Well, well, well. Charles did raise his standard. There was a war! Between King and parliament! The parliament became organised under Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army, whilst the Royalists were running scared like Prince Rupert after his dog died (yup! That happened!). Tensions were rising and eventually Charles had to give up. Parliament had won. In fact, Charlie boy ran away to the Isle of Wight but ended up being locked up in a room in Carisbrooke castle (imagine going there one day and seeing the very room he was imprisoned in!) before being taken back to London, tried for treason and beheaded on a cold January morning 1645. The King was dead. Cromwell banned Christmas, drinking, gambling, theatres and the only thing you were allowed to do on Sundays was walk to church. Puritans were certainly pure religious!
We also delved into the dark, mysterious gunpowder plot! We analysed sources and evidence that suggest that they were actually framed! The infamous Robert Cecil may have found out about the plot, but delayed uncovering the plan until the very last moment to maximise the effect of catching a catholic plot to kill the King! Was Guy Fawkes even real? It took two days of torture for him to admit his real name, 4 days to admit the plot and 10 days to finally admit where the other plotters were – even though the government (and Robert Cecil, of course) knew exactly where they were on the 7th November, way before Fawkes even revealed there was a plan, let alone where they were! Yep, every avenue of evidence we went down we always found Robert Cecil and his crafty little fingers somehow connected. A catholic plot to kill the king? Or a protestant plan to frame the catholics! Either way, Bonfire night is still awesome!
