Remember, remember the 5th of November, Gunpowder Treason and Plot.

This old children's rhyme recalls one of the most momentous events in Parliamentary history. An event celebrated every year in numerous homes and parks in England with fireworks displays and bonfires, many of them topped by a dummy dressed to look like one of the chief conspirators - Guy Fawkes.

At the time of the story, James I was persecuting the Roman Catholic minority in England. In retaliation, a plot was devised by a group of staunch Catholics, the plan being to blow up the King and Government at the State Opening of Parliament. The main conspirators were Robert Catesby, Thomas and Robert Wintour who were joined later by Guy, or Guido, Fawkes (as he preferred to be known, after a visit to Spain). By chance, the plotters were able rent a cellar actually under the House of Lords. They brought 36 barrels of gunpowder across the river and hid them in the cellar under a pile of faggots and rubbish. Fawkes was deputed to set fire to the trail of gunpowder, giving him 15 minutes to escape across the river.

It is possible that the plan would have succeeded except that Lord Monteagle produced a letter which he claimed had been sent to him anonymously, warning him not to attend Parliament on the 5th November. Monteagle showed it to Robert Cecil, the Prime Minister and it was decided to wait for the plotters to reveal themselves. The conspirators were warned of the arrival of the letter and its contents but decided to press ahead anyway.

The day before the opening of Parliament the cellars were searched and the gunpowder was discovered along with a 'very tall and desperate fellow' - Guy Fawkes. The other plotters fled north from London but Fawkes was taken before the authorities, including the king, to be interrogated.

The king immediately committed Fawkes to the Tower of London and ordered that he be tortured, using the 'gentler tortures first and so, by degrees, to the worst'.

Fawkes held out for two days until giving up, he confessed all, as we can see from his signature before and after torture, implicating the other conspirators. He and the six other main figures were tried in Westminster Hall in January 1605 and later executed in Old Palace Yard. The heads were mounted on spikes, and publicly displayed, to warn off any imitators. Other lesser members of the conspiracy were tortured, some until death, in the Tower until the king lost interest in May and went off hunting deer.

To this day, on the morning of the State Opening of Parliament each year, the basement of the Houses of Parliament are searched for explosives, so far fruitlessly, by the Yeomen of the Guard.