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.

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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.

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(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.

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