Shut Up and Write Assignment Book

Guy Fawkes 2020

This is a club assignment for Guy Fawkes Day in which we either chose to write about events from the perspective of King James I or Guy Fawkes.

Written this 5th day of November, in the Year of our Lord 1605

I have discovered in my thirty-nine years that there are times when life does seem most troubled indeed.  My rule over Scotland has granted me the satisfaction of success, but the troubles of rule over Great Britain and Ireland seem poised to become a never ending thorn in my side.

Nevertheless, it is truly an auspicious day, for once again the plots of the papists have come undone.  From the troubles of this life emerge victories anew under the will of the Almighty.

Indeed, one week past, William Parker, Fourth Baron Monteagle received a letter warning him to stay away from parliament this day in consideration of his troublesome catholic sympathies.  Still, his papist predilection has resounded to my benefit and the benefit of the realm.  In having foreknowledge of the scheme, steps were easily taken to ensure its failure.  Searches were conducted to catch the conspirators in the act.

In the dark of midnight, a papist rebel of the name Guy Fawkes was found beneath the House of Lords with thirty-six barrels of contraband gunpowder and matches, surely enough to destroy the entire building and all within in the process.  Whilst perhaps the destruction of parliament might have been enough to finally end their intransigent bickering against me, this attack against the realm will nonetheless not be tolerated.

Indeed my anger at this latest mischief is most potent, for had the plot not been discovered in such a timely manner, the deaths of both myself and Henry would have been assured.  We would have been killed in a moment as the building exploded beneath our very feet.

Truly an attack against my own person was enough of an insult, but an attack against my son and heir rouses my fury.  For though I am king by divine right, am I not also mortal man with the very passions and afflictions of the same?

Once arrested, the papist rebel was taken to the Tower of London to endure his just torture upon my orders.  He will indeed receive his proper reward for his treason.  The other conspirators have fled but are being pursued and will be captured by the will of God.

Indeed, this is but another facet of the Catholic dissidence which grows evermore tiresome.  It has been long since the illegitimacy of Rome's rule was challenged, yet they continue to press on with their stubborn refusal to turn from their Catholic superstition of papal authority to the clear authority of the scriptures.  The fines levied for failure to properly attend services of the Church of England and the outlawing Catholic rituals have seemed not to dim their insurgence.

Still, I am comforted in the rightness of my stance.  When I commissioned a translation of the Holy Text into the common tongue there were some naysayers, but indeed this latest deliverance demonstrates that the Angel of the Lord is indeed with me in my decisions.

Let the papist conspirators scheme and plot, let them rage and writhe against my rule and against the Church of England, for once again God Almighty has shown the hand of His will and foiled the plots of the Papists against the divine rule of the House of Stuart.

James I