gunpowder plot 💣

• why did they want to overthrow the king?

  -James I introduced strict anti-Catholic measures

  -leader of plot was Robert Catesby who refused to take a protestant oath

  -he recruited other catholics to help him
• aims of gunpowder platters?

  -blow up parliament and kill the king on 5 November 1605

  -plotters would replace James with his daughter Elizabeth who they would influence to promote Catholicism
• trial and punishment?

  -tortured to extract confessions

  -Guy Fawkes put on the rack

  -found guilty of treason

  -sentenced to death by being hung, drawn and quartered
• consequences of the gunpowder plot?

  -widespread anti-Catholic attitudes

  -1605 Thanksgiving act created bonfire night

  -Catholics banned from working in the legal profession or becoming army officers

  -1606 Popish Recusants Act forced Catholics to take an oath of allegiance to the crown

  -if Catholics didn't attend church they had to pay a recusancy fine

  -Catholics banned from voting, becoming MP's or owning land until 1829