Who laid the fuse for the Gunpowder Plot?

History Extra podcast

Immediate Media

History

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the autumn of 1605, Robert Catesby and Guy Fawkes led a desperate band of Catholic gentlemen in one of history's most daring conspiracies. Having smuggled 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the Palace of Westminster, their plan was to blow up James VI & I, along with the majority of England’s Protestant elite, paving the way for the restoration of Catholicism. In this first episode of our four-part series on the plot, Danny Bird speaks to historian John Cooper to uncover a world of persecution, espionage and faith-driven extremism. They unfurl the conspirators’ bold plan and interrogate the powerful spy networks of late Elizabethan and early Jacobean England that set the scene for an explosive act of treason. ––––– GO BEYOND THE PODCAST Want to know more about the Gunpowder Plot? Danny Bird has curated a selection of essential reading from the HistoryExtra and BBC History Magazine archive to help you explore the religious tensions, political intrigue and lasting impact of this infamous act of treason: https://bit.ly/3WDunPw. ––––– (Ad) John Cooper is the author of The Lost Chapel of Westminster: How a Royal Chapel Became the House of Commons (Apollo, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Chapel-Westminster-John-Cooper/dp/1801104514#:~:text=debate....-,John%20Cooper's%20The%20Lost%20Chapel%20of%20Westminster%20is%20a%20meticulously,beating%20heart%20of%20parliamentary%20debate/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.6	Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine.
0:43.9	From barrels of gunpowder hidden beneath the Houses of Parliament to the mysterious Montego letter,
0:50.3	the gunpowder plot of 1605 is one of the most infamous conspiracies in Britain's history.
0:56.3	But how did a small group of Catholic gentlemen, led by Robert Catesby, and involving the now-famous Guy Fawkes,
1:03.1	comes so close to blowing up England's royal and political elite?
1:07.4	I'm Danny Bird, and for this four-part history extra series on the Gunpowder Plot,
1:12.0	I'm joined by historian Professor John Cooper from the University of York.
1:16.3	In this first episode, we'll be setting the scene,
1:19.5	exploring the political, religious and personal tensions that led to this audacious act of treason.
1:26.1	John, during the late 1500s and early 1600s, Catholics in England faced heavy fines,
1:32.2	imprisonment and sometimes execution if they practiced their faith.
1:35.9	What was life really like for Catholics at this time under Elizabeth I and then James
1:39.9	the 6th and 1st?
1:41.3	Well, it's a very good question and it depends on what your social position
1:45.0	was in life, I think. But the essential truth of this is that to be a Catholic is an outlawed,
1:52.3	prohibited kind of existence. This is as a result of the Reformation. And since the arrival of
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