The Gunpowder Plot was hatched by a group of prominent Catholics who regarded King James I as a traitor for not granting them religious freedom.

The Gunpowder Plot was hatched by a group of prominent Catholics who regarded King James I as a traitor for not granting them religious freedom.

The mastermind was Robert Catesby, a wealthy country gentleman who had been imprisoned for sheltering a priest.

Catesby first recruited his cousin Thomas Wintour and his friends Thomas Percy and John Wright.

Then he recruited Guy Fawkes.

Fawkes, from York, was born into a Protestant family but converted to Catholicism.

He served in the Spanish Army for a time before returning to England and throwing himself into Catholic politics with great zeal.

This fanaticism was fuelled by what Fawkes and his fellow plotters saw as the treachery of James I.

Before he came to the throne James had promised England’s leading Catholics that, unlike Queen Elizabeth I, he would tolerate their religious beliefs.

But once James was in power he went back on his word and reintroduced some of the late Queen’s anti-Catholic measures.

Catesby and his fellow plotters swore to get revenge by blowing up James when he attended the opening of Parliament at Westminster.

They hired a cellar beneath the building, where they placed 36 barrels of gunpowder, hiding them beneath bits of wood.

But as their plans grew, more people were taken into their confidence — with disastrous results.

On October 26, 1605, ten days before Parliament was due to sit, an anonymous note was sent to the Catholic Lord Monteagle.

It warned him not to attend the opening of Parliament as “a great calamity would consume it”.

Monteagle at once delivered the letter to the King’s advisers.

The five chief plotters found out Monteagle had been tipped off, but when no action was taken against them they decided to carry on.

On the night of November 4, Fawkes was caught in the cellar with the powder.

He intended to blow up Parliament the next day, November 5, which is still celebrated as Guy Fawkes’ Night.

Fawkes was immediately marched into the King’s bedchamber and questioned. Then he was tortured until he revealed the plot. His four accomplices had fled.

But on November 8, Catesby, Percy and Wright were found at a Warwickshire house.

During a skirmish all three were fatally wounded. Wintour was captured later.

He and Fawkes were hung, drawn and quartered on January 31, 1606.

Bard’s later plays

WILLIAM Shakespeare wrote some of his most acclaimed plays between 1603 and 1609. Into this period fall Measure For Measure, King Lear, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus and Troilus and Cressida.

Many of these works have a sombre tone — which has led academics to speculate that Shakespeare was in the grip of some personal crisis. His problem was certainly not lack of popularity — his dramas were playing to packed houses and winning critical acclaim.

Shakespeare had also become a great favourite of King James I, who allowed his company to call itself The King’s Men. During this time Shakespeare’s company averaged 13 Royal command shows a year. In Queen Elizabeth’s reign they had averaged only three.