He travelled to the continent to fight in the Eighty Years War for Catholic Spain against the new Dutch Republic and, from 1595 until the Peace of Vervins in 1598, France. In October 1591 Fawkes sold the estate in Clifton in York that he had inherited from his father. At least one source claims that Fawkes married and had a son, but no known contemporary accounts confirm this. The Viscount took a dislike to Fawkes and after a short time dismissed him he was subsequently employed by Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu, who succeeded his grandfather at the age of 18.
Īfter leaving school Fawkes entered the service of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu. Fawkes's fellow students included John Wright and his brother Christopher (both later involved with Fawkes in the Gunpowder Plot) and Oswald Tesimond, Edward Oldcorne and Robert Middleton, who became priests (the latter executed in 1601). In her 1915 work The Pulleynes of Yorkshire, author Catharine Pullein suggested that Fawkes's Catholic education came from his Harrington relatives, who were known for harbouring priests, one of whom later accompanied Fawkes to Flanders in 1592–1593. A governor of the school had spent about 20 years in prison for recusancy, and its headmaster, John Pulleyn, came from a family of noted Yorkshire recusants, the Pulleyns of Blubberhouses. Fawkes may have become a Catholic through the Baynbrigge family's recusant tendencies, and also the Catholic branches of the Pulleyn and Percy families of Scotton, but also from his time at St. His mother remarried several years later, to the Catholic Dionis Baynbrigge (or Denis Bainbridge) of Scotton, Harrogate. In 1579, when Guy was eight years old, his father died. She bore two more children after Guy: Anne (b. 1572), and Elizabeth (b. 1575). In 1568, Edith had given birth to a daughter named Anne, but the child died aged about seven weeks, in November that year. As the customary gap between birth and baptism was three days, he was probably born about 13 April. The date of Fawkes's birth is unknown, but he was baptised in the church of St Michael le Belfrey, York on 16 April. Guy was an uncommon name in England, but may have been popular in York on account of a local notable, Sir Guy Fairfax of Steeton. Guy's mother's family were recusant Catholics, and his cousin, Richard Cowling, became a Jesuit priest.
Guy's parents were regular communicants of the Church of England, as were his paternal grandparents his grandmother, born Ellen Harrington, was the daughter of a prominent merchant, who served as Lord Mayor of York in 1536. He was the second of four children born to Edward Fawkes, a proctor and an advocate of the consistory court at York, and his wife, Edith.
Guy Fawkes was born in 1570 in Stonegate, York. He became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, the failure of which has been commemorated in the UK as Guy Fawkes Night since 5 November 1605, when his effigy is traditionally burned on a bonfire, commonly accompanied by fireworks.įawkes was baptised at the church of St Michael le Belfrey, York, next to York Minster (seen at left). Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes fell from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of being hanged, drawn and quartered. He was questioned and tortured over the next few days and confessed to wanting to blow up the House of Lords. The authorities were prompted by an anonymous letter to search Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and they found Fawkes guarding the explosives. The plotters leased an undercroft beneath the House of Lords Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder that they stockpiled there. Wintour introduced him to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England without success. He was born and educated in York his father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic.įawkes converted to Catholicism and left for mainland Europe, where he fought for Catholic Spain in the Eighty Years' War against Protestant Dutch reformers in the Low Countries. Guy Fawkes ( / f ɔː k s/ 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who was involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.