The Gunpowder Plot was a failed conspiracy by a group of English Catholics to blow up the House of Lords during the opening of Parliament, killing King James I and many of the political elite. The plotters, among them Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy and Guy Fawkes, were angry at the continuing persecution of Catholics under the new king. They had stored barrels of gunpowder in a cellar beneath the building, but the plot was discovered after an anonymous letter warned a Catholic nobleman, and Fawkes was arrested guarding the explosives. The leading conspirators were killed or executed, and harsher anti-Catholic laws followed. The failure is still marked every 5 November as Bonfire Night in Britain.
Before and after
- 1605Construction of Kensington Palace
- 1605Publication of Don Quixote
- 27 September 1605Battle of Kircholm
- 15 October 1605Death of Akbar
- 5 November 1605Gunpowder Plot
- 24 November 1605Janszoon voyage of 1606
- 6 June 1606Birth of Pierre Corneille
- 15 July 1606Birth of Rembrandt
- 25 April 1607Battle of Gibraltar
More in Society, economy & sport
- 8 February 1575Founding of Leiden University
- from 1602 to 1799Founding of Dutch East India Company
- August 1619The first enslaved Africans arrive in English Virginia
- November 1660Founding of Royal Society of London
- 1734Founding of University of Göttingen
- 14 November 1740Founding of University of Pennsylvania
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 17th century.