Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 595 The Gunpowder Conspiracy
"Let me see." After hearing Liang En's voice, Professor Alexander came over and looked at the patterns on the silver badges about the size of silver coins in Liang En's hands.

The main body of these coats of arms is the Stuart coat of arms with lion and unicorn, but the details are different from the coats of arms of every known king or queen.

"Sorry, I can't recognize this one." After reading for a few minutes, Professor Alexander shook his head helplessly and said, "Heraldry is a very professional knowledge, and I don't know much about it except for the British king's coat of arms. "

"I have learned this before, let me try it." Nelson took the initiative to stand up at this time. As a member of a real noble family, although he does not have a title, he has indeed learned something in this area.

Sure enough, it was unreasonable to say that there is a specialization in the art industry. After careful inspection, although Nelson did not recognize what this thing was, he still saw many valuable clues.

"First of all, this badge belongs to a king, which can be seen from the crown on the top of the badge." Nelson pointed to the pattern on the badge.

"Secondly, from the standing lion, three lions, phoenix flower and harp on this badge, as well as the helmet, lion and unicorn on the side of the badge. We can tell that the owner of this badge should have a direct blood relationship with King James I .”

"If you look at it in conjunction with the name Elizabeth above, the person behind the badge is likely to be Elizabeth Stuart, the eldest daughter of King James I of England."

"But it's impossible." Liang En said with a frown. "The highest title in Elizabeth's history is Queen of Bohemia, and it only lasted for one year. How could she be—wait a minute, I think What did you think of?"

At the beginning, Liang En thought that this thing looked more like a prank, but soon he remembered an important event related to it in history.

This event is called the Gunpowder Plot. It may not be a famous historical event for people in other countries, but for the British, this is one of the most important events in their history.

This incident took place in 1605. It was an accident when a group of desperate Catholics in rural England tried to blow up the British Parliament Building and killed King James I of England, his family and most of the Protestant nobles who were holding the opening ceremony of the Parliament. successful plan.

At that time, James I was the king of Scotland before and inherited the throne of his mother, Queen of Scots, Bloody Mary, but later because the famous Elizabeth I had no heirs, the throne of England fell on his head.

Traditionally, Scotland's main faith is Catholicism, not England's Protestant branch, the Anglican Church, but after James I took office, he refused to give Catholics the same rights.So these rebels unite.

To this end, the conspirators planned to assassinate King James I, Elizabeth Stuart's father, and his son Henry.

They planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament on November 1605, 11, and kidnap Elizabeth, who was only 5 years old.And once the other royals were dead, the plotters would marry Elizabeth to a Catholic, using her as a puppet queen to control England.

The plan was conceived by Robert Gatsby and carried out by explosives expert Guy Fawkes.Other known conspirators are Thomas Ventour, Robert Ventour, Christopher Wright, Thomas Percy, John Grant, Ambrose Lockwood, Robert Case, Evra Sir de Digby, Francis Tresham and Gatsby's servant Thomas Bates.

Initially, the rebels were able to rent the basement of a house adjoining the old House of Lords and were prepared to dig a tunnel to the basement of the House of Lords.But then they rented the basement of the House of Lords instead.

By March 1605, they had filled 3 barrels (about 36 tons) of gunpowder in the basement of the House of Lords under cover of winter fuel.

Fearing that the Catholic senator would also be killed, someone (probably Francis Tresham) secretly ventilated the famous Catholic senator of Monteague.

The Senator received that letter on 10 October.The rebels learned of the letter the next day, but resolutely went ahead with their plan after Fox inspected the basement and found it untouched.At the same time, however, Monteague delivered the letter to Secretary of State Robert Cecil.

Guy Fawkes stayed behind to carry out the plan while the other rebels went to Dunchurch in Warwickshire to wait for news.On the morning of November 1605, 11, a justice of the peace named Thomas Nevitt raided the basement after learning of the whistleblower.

During this search, the rebel Guy Fawkes was found hiding in the basement of the Capitol, and he ordered a search of the entire area.As a result, authorities found the powder kegs and arrested Guy Fawkes.

Guy Fawkes confesses after being tortured on the rack and names other rebels.To avoid violating English law, the king signed a special order allowing torture.

Gatsby was killed while resisting arrest, while the other rebels were quickly apprehended and either executed after interrogation or killed in pursuit.

In the following hundreds of years, this incident has also become one of the sources of inspiration for a series of works of art such as novels, movies, etc. For example, the last scene of the famous Wechat Vendetta pays tribute to this incident.

Because of this incident.Every year on November 11th, the British celebrate the smashing of plots with a big bonfire night, also known as fireworks night or Guy Fawkes night.

Many local authorities in England organize spectacular fireworks displays, and bonfires are lit in which a mannequin of British traitor Guy Fawkes is thrown and burned.

At this time last year, Liang En and the others were still busy, so they just celebrated on a small scale.Of course, this is just an excuse to eat something good and relax.

Joan raved about the mulled wine, toffee and toffee apples in the "Bonfire Night Recipe" and lamented the fact that James I was not able to fly on the dirt plane.

In addition to enjoying food and watching fireworks, an important part of this night is to burn the "Guy" dummy, but since 1996, the British Bonfire Association decided to replace Guy's "torture" with unpopular celebrity portraits. ".

The first unfortunate candidate was Princess Diana's cycling coach Witt.Subsequently, the portraits of Saddam Hussein, former British Prime Minister Blair, Gordon Brown, etc. were all selected as "Celebrity Guy" and burned.

It is also because this festival has gradually become a carnival in the UK and Commonwealth countries, and many people know about it, so when Liang En uttered the word "Gunpowder Plot", almost everyone present thought of this event.

"Gunpowder, silver coins, Elizabeth's royal badge, and most importantly, a secret letter with the Jesuit logo." Professor Alexander also reacted to Liang En's reminder at this time.

"I think we are now confronting a piece of history that was previously hidden in the mist, and I believe this discovery has the potential to rewrite the ancient history of England."

(End of this chapter)