....“I think that Hollywood has definitely glorified Fawkes, who was not someone operating out of noble principles,” Mohamed said. “I think (the movie’s hype) has made Fawkes into more of a hero than any student of history would think”....
....As of today, Fawkes’ story has fluctuated significantly throughout the course of time. It went from a religious conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism in Great Britain to an English night of celebration to an American symbol of revolution. Because the Gunpowder Plot took place more than four centuries ago, details have been cast away, storytelling has taken over, and Fawkes means something different to everyone, depending on which side of the Atlantic they are on.
Most of the folks I know that celebrate the day at all just like the idea of burning somebody in effigy, cause it’s kind of cool. We don’t care about whether Fawkes was a hero or villain, just pick somebody and “burn” them. Of course most of the people in my group learned about it from the V for Vendetta graphic novel, where-in is NOT a freedom fighter, he’s a bloodthirsty anarchist fighting against a bloodthirsty fascist regime, there are no good guys.
I’m reposting my comment made about the Gunpowder Plot on your previous thread about matching the Plot and Shakespeare’s MacBeth. These are my thoughts about why it ended up much better for British Roman Catholicism that the Plot failed.
It is an interesting “what if” to think of what would have happened if this “Gunpowder Plot” had succeeded. In our history, James I’s descendants married Roman Catholic (RC) queens and were reputed to be crypto-Catholic in their private lives. True, religion did cause the overthrow of his namesake grandson, James II in the “Glorious Revolution of 1688” by James II’s protestant daughter, Mary and her husband William of Orange (Netherlands). However this coup d’etat was as much a revolt against another Charles I absolutist monarch sa James II now blatant RC faith.
Nonetheless, England still tolerated a large number of RC nobility as long as they kept it private, for example the Howard Family as the Dukedom of Norfolk. Add to that the fact is that as the Reformation/Counter-Reformation wars died down, Britain became much more tolerant so long as RC exercise remained private and uncontroversial.
Now think of a Kingdom where the Monarch and Parliament were decimated by religious partisans. How that would have affected Charles I who at age 5 would have had a very long regency period, never a good thing for a monarchy or for the persons involved. What would be CERTAIN is that the blow-back against RC and RC partisans would have been enormous, especially with the memories of the problems just confirming the protestant succession through the Scottish Stuart line. Charles would have been probably raised much more in the Puritan traditions which would have matched more closely to the Scottish Presbyterian traditions.
By projection, Britain would have gone through a much longer period of RC intolerance and that would have affected history in ways not immediately apparent. As an example, think about Maryland and Lord George Baltimore, a RC convert who persuaded Charles I to grant an official RC colony, Maryland, 1632, north of the already established Virginia Colony. Would this generous act have occurred following a successful Gunpowder Plot? I’m inclined to doubt.
So my conclusion is that it was far better for the British Roman Catholics and their faith that the Gunpowder Plot was nipped before the fuse got to it.
As I protestant I do not do anything to even acknowledge this plotter against the rightful king.
If one wants to revolt against the king then he should have done it the way our founding fathers did. Assassination is a bad business
Every time I see one of those idiots wearing that mask, the vision of a baseball bat being swung with force appears in my brain.
I don’t know why. Can’t explain it. I wonder why there would be that kind of association?
Much the same as the commercial adoration of “Che,” a sociopathic mass murderer.
Mark
The mask of Guy Fawkes is also often used by hacktivist group Anonymous, which has defaced multiple websites in honor of the holiday. On the morning of Nov. 4, the group ravished the NBC website, featuring the Nov. 5 poem, loud music and a dark, starry screen.
LULZ...
I can't think of anyone more worthy!