First World War Remembered: The Pipers

On 25 September 1915, as troops of 7th Kings Own Scottish Borderers waited to go over the top they came under gas attack throwing them into confusion.

Piper Daniel Logan Laidlaw was ordered by his Commanding Officer to play to restore discipline in the ranks.

He mounted the parapet and walked the length of the trench playing 'All the Blue Bonnets over the Border.'

Order was restored and the attack went ahead as expected.

Laidlaw continued to play during the assault but was shot down as he approached the German trenches.

He survived and was later awarded both the Victoria Cross and the French Croix de Guerre.

More than a thousand Pipers from Scottish Regiments were to be killed during the war.

The Christmas Truce

By December 1914, just six months into the greatest clash of arms the world had ever seen more than a million men had already died on the Western Front.

What had begun as a great German advance through northern France toward Paris had been halted and rolled back and the mobile tactics of the early months had long since descended into the static and deadly sterility of trench warfare.

As the first Christmas of the war approached and with the opposing forces in some places less than 70 yards apart the Commanders on all sides became aware of the dangers of fraternisation for just as easily as insults could be exchanged across the front-line so could seasonal greetings and messages of peace.

Such a thing if it were to occur would set a dangerous precedent, and had to be prevented.

On 5 December 1914, General Horace Smith-Dorrien, the Commander of the British II Corps issued the order:

"Friendly intercourse with the enemy, unofficial armistices, however tempting and amusing, are strictly prohibited".

When Pope Benedict XX requested that:

"All Nations cease their clash of arms while Christendom celebrates the Feast of the World's Redemption".

The Germans greeted the request favourably but Britain and France refused to comply with any unofficial cessation of hostilities.

Despite this on the evening of 24 December 1914 the guns on many sectors of the Western Front fell silent.

The Germans had earlier placed small Tannenbaum Christmas Trees above their trenches and their decorations glistened in the fading early evening light.

As the night wore on the sound of Carols being sung could be heard wafting across the desolate wastes of no-man’s-land with Silent Night a particular favourite.

After every song the British would applaud and cry out for more before reciprocating with some Carols of their own.

But the war had not ceased - on Christmas Eve, 98 British soldiers were killed, mostly by sniper fire.

On the Armentieres sector of the front as the sun rose on a crisp but bright Christmas Day morning something extraordinary happened. It was described by an Officer of the Gordon Highlanders:

"The men were having breakfast when a cry went up that the Germans had left their trenches. Springing to arms they could scarcely believe their eyes when they looked over the parapet and saw a number of the enemy standing in the open in front of their trenches, all unarmed. Some of the enemy shouted No Shoot! After a while a number of our men left the trench and began to walk toward them." On another sector a small group of German Officers approached a British trench. They were met in no-man’s-land by the British Officer in charge with whom they shook hands and greeted with the words, said in perfect English - "We thought it was only right and proper to wish you all a very Merry Christmas".

Such incidents were occurring all up and down the Front Line, sometimes they were the result of negotiated agreements that allowed both sides to collect their dead from no-man’s-land in other places the firing simply ceased.

Elsewhere, British and German troops openly fraternised swapping gifts and exchanging addresses, they also shared coffee and cigarettes and some British Officers allowed themselves to be photographed standing alongside their German counterparts.

A football was provided by a Gordon Highlander and in the ensuing match, properly officiated, the Germans won 3-2.

But still the war continued - and on Christmas Day, a further 81 British soldiers were killed.

On Boxing Day the British and German troops again met in no-man’s-land and agreed not to fire upon one another but when Staff Officers visited the front later in the day they were shocked by the calm and quiet and ordered that the firing recommence immediately. It did, but both sides deliberately fired above the heads of the other.

And so on Boxing Day - a further 62 British soldiers were killed.

The unofficial truce lasted in some places until 3 January 1915 when the Commander of the British Expeditionary Force Sir John French found out about it and exploded in fury. He wrote in his memoirs:

"I issued immediate orders to prevent any recurrence of such conduct, and called the local Commanders to strict account".

German Units that were known to have fraternised with the enemy were transferred to the Eastern Front and their Officers accused of being cowards, in some cases they were even court-martialled and cashiered out of the service, or demoted.

The response of the English and French was just as firm but more muted, it being thought better not to dwell on it should it ever happen again.

The war was ordered to recommence but neither side fired until a time agreed by both sides.

The Christmas Truce was over but it had been a brief moment of humanity in an inhumane world, of sanity in that most insane of wars.

World War One Remembered: Verdun

On 21 February 1916, after a massive bombardment the German Army advanced on Verdun. Its Commander, Erich von Falkenhayn believed the French would sacrifice everything to defend this fortress town on its eastern frontier, its legendary bastion against Germanic incursion.

He told the Kaiser:

"The strain in France has just about reached breaking point, a mass breakthrough which is in any case beyond our means, is unnecessary. Within our reach are objectives for the retention of which the French General Staff would be compelled to throw in every man they have. If they do then the forces of France will bleed to death."

He believed that as the French counter-attacked time and again to recapture the sacred soil around Verdun he would break up and destroy their army with his heavy artillery, the more than 1,200 howitzers, trench mortars and other assorted guns.

He would bleed the French Army white.

It was to be the great clash of Teuton against Gaul.

It had never been von Falkenhayn's intention to capture Verdun but merely compel the French to defend it but early success including breaking through the French second line on the third day of the advance and the capture on the 27th of Fort Douamont, supposedly the most formidable fortress in the world without a shot being fired enthused those Commanders on the ground with the prospect of imminent victory.

The strategy changed accordingly, but it wasn't to be.

By the battles conclusion ten months later on 20 December, 362,000 Frenchmen had fallen, as also had 337,000 Germans.

They had bled each other white,.

In the end - nothing had changed.

The Mistresses of Charles II

King Charles II - 'The Merry Monarch' so known not just for his stylish dress, his laid back manner, his love of spaniels, and his many mistresses but also for his restoration of Christmas produced no legitimate heir, though he did sire 8 children.

Catherine de Braganza - Charles II's Portuguese wife of 23 years.

She had been raised in a Convent and secluded from the outside world had none of the social skills that might have distracted the King from his many mistresses. She was also barren.

Charles brazenness about his many affairs ensured her humiliation was constant.

Barbara Villiers - Charles II's long-time mistress described as a tall, dark haired, voluptuous beauty by some and as the Curse of the Nation by others.

In 1673, after 25 years he cast her aside telling her to "go away, live quietly, and cause no scandal."

She did.

She bore him 5 children.

Nell Gwynne, the street-hawker turned actress born in Coal Yard Alley, Covent Garden is the most famous of the King's mistresses.

High-spirited and fun loving she was was so unlike the polished ladies of the Court he was used to and he adored her for it.

Once when heckled and jeered by a crowd of onlookers who mistook her for Louise de Keroualle, who she would refer to as 'Squintabella', she stood upon a carriage and shouted:

"Pray good people be civil, I am the Protestant Whore."

On his deathbed Charles pleaded - please do not let my Nelly starve. But she was to die just two years later, aged 37.

She bore him 2 children.

Louise de Keroualle - the French spy in the English King's bed.

Known as 'Baby Face' she was clever, cunning, and strong-willed but hid it all behind a silly, girlish charm which appealed to Charles.

Widely loathed for flaunting her wealth, her Catholicism, and even the debts from her addiction to gambling which she boasted would be paid from the King's purse she was forced to flee the country on his death leaving her estates and pensions behind.

She bore him no children.

Hortense Mancini, a familiar figure at the Court of Louis XIV in Versailles she fell on hard times when she was abandoned by her husband. 

In a state of some distress she was still nonetheless a beautiful woman and an experienced courtesan and it was suggested she leave the French Court and seduce the English King - she did so with little difficulty and soon replaced her rivals in the King's affections .

The relationship only ended when she was caught in bed with the King's daughter but they remained friends and s

She bore him no children.

Moll Davis, actress, dancer, and mistress of Charles II.

She was considered vulgar in almost every way - in her dress, in her manners, and in her speech. But the King enjoyed her company even if the relationship did not last long.

She bore him 1 child, and was well rewarded for her time.

Johann Georg Elser: Killing Hitler

Many attempts were made on the life of Adolf Hitler but few came close to success. The July Bomb Plot of 1944, known as Operation Valkyrie, came as close as any and made a hero of Claus von Stauffenberg and his fellow aristocratic conspirators. Their place in history is secure. But a much earlier assassination attempt, not made by a General or a leading Politician, but by a working man, a humble carpenter who enjoyed repairing clocks in his spare time and who had seen the danger posed by Hitler long before those who should have known better, had also come perilously close to success. He was Johann Georg Elser, and he is largely forgotten to history.

He was born in the small town of Hemaringen near Wurttemberg on 4 January 1903, to respectable working class parents.

The young Elser was a timid child who displayed little academic ability and performed poorly at school but he was good with his hands. So it came as no surprise when in 1922, aged 19, he took up an apprenticeship as a carpenter.

From the beginning of his working life he was an active trade unionist and had strongly held if quietly stated left-wing views, for though by no means shy he was always quiet and reserved. There was nothing in his character that would have marked him out for special attention.

In 1930, his then girlfriend, Mathilde Niedermann, gave birth to a son, Manfred, but they were to separate soon after and Elser rarely, if ever, saw him.

In 1928, he joined the Red Fighters Front, a militant organisation affiliated to the Communist Party. Though he is known to have voted for the Communists up until 1933 when the party was proscribed and democratic elections abolished, he seems rarely to have been involved in any political activity. His primary reason for joining seems to have been to play double-bass in the organisations band. Neither did he find that his political beliefs clashed with his deeply held religious convictions. He regularly attended Christian Services at the Protestant Church of whatever town he was living in at the time.

Both his political views and his religious beliefs made him a natural opponent of the Nazi's from the start. He would switch off the radio if Hitler was speaking, or if he was in a cafe request for it to be turned down, and he rarely returned a Nazi salute, a dangerous thing to do and which was to result in more than one beating.

Elser, having seen Hitler bring Europe to the brink of war over the Sudetenland Crisis and had witnessed the horrors of the anti-Jewish pogrom that was to become known as Kristallnacht, or Night of the Shattered Glass, he became convinced that Hitler had to die.

On 8 November every year, Hitler returned to the Burgerbraukeller in Munich to commemorate the anniversary of his failed Beer Hall Putsch  of 1924. This was an event he would never fail to attend and though he would be well protected he would be in a confined public space for an extended period of time.

This was to provide Elser with the perfect opportunity to assassinate the Fuhrer. He was a carpenter by profession and collected and repaired timepieces as a hobby and both were to prove to be vital elements of the plan he devised.

In October 1939, he travelled to Munich and every night for a month he ate and drank in the Burgerbraukeller concealing himself within its confines after it had closed its doors. Then in the early hours when all had gone home he busied himself with his work, spending hours on his hands and knees carving out a hollow for his bomb behind the podium from which Hitler would be speaking.

Earlier on 1 September, war had broken out and Elser was concerned that as a result Hitler would cancel his visit. This was not the case but because of the situation, Hitler would be returning to Berlin the same night. Normally he would fly but because a thick fog had descended preventing planes from taking off or landing he would be travelling by train. This did mean however that he would be leaving earlier than usual. It was a possibility that Elser had not taken into account.

At 9.20pm precisely, just as Elser had intended, his bomb exploded. It had a devastating impact and 8 people were killed and 63 injured, many of them seriously. But not Hitler, he had left the Burgerbraukeller just thirteen minutes earlier.

Elser was arrested at the German border trying to cross over into Switzerland. The Border Guards had become suspicious of the drawings they found in his coat pockets of the layout of the Burgerbraukeller. He was returned to Munich where he was questioned by Gestapo Officers in connection with the assassination attempt.

He denied any knowledge or involvement but the incriminating drawings, his grazed knees, and the witnesses who came forward to testify that he was a regular at the Burgerbraukeller and often refused to give the Nazi Salute, soon convinced them that they had their man. Once formally charged with the crime he confessed to avoid torture.

Elser had no formal trial but was imprisoned at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp before being moved onto Dachau. There he was kept in isolation and made to eat and exercise alone. It was not until 9 April 1945, that Special Security Prisoner Eiler (his name had been deliberately altered) was executed on the personal orders of Heinrich Himmler. It was also ordered that the execution be kept secret and that if confirmation of his death was required then it should be said that he died in an Allied air raid. The execution was carried out by the Camp Commandant personally.

Questions have since been raised about the validity of Johann Georg Elser's actions.

Why was he given the designation Special Security Prisoner?

Why was he provided with an alias?

Why was he kept in isolation?

Why was he kept alive for so long?

Why was the manner of his death covered up?

The theologian Martin Niemoller, who had been a fellow inmate at Sachsenhausen, claimed that Elser had been a member of the SS all along, and that the assassination attempt was a plot devised by the Security Services to show to the world that Hitler was protected by Divine Providence. This somewhat fanciful notion does not stand up to scrutiny, however.

The fact is that Himmler firmly believed Elser to have been a British agent who was more useful to the Germans alive than dead. Also, he may have been looking to use him as a bargaining chip in the secret negotiations he was having with the Western Allies to seize power, hence the need to cover up the execution. Either way, Johann Georg Elser's time bomb was to be the closest anyone came to killing Hitler before the events of Operation Valkyrie five years later.

The Gunpowder Plot

The threat of terrorism is by no means a recent phenomenon. On 5 November 1605, a small group of disgruntled Catholic fanatics under the leadership of the dashing and charismatic Robert Catesby sought to annihilate the entire English political Establishment in a single blow, and with enough high explosives to destroy Parliament many times over buried in the cellars beneath it, primed and ready to be detonated, they were to come perilously close to doing so.                        <b>                          </b>

Robert Catesby, known to his friends as Robin, was born in 1573 to a notoriously Recusant family, those who may have taken the Oath of Supremacy recognising the incumbent Monarch as the Supreme Head of the Church of England but remained steadfastly Catholic and refused to attend Anglican Services. Not to take the Oath was considered an act of treason and those who refused to do so were unable to be Members of Parliament and were excluded from all Government posts and often from attending University. As a result many took the Oath in direct contravention of personal belief and conviction.

This lukewarm Protestantism was well known to the Authorities and both Recusants and Catholics in general were neither believed nor trusted. They were deemed be of a traitorous hue because their allegiances were seen to lie elsewhere, namely with the Pope, who had been known since 1534 as the Bishop of Rome. As such the penalties for recusancy were harsh. Those who refused to attend Anglican Services were liable to fines, confiscation of property and imprisonment. Indeed, Catesby's own father had spent a considerable amount of time in prison for harbouring the noted Jesuit, Father Edmund Campion. As a result much of the family fortune had been squandered paying innumerable fines.

Despite their straitened circumstances it was still possible for the family to send the young Robert to Oxford University. However he was not permitted to graduate when he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy and he was to complete his studies in Catholic France. He was to return to England some years later as a committed Catholic activist, though his marriage in 1593 to Catherine Leigh, a Protestant from a good family, went some way to restoring the family's fortunes.

The charismatic Catesby was a man who induced intense loyalty in his friends. He was described at this time as being:

"Six feet tall and well-proportioned, grave in manner but attractively so and handsome of countenance."

During the 1590's he took great risk in sheltering a number of high-profile Jesuit Priests including Father John Gerrard and Father Henry Garnet. The Jesuits at the time were banned from preaching, holding services, or taking Holy Communion. If they were caught doing so they could expect to be executed as could those who had afforded them shelter.

On 6 February 1601, Catesby joined Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex, in his rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. Fighting with sword in hand through the streets of London he was captured in what turned out to be a disorganised, rout. Deemed a foot soldier and not a major conspirator he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment but spared execution. The episode may have been a fiasco but it showed him that regimes could be opposed, by force if necessary.

Catholics in England breathed a huge sigh of relief when on 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth I died. The new King was to be James VI of Scotland, the son of the much-revered Catholic martyr, Mary Queen of Scots. At the very least they expected to be spared the punitive measures imposed on them by the old regime. After all James was married to a Catholic and had often spoken of greater religious tolerance.

Just prior to his accession to the throne of England, Thomas Percy, a prominent Catholic recusant had travelled to Scotland for an audience with James. At their meeting the future King was emollient and conciliatory and Percy returned to England confident that a new dawn had risen in the affairs of Catholics in the country and he told those in his inner-circle that the right to worship openly and freely was at hand, even suggesting that the King himself might convert to the old faith.

When James initially remitted the recusancy fines this did indeed seem as if it might be so, but under pressure from Parliament they were soon re-imposed. Nevertheless, they optimistically expected the announcement of liberty of conscience for Catholics. They were to be bitterly disappointed.

James was no religious zealot but he was an unequivocal Protestant and was to come down hard on all forms of religious dissent and particularly so on Catholic recusancy. Rather than ease the burden of the Recusants James increased the fines, expelled their priests, and introduced a Bill in Parliament that would make them all excommunicates, and as excommunicates they would no longer be able to make their Wills and dispose of their goods, no one would any longer be obliged to repay a debt to them, and they would no longer have the protection of the law. They would effectively be ostracised from society as enemies of the State.

Catesby, the Catholic man of action decided enough was enough. He had devised a plan that he believed would re-establish Catholicism in England that was to become known to history as the Gunpowder Plot. He told his cousin Thomas Wintour of his plan and others he believed wished to see the old religion restored. They would gather loyal fellows together, they would seek the blessing of the Jesuits and they would do God's work.

The plan was first outlined by Catesby on 20 May 1604, at the Duck and Drake Inn near The Strand in London. Those present were Catesby, Thomas Wintour, Thomas Percy, John Wright, and Guido Fawkes. All of them took a vow of secrecy on the Bible before attending Mass being given by Father John Gerrard in an adjacent room.

Catesby's plan was a simple one: he intended to blow up King James, Queen Anne, Henry, the Prince of Wales, the four year old Charles, the Peers of the Realm, the Bishops, the Judges and everyone else who would be present at the State opening of Parliament. To facilitate his act of mass-murder he had rented lodgings beside the Parliament building which over time he packed with 36 barrels of gunpowder, more than enough to utterly destroy the Parliament building twice over. The responsibility for minding the basement and eventually lighting the fuse that would plunge the country into chaos had fallen to the rugged, heavily-built soldier-of-fortune and Catholic fanatic Guido (Guy) Fawkes. He had been introduced to Catesby by Thomas Wintour and had been recruited for precisely his expertise in explosives.

Catesby and his fellow conspirators would exploit the power vacuum that would follow the destruction of Parliament by riding back to their Midlands base and rallying their fellow Catholics in rebellion. In the meantime, a Hunting Party that had been formed would proceed to kidnap the young Princess Elizabeth (whom they wrongly believed had been raised as a Catholic by her mother and would therefore be more sympathetic to their cause) and place her upon the Throne of England.

Why the conspirators thought for a moment that a girl who had just learned that her entire family had been wiped out would be a willing accomplice to their plot remains a mystery. It does however provide the entire plan with that veneer of desperation that has been the lot of fanatics down the ages but Catesby remained convinced of its ultimate success. The English people he believed remained Catholic at heart and were just waiting for the opportunity to again embrace the old religion. He would provide that opportunity, and he never doubted for a moment that he had God on his side.

Catesby however did have doubts about whether his great undertaking could be justified morally and he sought reassurance for his actions from Father John Garnet but unwilling to reveal details of the plot none could be forthcoming.

Over the next few months Catesby busied himself recruiting others to the plot. They were mostly people known to him personally and only those he knew he could trust. They were Robert Wintour, Robert Keyes, Christopher "Kit" Wright, John Grant, Thomas Bates, Sir Ambrose Rookwood, Sir Everard Digby, and Francis Tresham.

Thomas Wintour was Catesby's oldest friend and was married to his sister, Elizabeth. He shared Catesby's fanaticism and was as determined as he that the plot should go ahead and would not countenance the argument that the plan should be modified to spare the Queen and the young Princes. He was to recruit his brother Robert as one of the plotters, something he was later to deeply regret.

Thomas Percy was an impoverished member of the powerful Percy clan and his uncle was the loyal Duke of Northumberland. He was a crass and vulgar man much given to brawling and drinking and though he was unquestionably loyal his loose-tongued and reckless behaviour was always going to pose a problem.

John Wright, who had taken part in the Essex Rebellion along with his brother Christopher, had known Catesby for many years though they had never been close friends, and he had attended the same school in York as had Guido Fawkes. He was taciturn in manner and could often appear rude and dismissive of those around him. His brother Christopher, known affectionately as Kit, was always more popular and he was not just unlike his brother in personality but also in appearance:

"Not like him in face being fatter and a lighter coloured hair, and taller of person"

Both were considered to be expert swordsmen and were recruited on that basis.

Robert Keyes, whose father had been a Protestant Rector had only converted to Catholicism in 1604 and was fired with all the enthusiasm of the recently enlightened. Heavily in debt he was described as a sober and grave man. Tall with striking red hair he was an imposing figure. Some of the other plotters thought him embittered and unreliable, but Catesby trusted him.

John Grant, who was married to Thomas Wintour's sister had been recruited on the advice of his brother-in-law. He was a quiet and unassertive man who had been given the task of rallying support for the rebellion in the Midlands. It seemed a strange choice of role for a man who appeared to impress few who met him.

Thomas Bates was Catesby's manservant and had become aware of the plot by accident. Invited to join as a result he may have thought that he had little choice. It was his subsequent testimony that was to implicate the Jesuits in the plot. Though he was later to withdraw his testimony once he realised he was to be executed regardless.

Sir Ambrose Rookwood had been recruited in September 1604. He was considered handsome despite being rather short but compensated for his lack of stature by dressing extravagantly. Charming, elegant and unflappable he was popular with the ladies. Similar to Catesby and many of the other plotters he had been imprisoned after the failed Essex Rebellion and his loyalty was thought to be without question.

The handsome and glamorous Sir Everard Digby had only been knighted by King James I as recently as 24 April 1603, after the King’s always lascivious eye had noticed his fine turn of ankle. He had only met Catesby for the first time in the autumn of 1604 during a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Winifride's Well in Wales. He had been raised in a devoutly Protestant household but had since been converted to Catholicism by Father John Gerrard. He had only become aware of the plot two weeks before it was due to take place.

Guido Fawkes was a dour, humourless Yorkshireman who Catesby had only known of by reputation before they met that night in the Duck and Drake Inn. His many years spent fighting abroad for the Catholic King of Spain meant that he became essential to the success of the plot. He was the only one of the conspirators who had any real knowledge of explosives and munitions. He was also little known in London and could move freely around the city. He was put in charge of purchasing and stockpiling the gunpowder. He was helped in his task by Robert Keyes and Thomas Bates.

There was at the time a surplus of gunpowder in London that was easily available to purchase and over many months they were able to gather 36 barrels of the stuff or around 10,000 pounds of gunpowder, enough to utterly destroy Parliament many times over.

The gunpowder was stored, initially at least, at Thomas Percy's London residence under the charge of Robert Keyes an impoverished and bitter man of status but no means heartily disliked by everyone but trusted and reliable, before being moved to a large empty storeroom adjacent to Parliament.

The conspirators now managed to rent a cellar beneath the Parliament Building which would increase by many times the effectiveness of the explosion. Guido Fawkes by now calling himself John Johnson and describing himself as a servant to Robert Catesby now busied himself moving the barrels of gunpowder into the cellar. With great care he hid the barrels along with their fuses behind stacks of wood intended to be used as fuel. But the fuses would never be lit for unknown to the conspirators they had been betrayed.

Late in the evening of 26 October 1605 a mysterious man, heavily cloaked and hooded, delivered a letter to the London home of the Catholic William Parker, Lord Monteagle. Unusually rather than read the letter himself Monteagle had a servant read it out to him.

It contained a warning not to attend the State Opening of Parliament:

"My Lord, out of the love I bear for some of your friends I have care for your preservation. Therefore, I would advise you tender some excuse to shift your attendance of this Parliament for God and man have concurred to punish the wickedness of this time. And think not slightly of this advertisement, but retire yourself into your country where you may expect the event in safety. For though there be no appearance of any stir, Sir, yet I say they will receive a terrible blow this Parliament, and yet they shall not see who hurts them. This counsel is not to be condemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm, for the danger is passed as soon as you have burnt the letter. And I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you”.

Despite the lateness of the hour Lord Monteagle rode immediately to the home of Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, James I's Secretary of State.

Salisbury thanked Monteagle for his prompt action but appeared to be little flustered by the turn of events and he did not react as perhaps Monteagle might have expected. Instead they were to spend many hours discussing the possible meaning of the letter.

Salisbury chose not to inform James who was away hunting in Royston of its contents. Indeed it wasn't until 1 November and the King's return that he presented the letter to James saying that he was uncertain as to its true meaning. This was disingenuous to say the least. Salisbury was well-versed in the world of conspiracy. He wanted the King in person to see the Catholic viper in his midst and unravel the plot for himself, should he ever feel inclined to relent upon the harsh measures taken against Catholics. James, an astute and intelligent man, did just that. Stressing the phrase "a terrible blow" he informed Salisbury that there was a plot to blow up the Parliament and ordered that a search be made of all its corridors and cellars.

To all intents-and purposes the plot had been discovered but who was it who had warned Monteagle? Who had betrayed Catesby and his co-conspirators? Who had been responsible for "this dark and doubtful letter?"

Catesby had been informed of the Monteagle letter by agents within the Royal Court who had been told of it by Lord Monteagle's manservant, the Catholic Thomas Ward, but he refused to countenance the postponement of the Powder Treason. Instead the well-connected Thomas Percy contacted those prominent Catholics known to be loyal to the King and not involved in the plot to see if he could elicit any information regarding the letter, and what exactly may have been revealed. They told him that they had heard nothing regarding it and he returned to London and reassured the other plotters that they had nothing to fear.

There have been many candidates suggested as to the person responsible for writing the letter but at the time the most obvious appeared to be Sir Francis Tresham.

He had been a latecomer to the plot, not recruited until 14 October 1605, and had been approached by Catesby not because he truly thought he would commit to such a dangerous act but merely because he needed his money, though he was never as wealthy as he liked to make out.

Tresham was a reluctant conspirator at best he not only believed that should they succeed in destroying Parliament it would be the ruin of the Catholic community in England but felt morally compromised by the whole thing. He had expressed his doubts to Catesby in person and had requested a postponement and greater time for them all to reflect upon the consequences of such a drastic deed.

Catesby who had earlier asked him for £2,000 to finance the plot that was never forthcoming had been further angered by his refusal to see God’s work in the plot. He was not only perceived as being unreliable but he was also Monteagle's cousin and brother-in-law.

Catesby believed him to be responsible for the betrayal and questioned him in the presence of Thomas Wintour. Tresham pleaded his innocence. Catesby was all for doing him great harm but was dissuaded from doing so by Wintour who declared that they had only suspicion and no real proof. Tresham had been begging for his life and he succeeded in saving it, but only just.

It is possible that the author of the letter was Monteagle himself. No doubt aware of the plot through his Catholic connections no one benefited more from its revelation. He had previously been imprisoned for his role in the Essex Rebellion and had since suffered as a former Recusant. Now he would be lauded as the saviour of the nation and be rewarded with an annual pension of £2,000 and a further £500 from rents. If he was to blame then he had in quick order turned the hunters into the prey.

Just after midnight on 5 November, a search party found Guido Fawkes hiding in the cellar. The iconic image we have now of the large man with a pointed beard, wearing a tall hat and cloak and carrying a lantern is exactly how he was found. Unable to explain his presence a thorough search of the cellar took place and the barrels of gunpowder discovered, as was the fuse that Fawkes had already set to light in just eight hours time. The delay intended to provide time for those conspirators still in London time to flee the city and rally the countryside. Despite denying all knowledge of the gunpowder he was bound and placed under arrest.

Guido Fawkes was to be interrogated by the King himself who not only wanting to satisfy his own intellectual curiosity desired to know the nature of a man who could commit to carry out such a monstrous act.

Fawkes told James that he was John Johnson, the servant of Robert Catesby and had no knowledge of the gunpowder that had been found in the cellar or of any plot. It was an unconvincing denial and one spoken without conviction for Fawkes was proud of what he had been accused of and wanted the King to know it. When a clearly appalled James asked him how he could countenance the murder of the four year old Charles, Fawkes replied, echoing words that had been spoken by Catesby earlier in the Duck and Drake Inn that "the nature of the disease requires so sharp a remedy."

Under English Law torture could not be used to elicit a confession from a suspect unless guilt had already been established. Since his initial denials Fawkes had made it plain that he was part of a plot to blow up Parliament and as  a  consequence James ordered that he be put to the rack.

Guido Fawkes signature before and after torture

Upon hearing of Guido Fawkes capture those plotters still in London fled the city as fast as their horses would carry them. Sir Ambrose Rookwood, who had just taken delivery of a sword engraved with the words The Passion of the Christ overtook Catesby in Bedfordshire and informed him that Fawkes had been taken.

It was possible that they still had time to ride for the coast and take ship to Catholic Ireland but despite the fact that the plot had failed Catesby remained adamant that the uprising would go ahead, even though he had only around 40 men at his command.

The conspirators met up again in the Midlands as had been planned but the scheme to seize the Princess Elizabeth was now abandoned and the Hunting Party under the command of Sir Everard Digby dispersed with most of them abandoning the plot altogether.

Catesby at first considered riding to his mother’s house so that he could explain to her his actions but decided that he could not in all true honesty look her in the face.

Still he remained convinced that the people would still rally to their cause but travelling through the countryside they were met with at best indifference and at worst open hostility. To the cry of "For God and Country", the people replied that they were for "God and King James". At the home of Sir John Talbot whom they believed to be a supporter they were turned away with the words:

"This is worth more than my life. I pray get thee hence".

Exhausted and having failed to rally any significant support the conspirators in a state of great despondency descended upon the home of a friend and known supporter Stephen Lytleton, Holbeche House in Staffordshire.

Catesby tried to raise the others spirits by insisting that the people would still come to their assistance once their aims had been made clear. In the meantime, he suggested that they fortify Holbeche House to resist a siege. But he applied no pressure on his fellow conspirators to remain. Sir Francis Tresham and Robert Keyes had already departed, Sir Robert Wintour was in hiding, and Sir Everard Digby was still roaming the countryside uncertain what to do. Only a personal loyalty to Catesby himself and a certain resignation to their fate seemed to convince the others to remain.

Late on 6 November an unfortunate accident ended any chance of being able to fortify Holbeche House. During their flight the conspirators had accrued as many munitions and gunpowder as they could. Much of this however had been soaked in a downpour. Perhaps as a result of their exhaustion or out of plain ignorance in an attempt to dry it out as quickly as possible they placed in front of an open fire.

It wasn’t long before a stray spark ignited a terrific explosion. Catesby, Sir Ambrose Rookwood, and John Morgan were all injured and John Grant was so badly mutilated it was said that his eyes had been burned out. More significantly perhaps, much of the building had been destroyed making it indefensible.

At 11.00 am on the morning of 7 November, Holbeche House was surrounded by Sir John Walsh, the High Sheriff of Worcester, with 200 men. It was evident to the conspirators that all was lost. When Thomas Wintour cried out in despair "Why are we here", Catesby replied "We are here to die".

In the ferocious but brief fire-fight that followed Jack and Kit Wright were shot and killed in the courtyard as Catesby, Wintour, Rokewood, and Sir Thomas Percy returned fire from the house but they were unable to prevent the troops from advancing on the building and they were soon battering down the door. As they did so Sir Thomas Percy took his own life. Thomas Wintour, who had by now lost the use of his right arm was pulled aside by Catesby and told:

"Stand by me, Mr Tom, and we will die together".

When the troops eventually broke in Rokewood and Wintour were both wounded and taken, Catesby, who had also been wounded managed to crawl to another room where in a last theatrical flourish he died clutching a picture of the Virgin Mary.

Sir Everard Digby who had been wandering the countryside uncertain whether to fight or flee, was finally cornered hiding in a trench. Upon hearing the jubilant cries of "Here he is!" "Here he is!" from his pursuers he mounted his horse and replied:

"Here I am indeed. What then?"

He then rode his horse, cavetting and trotting and displaying other forms of advanced equestrianism as he did so before giving himself up to the grandest looking person he could find.

Robert Wintour who had been seeking a ship to take him to safety abroad wasn't eventually captured until some two months later.

The surviving conspirators (Sir Francis Tresham had died of illness in the Tower of London on 23 December) were tried at Westminster Hall on 24 January, 1606. There was no question as to their guilt though most were to claim some kind of mitigating circumstance or other. Only Sir Everard Digby was to openly admit his guilt stating that their actions had been justified on the grounds that the King had reneged on his promise of religious toleration. Thomas Wintour only wished that he could be hanged twice so his brother might be spared.

Some of the conspirators including Robert Wintour begged for mercy whilst others expressed regret at what they had done. None of their pleas or words however sincerely intended made any difference to the sentence passed and none of the conspirators was to escape the fate that was put aside for traitors. Found guilty the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham declared that they were to be hung, drawn and quartered.

The Attorney-General Sir Edward Coke then took great delight in detailing exactly what this meant. They would be taken to their places of execution tied to hurdles their heads close to the ground as being worthy neither of heaven or earth. They would then be hanged until choked near death, cut down, and then suffer live disembowlment their intestines being displayed before their eyes before being decapitated. Their four quarters would then be severed and placed on poles to be picked at by birds and serve as a warning to others.

When Robert Keyes was told that this was the fate that awaited him he replied:

“Death is as good now as at any other time.”

The intention of the trial had never really been to pass judgement on the conspirators whose guilt was already well documented but to implicate the Jesuits in the plot. It was the confession of Catesby’s servant Thomas Bates extracted under torture that provided the evidence required and it was Father Henry Garnet that was to pay the price.

To avoid the prolonged agony of their execution the conspirators leapt from the scaffold in the hope that the drop would break their necks. Despite the fact that he was physically impaired and unable to walk without assistance the only one who succeeded was Guido Fawkes.

Taken from and the copyright of www.prisonersofeternity.co.uk

The Destruction of Pompeii: History Eternal

On 23 August, AD 79, the people of Pompeii were celebrating the Festival of Vulcan, the God of Fire, and enjoying a glorious summers day, unaware that for most of them it was to be their last.

Pompeii was a town of some 20,000 inhabitants situated on the shoreline of the Bay of Naples on the fertile flat-lands at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. It was a bustling and prosperous town in an area of Campania that was fast becoming the chosen playground of the rich.

Indeed,The nearby town of Herculaneum was effectively a tourist resort and its landscape dotted with ever-increasingly extravagant villas.

Pompeii itself was more of a commercial centre than Herculaneum replete of shops, roadside cafes, restaurants and brothels with an amphitheatre for the holding of games and its own Gladiatorial School.

Every summer the local population would be swelled to perhaps double its normal size and the area was prospering as never before.

The residents of Pompeii had lived beneath the brooding presence of Mount Vesuvius for many centuries and were used to earth tremors, some more destructive than others but rarely anything to fear. In fact, restoration work was still continuing in the town following a particularly destructive tremor that had hit the town some 15 years before in AD 63.

But what they were about to experience would be beyond their comprehension and nothing they had ever witnessed before.

Around 1 pm on 24 August, AD 79, the long dormant Mount Vesuvius roared back into life. The explosion shook the town and sent rock and ash 15 kilometres into the sky. As it dispersed the cloud it had created was carried by the wind towards Pompeii plunging the town into darkness as day was suddenly turned into night.

There was panic amongst some and a great number of slaves took this opportunity to flee even though the penalty for doing so was death.

Those who did flee at this time were likely to have survived the ensuing catastrophe, but many hesitated to leave their homes or businesses.

Their decision was to seal their fate.

Propelled high into the atmosphere the boiling rock cools and solidifies and forms pumice stones. Some 30 minutes after Pompeii had been shrouded in darkness they began to fall in a hailstorm of lethal missiles upon the town.

Those who had not already fled were forced to take shelter in their homes and by mid-afternoon some 100 million tons of pumice and ash had fallen on Pompeii.

The sheer weight of it now saw roofs begin to collapse burying the people inside.

The one man who might have understood what was going on was the 56 year old Gaius Plinius Secundus, better known as Pliny the Elder. He was the Commander of the Roman Fleet stationed at Misenum on the other side of the Bay of Naples. But his passion in life was natural science. Indeed, he was the leading natural scientist of his day and his 37 Volume Natural History still survives to this day. But even he had not suspected that anything untoward was about to happen.

His nephew, Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, or, Pliny the Younger, who was staying with his uncle at the time was asked some 27 years later by the historian Tacitus to describe events:

"He was at Misenum in his capacity as Commander of the Fleet on 24 August, AD 79, when between 2 and 3 in the afternoon when my mother drew his attention to a cloud of unusual size and appearance. He had had a sunbath, then a cold bath, and was reclining after dinner with his books. He called for his shoes and climbed up to where he could get the best view of the phenomenon. The cloud was rising from a mountain - at such a distance we couldn't tell which, but afterwards learned that it was Vesuvius. I can best describe its shape by likening it to a pine tree. It rose into the sky on a very long trunk from which spread some branches. I imagine it had been raised by a sudden blast, which then weakened leaving the cloud unsupported so that its own weight caused it to spread sideways. Some of the cloud was white, in other parts there were dark patches of dirt and ash. The sight of it made the scientist in my uncle want to see it from closer at hand.

He ordered a boat be made ready. He offered me the opportunity of going along but I preferred to remain home and study. As he was leaving the house he was brought a letter from Tascius's wife Rectina, who was terrified by the looming danger. Her villa lay at the foot of Vesuvius, and there was no way out except by boat. She begged him to get her away. He changed his plans. The expedition that had started out as a quest for knowledge now called for courage."

Pliny ordered that the fleet be made ready to sail on what he intended to be a rescue mission. In the meantime, those beneath the dust cloud in Pompeii and Herculaneum began to cough, splutter, and could barely breathe as the moisture was progressively sucked from the air.

By 5 pm, Pliny's rescue mission was underway.

As he neared Herculaneum, which was even closer to Vesuvius than Pompeii he could see many hundreds of people had gathered on the beach. They were shouting, waving, and hoping to be rescued but the tides were against Pliny so he decided to sail onto Pompeii.

The town could barely be seen through the smoke and ash however, and Pliny's crew refused to sail on into the darkness and so he ordered them to head to where there was light, the port of Stabaiae.

Pliny, stranded at Stabaiae by the offshore wind stayed at the villa of a friend, Pomponianus, where he ate and calmly took a bath.

Whilst he waited for the wind to change molten lava five times hotter than boiling water surged from Mount Vesuvius towards the town of Herculaneum. Everyone and everything in its path including the people stranded on the beach were incinerated and turned to charcoal. Those who had been sheltering behind the thick walls of the boat houses had been killed when the thermal surge cloud settled on their bodies.

Their bones had been shattered, their soft tissue vaporised, and their brains boiled before exploding.

Herculaneum was by now covered with 25 metres of molten lava.

The same pyroclastic surge that had devastated Herculaneum now headed for Pompeii but it was to stop short of the northern precincts of the town. The toxic gas that it carried with it however, a deadly combination of carbon dioxide and hydrogen chloride did not.

Moments later Vesuvius exploded once again sending millions of tons of molten lava surging towards the town at more than 100 kilometres an hour. It would destroy everything in its path. But its effects would descend upon many of those still huddled in their homes long before the lava arrived. The hot air and gas was to fill their lungs as if they had inhaled fire, and the ash mixed with the fluid solidified turning their lungs to concrete.

Those barely able to breathe stumbled through the streets in a last desperate attempt to escape and they took their valuables with them, bags of gold and boxes of jewellery. Some sought shelter in the Gladiatorial School believing that the strength and courage of the gladiators would protect them but were incinerated as the lava surge passed over them.

Yet one last horror still remained.

The bottom of Vesuvius now collapsed sending a black cloud of death across the Bay of Naples choking to death many of those who had earlier fled  into the countryside believing they had escaped.

Pliny, who had been waiting in Stabaiae for the wind to change, had rushed to the beach to witness the phenomenon. There he stood refusing to leave despite being begged to do so. Suddenly he collapsed.

He was dead, asphyxiated by the gas.

Mount Vesuvius had deposited more than 10 billion tons of pumice, rock, and ash upon the Bay of Naples and the surrounding countryside in just 18 hours.

The number of dead is unknown for certain but is believed to have been in the tens of thousands.

A rescue mission was launched from Rome but there was nothing they could do.

Such was the damage done to Herculaneum and Pompeii that no attempt was ever made to rebuild them.

Although Romans were to return year on year to dig into the rubble and loot what they could.

from: www.prisonersofeternity.co.uk