Gunpowder, Treason and Plot – answers and explanations
Here are the answers to all 15 questions in the Gunpowder, Treason and Plot quiz, each with a short explanation. Test your knowledge of the 1605 plot, Stuart England and Bonfire Night. Haven't played yet? Take the quiz first and compare your score.
Play the quiz · 15 questions1. Who was the mastermind and leader of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot?
Answer: Robert Catesby
Robert Catesby, a Warwickshire-born Catholic gentleman, conceived and led the Gunpowder Plot, recruiting Guy Fawkes, Thomas Percy and others from 1604. He was shot dead at Holbeche House on 8 November 1605 as the conspiracy collapsed.
2. Which monarch did the Gunpowder Plot aim to kill?
Answer: King James I
The plotters intended to kill King James I (James VI of Scotland) by blowing up the House of Lords at the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605, hoping to install his nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth as a Catholic queen.
3. What was Guy Fawkes guarding when he was caught beneath the House of Lords?
Answer: Barrels of gunpowder
Guy Fawkes was arrested shortly after midnight on 4-5 November 1605 in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords, guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder hidden under firewood, with matches and touchwood on him.
4. How was the plot uncovered before it could be carried out?
Answer: An anonymous warning letter to Lord Monteagle
An anonymous letter delivered on 26 October 1605 warned Lord Monteagle to stay away from the opening of Parliament; he passed it to the authorities, prompting the search that caught Fawkes. Francis Tresham is the prime suspect as its author.
5. On which date each year does Britain celebrate Bonfire Night?
Answer: 5 November
Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night, falls on 5 November, the anniversary of the plot's failure in 1605. Parliament made it an annual day of thanksgiving in 1606 under the Observance of 5th November Act.
6. What false name did Guy Fawkes give his captors when he was first arrested?
Answer: John Johnson
When seized in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords on the night of 4-5 November 1605, Guy Fawkes called himself John Johnson, claiming to be the servant of plotter Thomas Percy; the Commons Journal records the arrest of 'one Johnson'.
7. 'Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and...' what?
Answer: plot
The traditional English verse runs 'Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot', recalling the 1605 conspiracy to blow up Parliament and kill James I.
8. Roughly how many barrels of gunpowder were hidden beneath the House of Lords?
Answer: 36
Thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, roughly a ton and a half, were stashed under firewood in a rented undercroft beneath the House of Lords; the figure is recorded in the House of Commons Journal entry of 5 November 1605.
9. What is the straw figure burned on a Bonfire Night fire commonly called?
Answer: A 'Guy'
The stuffed effigy burned on 5 November is called a 'guy', after Guy Fawkes, and children once wheeled homemade ones around asking for 'a penny for the guy' to buy fireworks.
10. Who still ceremonially search Parliament's cellars before the State Opening?
Answer: The Yeomen of the Guard
Before each State Opening of Parliament the Yeomen of the Guard, the monarch's bodyguard founded in 1485, carry out a lantern-lit ceremonial search of the Palace of Westminster cellars, a custom recalling the 1605 plot and followed today by a modern police sweep.
11. Which lord received the anonymous letter that led to the plot's discovery?
Answer: Lord Monteagle
William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, a Catholic peer, was handed an anonymous letter on 26 October 1605 warning him to stay away from Parliament; he passed it to the authorities, and the surviving letter is held in the National Archives.
12. Before taking the English throne, James I already ruled which country?
Answer: Scotland
James had reigned as James VI of Scotland since 1567 and became James I of England in 1603 on Elizabeth I's death, uniting the two crowns in one person.
13. At which Staffordshire house was plot leader Robert Catesby shot dead?
Answer: Holbeche House
Robert Catesby was mortally shot on 8 November 1605 during the siege of Holbeche House near Kingswinford, then in Staffordshire, by a posse led by the Sheriff of Worcestershire, Richard Walsh; Thomas Percy died in the same fight.
14. Which toffee-coated fruit is a classic Bonfire Night treat in Britain?
Answer: Toffee apple
Toffee apples are a traditional 5 November treat in Britain, alongside parkin, treacle toffee, black peas and jacket potatoes; they spread from autumn fairs held around the same time of year.
15. The Guy Fawkes mask used by protesters was popularised by which film?
Answer: V for Vendetta
The stylised Guy Fawkes mask was drawn by David Lloyd for Alan Moore's 1980s graphic novel V for Vendetta and became a global protest symbol after the 2005 film adaptation, later adopted by Anonymous and Occupy.