Remember, remember: The legacy of the Gunpowder Plot

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. If you grew up in the UK, there's a good chance you've probably recited that verse at least once in your life, because although the gunpowder plot failed, its memory ignited a tradition that has lasted for more than 400 years. I'm Danny Byrd, and in this four-part history actress series on the Gunpowder plot, I'm joined by historian Professor John Cooper from the University of York. In this final episode, we trace the afterlife of the gunpowder plot, how it was commemorated with sermons, bonfires and fireworks, and how Guy Fawkes was transformed from failed conspirator into an enduring figure of folklore, and how his image, centuries later, has become a global icon of resistance to authority.

In January 1606, just two months after the failed gunpowder plot, Parliament passed an act of Thanksgiving to be observed every 5th of November. What did this act call for, and how did it lay the foundations for an annual day of national commemoration? This is a really interesting example of the government and Parliament taking advantage of a pretty terrifying situation and set of circumstances. in order to turn it to the benefit of royal government. And it's a it's a very sort of sectarian Protestant inflected definition of that government as well.

So what the gunpowder plot seems to do is to slot into a growing series of sort of divine revelations of plots and conspiracies against Protestant monarchy that have been uncovered and discovered and thwarted at the last minute, of course, by figures like Francis Walsingham and Robert Cecil, but essentially by the providence of God. And that's the sort of rhetoric that's underpinning the Act of Parliament calling for this act of thanksgiving. And what this act does, I mean it's one of a whole series of statutes since the Reformation essentially telling parish churches what to do under certain circumstances.

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