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Guy Fawkes
by George Cruickshank (1840) |
Many of our Spanish readers have no idea who Guy Fawkes was, and why he was important to British history. On the other hand, many of our English readers don't know that Fawkes has a strong connection with Spain. Born on April 13, 1570 (and died on January 31, 1606), Guy Fawkes was also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while
fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries. He belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a
recusant Catholic. Fawkes later converted to Catholicism and left for the continent, where he
fought in the Eighty Years' War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformers.
He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England but was unsuccessful. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England>>>
