Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reasom
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
405 years ago today a man by the name of Guy Fawkes decided to roll a few wheelbarrows of gun powder below the House of Lords and blow the kind to Hell and back again. The plot ended in failure as he was captured by one of the guards before lighting the fuse but the idea is still sound.
The problem stemmed from the fact that England had separated their church from Rome founding the Protestant Church of England. In order to get appointed to an official church position you had to swear an alliance to the monarch of England which rather clashes with the whole idea of Catholicism. The bottom line is life turned to shit for Catholics in the country who become more and more persecuted.
So what do you do when you’re a member of a group of people being persecuted in a monarchy? Well since a monarchy doesn’t lend itself well to hearing outside opinions your go to plan B which is to kill the monarch. The idea was simple, blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament. This was supposed to signal a rebellion in the Midlands that would ultimately end with a Catholic princess placed upon the throne.
I’ve always found this piece of history interesting. It demonstrates quite well that you can only persecute a people so far before they’ll rise up against you. Fast forward 405 years. Our methods of rebellion have become far less violent thanks in part to the formation of democracy. But this election season the people of the United States showed the ruling party that we were unhappy with their Health Insurance Company Enrichment Act, continued bailouts, war, and all sort of other unpleasant things. Sadly the rebellion just put into place more of the same but it does who people take note of what the ruling party do and will rebel as best as they can find to.
So yes remember the fifth of November as a day to celebrate rebellion against oppressive rule.