To avenge the persecution of Roman Catholics in England, he led a conspiracy to kill King James I and blow up Parliament on November 5, 1605, but was arrested in the cellars of Parliament and later executed. Who was he?

This figure is famously associated with the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, an audacious plan to assassinate the Protestant King James I and destroy the Houses of Parliament. The conspiracy was a desperate response by a group of English Catholics to the religious persecution they faced. While he is the most famous of the plotters, the actual mastermind was a gentleman named Robert Catesby. Fawkes, who had military experience with explosives, was given the crucial task of guarding and igniting the 36 barrels of gunpowder hidden in a cellar beneath the House of Lords.

The plot was ultimately foiled when an anonymous letter warning a Catholic nobleman, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from Parliament was shown to the authorities. This prompted a search of the cellars, and in the early hours of November 5th, guards discovered Fawkes with the gunpowder. After his capture, he was subjected to days of torture until he confessed and revealed the names of his co-conspirators.

On January 31, 1606, Fawkes was set to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, a gruesome execution reserved for traitors. However, he managed to avoid the full agony of his sentence by jumping or falling from the gallows, breaking his neck. The failure of the plot has been commemorated in Great Britain ever since on November 5th. Known as Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night, the evening is marked by fireworks and the burning of an effigy of Fawkes, celebrating the survival of the king and Parliament.