What if Guy Fawkes had succeeded?

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

On 5 November 1605, Guy Fawkes became infamous not for what he achieved, but for what he failed to do: kill King James VI & I and bring down the British parliament. But what if the Gunpowder Plot had been successful? How would it have reshaped Britain, Europe and even the wider world? And would Shakespeare have written 'Guy Fawkes' instead of 'Macbeth'?

In this special episode Professor Suzannah Lipscomb explores one of history’s most tantalising "what ifs" with a panel of historians: Jessie Childs, Gareth Russell and Professor Anna Whitelock.

Mary I: What If She'd Lived?

Gunpowder Plot: Tudor Origins

Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Max Wintle, the audio editors are Alex Elkins and Amy Haddow and the producers are Fiona Turnock and Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb.
0:02.6	If you'd like not just the Tudors ad-free to get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.
0:10.5	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries,
0:16.0	including my own recent two-part series, A World Torn Apart, the Dissolution of the Monastries, and enjoy a new release every week.
0:25.2	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:32.0	Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome to not just the Tudors from History Hit, the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs, from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise.
0:46.8	Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft. Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.
1:01.9	It's the 5th of November 1605. In the shadows of Westminster, a night watchman descends on his
1:09.5	early morning rounds into the vaulted undercroft of
1:12.9	the House of Lords. As the light from his lantern cuts through the darkness, he can scarcely
1:19.0	believe his eyes. Barrows upon barrels of gunpowder are stacked high, hidden thinly disguised
1:26.5	behind firewood and coal. And besides them, lurks a man,
1:31.1	cloaked, grim and defiant. He will become immortalised for what he failed to do. His name is Guy Fawkes.
1:39.7	It's a moment bounced on the edge of catastrophe. Just a few hours later, the great heart of England's government
1:46.2	would have been blown apart in a single thunderous instance.
1:50.6	King James 6th and 1st, his ministers, the lords, the commons,
1:54.5	would have all been obliterated during the state opening of Parliament.
1:58.5	But fate and perhaps betrayal had intervened. Instead of revolution,
2:04.2	the plot was revealed. Instead of triumphant, Guy Fawkes became the enduring embodiment of treason.
2:11.6	But just imagine, what if the gunpowder plot had not been thwarted? What if Guy Fawkes, Robert Catesby and the other co-conspirators
2:20.2	had succeeded in assassinating the Protestant king and much of the ruling elite?
2:25.8	How might history have played out then?
	...

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