The Gunpowder Plot Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1605

Guy Fawkes was discovered and arrested in the cellars below the Houses of Parliament in the wee hours of the morning of 5th November 1605. Quantities of gunpowder had been assembled there with the intention of blowing up the House of Lords during the opening of Parliament later that day.

Answer: James I (VI of Scotland)

When James I had ascended the throne of England in 1603, many English Catholics thought he would relax restrictions against the practice of their religion, in part because his Queen and mother was herself a Catholic. By 1605, these hopes remaining largely unfulfilled, and a group of extremists hatched the ill-fated plot.

Answer: Robert Catesby

Robert Catesby, the driving force behind the 'Plot', was apparently a charismatic leader, for whom his followers would do almost anything. Fawkes was a relative latecomer to the group, though he had the key role of preparing the means for the explosion. Percy and Wintour were also plotters.

Answer: Princess Elizabeth

All four choices are children of James I. It was assumed by the plotters that Henry, the heir, and possibly Charles would attend the opening of Parliament and be killed by the explosion. Mary, though born in England, and therefore preferable to her Scottish-born siblings was only seven months old.

This dubious honour of a puppet-ruler therefore was to fall upon nine year old Elizabeth (Henry died of typhoid fever in 1612, at age 18. Thus, James was succeeded by his younger son, who became Charles I).

Answer: Nicholas Owen

Nicholas Owen was not one of the plotters, but he did have information which the government would have found of value. Despite physical torture, Owen did not give away any secrets of the hiding-places around the country that he had constructed. He was recognized as a martyr by the Catholic Church and canonized in 1970.