Letter sent to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, warning him to stay away from parliament on the day of the Gunpowder Plot.
“My lord, out of the love I have for some of your friends, I want to make sure you are safe. Because of this I would advise you to not attend this sitting of parliament because God and man have agreed to punish the wickedness of this time. Do not think this is a joke, go to your estate in the country where you will be safe, because although there is no sign of any problem yet, this parliament will receive a terrible blow, but they will not see who it is that hurts them. This advice should not be ignored as it may do you some good, and it can do you no harm because the danger will have passed as soon as you have burned this letter. I hope God grants you the grace to make good use of it, and that he protects you.”
James VI of Scotland succeeded to the English throne as James I on the death of Elizabeth and was crowned in Westminster Abbey on this date in 1603, uniting the two kingdoms.
On this day in 1625, Charles I became King of England, Scotland and Ireland. He succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father King James I. Charles and his father believed in the divine right of kings to absolute rule. This caused Charles’s struggle for power with Parliament and resentment among his subjects for his seemingly tyrannical actions like taxing without the consent of Parliament and interfering with churches. The English Civil War broke out in the last years of his reign, which pitted the crown against Parliament. Charles was captured by the Parliamentarians and executed for high treason in 1649. The monarchy was then abolished but returned in 1660 with Charles’s son in power.
James VI of Scotland was crowned King of England and Ireland on this day in British history, 25 July 1603, becoming James I. Although the kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, each with its own parliament, judiciary, and law, James brought about the Union of the Crowns, a union of the states (including Ireland) under the same monarch. James would continue to sit on all three thrones until his death in 1625. England and Scotland were not brought under unified parliamentary rule until the Acts of Union of 1707, with Ireland remaining a separate kingdom that was subordinate to England until 1784.
“Remember, remember the fifth of November…“Guy Fawkes is said to have been carrying this iron lantern when he was arrested in the cellars underneath the Houses of Parliament on the night of 4–5 November 1605. Fawkes and his conspirators planned to ignite barrels of gunpowder concealed under firewood in the cellar during the state opening of Parliament, with the aim of blowing up the chamber and killing the Protestant King James I. Thanks to an anonymous warning, the cellars were searched, Fawkes was discovered and the plot failed.
Celebrating the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London, and later the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot’s failure.
Gifted to the University by Robert Heywood in 1641, the lantern joined the Ashmolean collection over two hundred years later in 1887. Guy Fawkes’ lantern is currently on display in our Ashmolean Story gallery on our lower ground floor.
King James VI of Scotland also became King James I of England when his cousin Queen Elizabeth II died. The Stuart dynasty only lasted for three more generations, after James’ great-granddaughter Queen Anne died the throne went to the House of Hanover.
