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The Significance of the Gunpowder Plot for Catholics During 1605 - 4620

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WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GUNPOWDER PLOT FOR CATHOLICS 1605 THROUGH TO 1620?

This essay will discuss the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 when a group of catholic noblemen plotted to blow up the English House of Parliament; the target of the plot was King James VI of Scotland and I of England. This essay will focus on how the event impacted Catholics and their treatment in society and law after the event. Primary sources including letters, Parliamentary documents and their insight into how the event impacted Catholics in the years after the event will be used to provide evidence and Secondary sources to provide different historians views on the treatment of Catholics.

The gunpowder plot had a significant effect on the catholic community …show more content…

From 1678 to 1681 the idea of 'The Popish Plot' took over conversation and became an obsession in the country. The Plot, which this time was entirely fictional, was created to scare the country into believing that Catholics where conspiring to dethrone Charles II like they had done in 1605 with the gunpowder plot. The cartoon shows parliament under one archway in session and Guy Fawkes in the other with the gunpowder to blow up parliament. This false plot was designed to create fear amongst the protestant community, it replicates the gunpowder plot of 1605, this print and the idea of a second plot increased the division in society for Catholics, a significant impact on the treatment of Catholics after the plot as even 80 years later the puritans still printed propaganda, the cartoon also implies the shunning off know Catholics in society. This occurrence was one of many replications of the plot, causing severe repercussions for Catholics.

Social division after the plot included Catholics going against each other; those connected with the plot where at times out casted by other Catholics, this increasing divide in community and at times affected the sentencing of other Catholics who were included in the plot or in few cases only knowing the conspirators. Social figures such as Anne Vaux who supported conspirators like the Jesuit priest Father Henry Garnet, Jesuits being an order of

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