Historical influence of gunpowder conspiracy

The gunpowder plot took place on 1605. This is an unsuccessful plan planned by a group of desperate Catholic extremists in rural England. They want to blow up the British Parliament Building and kill King James I, his family and most Protestant nobles who are holding the opening ceremony of Parliament. This incident represents another series of failed attempts to kill the king based on the main plot and sub-plot of 1603.

The rebels were disappointed because James refused to give Catholics equal rights. They hope that the gunpowder plot will lead to rebellion, so that James' daughter Elizabeth of Bohemia can become a Catholic head of state. However, the plot of165438+1October 5 died a few hours before the plan. Every year, on10.5, 165438, the British celebrate the plot being shattered with a big bonfire night (that is, fireworks night or guy fawkes night). Samhain Eve, which is close to this festival, is also famous.

16-17th century, Protestant Britain vigorously eliminated Catholicism, which put the Catholic forces in danger of extinction. Under the rule of Elizabeth I, the queen who defeated the Spanish Armada, England took a series of measures to destroy any perceived influence from Rome: Catholicism was also costly because of the tax burden and other accusations. 1603, in the eyes of Catholics, James I's accession to the throne was the beginning of change. However, James I was urged by his chief adviser, Robert Cecil, to further eliminate the influence of Catholicism in Britain. So, a group of desperate English Catholic extremists, led by Sir Alfred Digby, Thomas Ventura, Robert Gatsby (planner) and guy fawkes (executor), tried to blow up the British Parliament Building, kill James I and many Protestant nobles, and support James' daughter Elizabeth of Bohemia as king.

Participants in the gunpowder plot rented a house next to the parliament and began to dig a tunnel between the two buildings. /kloc-after Christmas in 0/604, they began to transport barrels of gunpowder to the underground passage they dug through the Thames. In fact, Catholics who participated in the conspiracy did not expect it. Although it was done secretly, it was also very public. After all, 36 barrels of gunpowder are huge under strict control, and it is also a problem that they dig tunnels to produce a large amount of earthwork. In short, in the early morning of 1605 1 1.5, the king learned about the rebel plot, and the gunpowder plot ended in failure.

First of all, they carried out this conspiracy because Britain vigorously supported Protestantism and eliminated Catholicism in order to get rid of the control of the Pope and Catholicism. As Catholic landlords, they can't get any legal protection, and even their exploitation and repression are reasonable in the legal sense. They hope that Britain will become a free country without a central government and alleviate the disadvantage of Catholicism.

Secondly, no matter what the starting point is, it is wrong to do such a terrorist attack. From the moment they plotted to blow up the parliament building and physically destroy the king and Protestant nobles, they were real terrorists.

Third, although Britain in the17th century was not strong enough (the battles with the Netherlands and Spain were won or lost), at home, the bourgeois and new bourgeois landlords controlled Britain economically and politically. Although the king had an army, the parliament controlled the national finance. Even if the king did not convene a parliament and collect taxes privately, without the cooperation of the bourgeoisie, the wealth that the king could plunder was minimal. (This is also the reason why Charles I later called the parliament repeatedly, because even if more taxes were collected, it was just a small fight and there was not much money. He even sold his wife's dowry. ) With the bourgeoisie controlling Parliament, it is only a matter of time before a bourgeois revolution takes place in Britain. The key is whether the king can handle the relationship with parliament well. James I handled it well, but his son Charles I didn't.

Finally, even if the plot succeeds, it will not stop the bourgeois revolution in Britain. There are 35 years from 1605 to 1640, but the capitalist economic development in Britain is not much different (after all, there is no industrial revolution). In addition, the king's rights are limited, and most of the conspirators are middle and lower class landlords in Britain, and they can't be in power even if they succeed. They will even be killed by the people (Catesby and Percy, the participants in the conspiracy, were killed by a county sheriff's civil defense corps on their way to escape), while the new landlords and bourgeois representatives only killed one group and another, so the wheel of history cannot be changed by a few people.