Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot

Antonia Fraser

Doubleday, 1997 - History - 408 pages

In England, November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, when fireworks displays commemorate the shocking moment in 1605 when government authorities uncovered a secret plan to blow up the House of Parliament--and King James I along with it. A group of English Catholics, seeking to unseat the king and reintroduce Catholicism as the state religion, daringly placed thirty-six barrels of gunpowder in a cellar under the Palace of Westminster. Their aim was to ignite the gunpowder at the opening of the Parliamentary session. Though the charismatic Catholic, Robert Catesby, was the group's leader, it was the devout Guy Fawkes who emerged as its most famous member, as he was the one who was captured and who revealed under torture the names of his fellow plotters. In the aftermath of their arrests, conditions grew worse for English Catholics, as legal penalties against them were stiffened and public sentiment became rabidly intolerant.



In a narrative that reads like a gripping detective story, Antonia Fraser has untangled the web of religion, politics, and personalities that surrounded that fateful night of November 5. And, in examining the lengths to which individuals will go for their faith, she finds in this long-ago event a reflection of the religion-inspired terrorism that has produced gunpowder plots of our own time.

What people are saying

FAITH AND TREASON: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot

User Review  - Jane Doe - Kirkus

Early 17th century England's complexities and dangers are rendered both comprehensible and relevant in the skilled prose of a veteran mystery novelist (A Splash of Red, 1981, etc.) and popular ...

Review: Faith and Treason; the Story of the Gunpowder Plot

User Review  - Monte Lamb - Goodreads

On November 5, 1605 Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the House of Lords on the first day of Parliament. The conspiracy behind the plot and the events that preceeded and followed that day are well ...

Contents

• part two The Horse of St George: 55
• Catesby as Phaeton: 83
• PART THREE That Furious and Fiery Course: 95

About the author

Antonia Fraser is the author of many internationally bestselling historical works, including Love and Louis XIV, Mary Queen of Scots, and Marie Antoinette, which was made into a film by Sofia Coppola. She is also the author of two memoirs, Must You Go? and My History. She has received the Wolfson History Prize, the 2000 Norton Medlicott Medal from Britain's Historical Association, and the Enid McLeod Franco-British Society Literary Prize. Fraser was made a Dame for services to literature in 2011.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot; Doubleday Anchor book; Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot, Antonia Fraser
• Author: Antonia Fraser
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Doubleday, 1997
• Original from: Pennsylvania State University
• Digitized: Jul 17, 2009
• ISBN: 0385471904, 9780385471909
• Length: 408 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Great Britain / General