pm:
Maybe someone should explain to him that Guy Fawkes was a political anarchist and that this is the politics thread.
Where else do you put political comments.....hang on, dont answer that!!!
bwaaaahaaaa
He was part of a Catholic plot to overthrow the Protestant king James I. Robert Catesby was the ring leader, but Guy Fawkes was the one found with the explosives.
The Catholics of the time would argue that those who supported the Church of England under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were the real anarchists.
James I reigned as king of Great Britain and Ireland in 1603 with the Union of the Crowns. He had been king of Scotland for the previous 35 years as James VI. In November 1605, the first English parliament of James I was about to sit.
So Guy Fawkes night was a kind of anti-Catholic demonstration. The holiday started as a kind of religious celebration from 1606 onwards as a celebration of the victory of Protestantism.
In 1673, there was a ritual burning of the "Whore of Babylon" which was dressed up with papal symbols to represent the pope, so that tradition of burning "the pope" continued on to this day in Britain.
Guy Fawkes himself was sentenced to be hung drawn and quartered. He jumped from the scaffold to break his neck to spare himself from the planned torture of parts 2 and 3.