Remember, remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot....
but we seem to have forgotten what lies behind this annual celebration.
And we - especially in Jersey - have not considered the similar role of Sir Walter Raleigh, Governor of the Island from 1600 until mid 1603.
By the time that Guy Fawkes was arrested on 5 November 1605 about to blow up Parliament, Sir Walter had already been sentenced to death for his part in the earlier stages of virtually the same plot. and been imprisoned for two years in the Tower of London.
In the following interviews, Guy Fawkes, the Roman Catholic mercenary soldier from Yorkshire explains some of the background to his campaign against his Protestant adversaries and the path that led to his death on the scaffold following dreadful torture.
He also explores some of the modern equivalents and the role of "Royalty" in our life today.
Video Part One that follows is about 6.5 minutes long;
Part Two below is about 10 minutes and starts with Guy Fawkes introducing Sir Walter Raleigh and examines his contradictory role as hero - whereas Sir Walter was in fact just as blameworthy (if anybody is blameworthy for trying to overthrow a tyranny) and should be burned in effigy too.
Sir Walter married "Bess" Throckmorton in secret from Queen Elizabeth's court and was virtually exiled from London society as a result. But the Throckmortons had a very strong Catholic hatred of the Royal House and Francis Throckmorton was executed in 1583 following his own scheming with Mary Queen of Scots.
Yet other Throckmortons were related to prominent organisers of the Guy Fawkes plot such as Catesby, Wintour and Tresham so Sir Walter Raleigh was already in the front line by marriage when he bacame the "bagman" in 1603 and promised to carry the 600,000 Spanish crowns through Jersey to finance the revolters in England. His commission was a substantial cash payment and a pension for life but he was arrrested before delivering.
Instead Sir Walter was tried and sentenced to death for treason but he hung on incarcarated in the Tower of London until 1616. Then he was released in order to carry just one more expedition - piracy by any other name - in search of more Spanish plunder. After that failure he returnd to London and was executed by beheading in accordance with his 1603 sentence.
So why do we now - especially in Jersey - "celebrate" the execution of Guy Fawkes today whereas our very own former "Royal" Governor, the wholly disgraced Sir Waltyer Raleigh, is considered to be an "hero"....?
