The Plot
Do you know what a plot is?
Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes and the other plotters knew that James I would be at the opening of Parliament on the 5th November 1605. This was when they decided to strike.
They planned to blow up the House of Lords, killing the King and the rest of the government too.
In the weeks before the opening of Parliament the plotters started to get gunpowder that they would use on the 5th November. Gunpowder is a powder that when put in a container and then set alight it explodes, setting fire to whatever is around it and causing lots of damage. They gathered a lot of gunpowder, 36 barrels to be exact! This would have been enough to blow up the Houses of Parliament and cause a lot of damage to the surrounding area too.
The plotters rented a cellar underneath the House of Lords and filled it with the barrels of gunpowder. The plan was that on the night of the 4th of November Guy Fawkes would go down to the cellar and wait for the opening of Parliament the next day. He would then light the fuse and the plan was then to escape before the gunpowder was lit and exploded.
Map showing where the cellar was located, underground.
What the House of Lords might have looked like
What the cellar might have looked like
