Guy Fawkes, whom his horrified contemporaries termed "the great devil of
all" the conspirators, but who was simply a single-eyed fanatic, owes
his reputation chiefly to the fact that he was the one selected to set
file to the powder. His responsibility was in reality less than that of
Catesby, Percy, or Thomas Winter. His father, Edward Fawkes,--in all
probability a younger son of the old Yorkshire family of Fawkes of
Farnley,--was a notary at York, and Registrar of the Consistory Court of
the Minster. He could not of course have filled such as office, unless
he had been a Protestant. Edward Fawkes died in 1578, and was buried
January 17th in the Church of Saint Michael-le-Belfry, York. His widow,
whose maiden name was Edith Jackson, is said by some to have
subsequently married a zealous Roman Catholic, Mr Denis Bainbridge, of
Scotton; but Sir W. Wade gives the name of her second husband as "one
Foster, within three miles of York." She was living at the time of the
plot. Guy, who was baptised in Saint Michael's Church, April 16th,
1570, and educated at the Free School in the Horse Fair, did not become
a professed Papist until he was about sixteen years of age. He had a
step-brother of whom no more is known than that he belonged to one of
the Inns of Court in 1605. Guy was not eight years old when he lost his
father, who left him no patrimony beyond a small farm worth about 30
pounds per annum; he soon ran through this, sold the estate, and at the
age of twenty-three went abroad, living in Flanders for eight years,
during which time he was present at the taking of Calais by the Archduke
Albrecht. In 1601 he returned to England, with the reputation of one
"ready for any enterprise to further the faith." He now entered, along
with the Winters and the Wrights, into negotiations with Spain for a
fresh invasion of England, which was put a stop to by Elizabeth's death,
since the King of Spain declined to take up arms against his old ally,
King James. Fawkes's own statements in his examinations have been
proved to consist of such a mass of falsehood, that it is scarcely
possible to sift out the truth: and all that can be done is to accept as
fact such portions of his narrative as are either confirmed by other
witnesses, or seem likely to be true from circumstantial evidence. His
contradictions of his own previous assertions were perpetual, and where
confirmation is accessible, it sometimes proves the original statement,
but sometimes, and more frequently, the contradiction. This utter
disregard for truth prepares us to discount considerably the description
given of Fawkes by Greenway, as "a man of great piety, of exemplary
temperance, of mild and cheerful demeanour, an enemy of broils and
disputes, a faithful friend, and remarkable for his punctual attendance
upon religious observances." So far as facts can be sifted from
fiction, they seem to be that Thomas Winter, who had known Fawkes from
childhood, came to him in Flanders to acquaint him with the plot, and
subsequently introduced him to Catesby and Percy; that Fawkes was in the
service of Anthony Browne, Lord Montague, about 1604; that in the summer
of that year, when the mine was stopped on account of the prorogation of
Parliament, he went to Flanders, returning about the 1st of September.
During the progress of the mine, he served as sentinel, passing by the
name of John Johnson, Mr Percy's man; and he was the only one of the
conspirators allowed to be seen about the house, his face being unknown
in London. He said that he "prayed every day that he might perform that
which might be for the advancement of the Catholic faith, and the saving
of his own soul." Fawkes provided the greater part of the gunpowder,
and stowed it in the cellar, as is described in the story. His lodging
when in London was at the house of Mrs Herbert, a widow, at the back of
Saint Clement's Inn. Mrs Herbert disliked Fawkes, suspecting him to be
a priest. On his return from Flanders, he took up his quarters in the
house at Westminster, where the mine had been, and brought in the
remainder of the gunpowder. At the end of October, he went to White
Webbs, whence he was sent to Town on the 30th, to make sure of the
safety of the cellar and its dangerous contents. He returned at night
to report all safe, but came back to Town not later than the 3rd, when
he was present at the last meeting of the conspirators: but as to the
exact day he made three varying statements. The circumstances of his
arrest are told in the story. It is difficult, however, to reconcile
some of the details. According to Greenway, Fawkes was taken as he
opened the door of the vault; according to the official report, he was
"newly come out of the vault;" while according to Fawkes himself, when
he heard the officers coming to apprehend him, he threw the match and
touchwood "out of the window in his chamber, near the Parliament House,
towards the water,"--which can only refer to the room in Percy's house.
The one certainty is that he was not apprehended inside the vault. He
said himself that if this had been the case, he would at once have fired
the match, "and have blown up all." The lantern (now in the Bodleian
Library) was found lighted behind the door; the watch which Percy had
sent by Keyes was upon the prisoner. Fawkes originally assumed an
appearance of rustic stupidity; for Sir W. Wade writes to Lord Salisbury
a little later that he "appeareth to be of better understanding and
discourse than, before, either of us conceived him to be." (Additional
Manuscript 6178, folio 56.) That Fawkes was tortured there can be no
doubt, from the King's written command, and the tacit evidence of
Fawkes's handwriting. Garnet says he was half-an-hour on the rack; Sir
Edward Hoby, that he "was never on the rack, but only suspended by his
arms upright." Nothing could induce him to betray his companions until
he was satisfied that all was known: and with a base treachery and
falsehood only too common in the statecraft of that day, he was deceived
into believing them taken before they were discovered. Lying is
wickedness in all circumstances; but the prisoner's falsehood was based
on a worthier motive than the lies which were told to him. There was,
indeed, in the fearless courage and unflinching fidelity of Guy Fawkes,
the wreck of what might have been a noble man; and he certainly was far
from being the vulgar ruffian whom he is commonly supposed to have been.
In person he was tall and dark, with brown hair and auburn beard.