Fawkes

Fawkes, Guy (1570-1606), was born at York. Though brought up an Anglican, he became a Roman Catholic through the influence of his stepfather, who was of that faith. For some time he served as a soldier of fortune in Flanders and elsewhere, and seems to have been a man of good parts and qualities. His part in the plot of Catesby and others to destroy the king, James I., and Parliament, in which the critical operation of "belling the cat" fell to his lot, is a matter of well-known history, as is its failure and direful results to the conspirators.