6 days to go: Throwback Thursday - Guy Fawkes

Greetings, Prosers 

It's time for our regular Throwback Thursday feature; but before we continue, we have another coin giveaway for you lovely people. 

With only six days to go until the launch of our Bookstore, we'd love it if you'd help us spread the word(s). So, today's giveaway is as follows: 

Go to our Twitter page (@theproseapp), like and retweet our pinned Tweet. That's all you have to do - although if you add your support to our Thunderclap Campaign, you'll get an extra gold star from us. It costs nothing, and you help us shout about it in one simultaneous social media shout. The link is in the pinned tweet.

Otherwise, just two clicks on our Twitter page will give two lovely Prosers 500 coins each. For those without Twitter, there'll be a chance to do the same on Facebook tomorrow.

All winners will be announced on launch day! 

Now back to Throwback Thursday, and as some of you will know, it's Guy Fawkes Day / Bonfire Night in the UK this Saturday. A day where we set the skies alight with fireworks galore. But why do we do that? You're about to find out... 

…and now a word or two from our sponsors:

Remember, remember!

The fifth of November,

The Gunpowder treason and plot;

I know of no reason

Why the Gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot!

Guy Fawkes and his companions

Did the scheme contrive,

To blow the King and Parliament

All up alive.

Threescore barrels, laid below,

To prove old England's overthrow.

But, by God's providence, him they catch,

With a dark lantern, lighting a match!

A stick and a stake

For King James's sake!

If you won't give me one,

I'll take two,

The better for me,

And the worse for you.

A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,

A penn'orth of cheese to choke him,

A pint of beer to wash it down,

And a jolly good fire to burn him.

Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring!

Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King!

Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!

Guy Fawkes (April 13, 1570 – January 31, 1606) is best known for attempting to blow up Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot, which is now commemorated as Guy Fawkes Night, a.k.a. Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night, Firework Night. Back to you, V –

Voila! In view, humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate.

Fawkes grew up in York and later made a name for himself militaristically while fighting for the Spanish in the Eighty Years War for Catholic Spain against the new Dutch Republic. Although his parents regularly attended the Church of England, Fawkes eventually joined a secretive group of English Catholics, who conspired against the Crown. When King James I took the throne, English Catholics thought their 45-year-long persecution – which included dozens of priests being put to death and Catholics not being allowed to celebrate Mass or be married pursuant to their tradition – by order of Queen Elizabeth I (who Mr. Pope excommunicated in 1570) was to end, and they were to receive legal power to practice their faith freely again. But when this did not happen, a group of conspirators affirmed to assassinate his Majesty and his ministers by detonating Westminster Palace. V?

This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, was a vestige of the “vox populi” now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stood vivified, and vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin, van guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.

The group was led by Robert Catesby, who was determined to kill the Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter (who was third in line that game of thrones). Author Antonia Fraser described Mr. Fawkes as “a tall, powerfully built man, with thick reddish-brown hair, a flowing moustache in the tradition of the time, and a bushy reddish-brown beard…a man of action…capable of intelligent argument as well as physical endurance, somewhat to the surprise of his enemies.” Fawkes’ role in the Catesby group? Light the fuse to detonate 36 barrels of gunpowder in Parliament, and gloriously escape across the Thames.

The only verdict was vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.

You could say that.

Verily this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honour to –

Thanks V.

– and you may call me Guido.

That is correct, to be fair: Fawkes went by the name “Guido” while campaigning in southern Europe. We use the term “guy” all the time nowadays, as synonymous to “man,” but originally it denoted a “repulsive, ugly person” in specific reference to Fawkes. He certainly avoided an undoubtedly repulsive, ugly death. Just before lighting the fuse, guards found Fawkes and sent him to the Tower of London, where he was tortured until giving the co-conspirators’ names.

Attorney General Sir Edward Coke remarked, “[Those charged of this high treason shall be] put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both.” Genitals were to be severed and burned before their own eyes. Fawkes managed to avoid any drawing and quartering, because right before his execution day, he plummeted from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and consequently broke his neck.

Parliament declared November 5 a national day of thanksgiving, first celebrated in 1606. Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated with bonfires, fireworks, and parades. Even today, security searches Parliament to ensure there are no explosive-dwelling conspirators attempting to pull what Fawkes could not.

See any reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot?

For the full blog piece with beautiful images, please visit blog.theprose.com later today. 

Until next time, Prosers, 

Prose.