The very British Coup

Remember, remember, the 5th of November,

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent

To blow up the King and the Parliament

Three score barrels of powder below

Poor old England to overthrow

By God's providence, he was catch'd

With a dark lantern and burning match

Holler boys, holler boys, let the bells ring

Holler boys, holler boys

God save the King!

The year is 1605, and Guy Fawkes (Guido Fawkes) was caught with a large amount of gunpowder below the House of Parliament. The plan was to blow up the Parliament with the Protestant King inside during the opening of Parliament on Tuesday, 5 November 1605, and restore a new Catholic leader. The background of this was religion; after the Reformation, King Henry VIII took complete control of the church from Rome between 1532 and 1540. He destroyed all the shrines to saints, labelling them as idolatry, and he closed all the monasteries and transferred all their property to the crown. That's why, till today, the Crown is one of the wealthiest landowners in the UK. He got rid of all the Abbots' and Priors' seats in the House of Lords. His daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, was threatened by the Catholics who aimed to return to power.

Additionally, the English aided the Dutch Protestant rebels in their fight against Catholic Spain. Also, English privateers (pirates) like Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins were taking gold and silver from Catholic Spanish ships from South America. Her cousin was a Catholic and, according to King Henry's last will and testament, had been excluded from the throne. The execution of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, further provoked Philip. He launched the Spanish Armada to invade England and depose Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, but the invasion failed due to strong English defences, poor planning, and adverse weather conditions. The issue is so tremendous that only Protestants can inherit the British crown, and with the Act of 1701, it barred not only Catholics but also anyone married to a Catholic. Although the Succession Act of 2013 allows any royal who marries a Catholic to retain their place in the line of succession. However, still, anyone professing to be a Catholic cannot be a monarch themselves.  

Since Queen Elizabeth I died without any children, the throne passed to King James VI of Scotland, who also became King James I of England. His mother was Queen Mary of Scotland. Although his mother was a Catholic, James was raised as a Protestant. He was separated from his mother as a baby and raised by the court, which instilled in him a lifelong passion for literature and learning. He also accepted the limitations of the monarchy. It's after him that the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible is named. Additionally, one of England's greatest novelists, William Shakespeare, was able to flourish, and other literary giants, such as John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Francis Bacon, contributed to a growing literary culture. Additionally, under King James, the relocation of Protestants to Northern Ireland (the Plantation of Ulster) and the English colonisation of America (Jamestown) had begun.

After catching Guy Fawkes, they stopped Parliament. But how did they see him in the first instance? A letter was brought to the attention of the English spymaster after being sent to Lord Monteagle at his house by a stranger on 26 October 1605. The letter reads

"My Lord, out of the love I bear to some of your friends, I have a care for your preservation. Therefore I would advise you, as you tender your life, to devise some excuse to shift your attendance at this parliament; for God and man hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this time. And think not slightly of this advertisement, but retire yourself into your country where you may expect the event in safety. For though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament; and yet they shall not see who hurts them. This counsel is not to be condemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm; for the danger is passed as soon as you have burnt the letter. And I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you"

The letter was shown to the King on 1 November by Salisbury, allowing the King to take full credit for unveiling the conspiracy, and the others feigned ignorance. The King focused on the word "blow," which allowed him to give the order to search the cellars of Parliament. There, they met a hidden Guy Fawkes, ready with matches and explosives (gunpowder), prepared to blow up Parliament. Since then, every year at the opening of parliament, there is a symbolic search of the cellars beneath the parliament by the Yeoman Warders. Guy Fawkes was caught and tortured by using the rack. This stretches the limbs and can result in joint dislocation, potentially leading to internal organ rupture. They got him to sign his name, which, due to the pain and deformity, came out as a scribble. He was then killed on 31 January, under the 1606 Treason Act of 1351 by hanging, drawing and quartering. 

This punishment involved:

"That you be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, where you shall be hanged by the neck and being alive cut down, your privy members shall be cut off and your bowels taken out and burned before you, your head severed from your body and your body divided into four quarters to be disposed of at the King’s pleasure."

 

Of course, his co-conspirators were all rounded up as they were planning to destroy the Protestant king and put a Catholic one in his place. Guy Fawkes was just the point man of the plot. He was just about to light the fuse to blow up parliament, and not the central planner. The plan was to assassinate the Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter, third in line of succession, Princess Elizabeth, who was Catholic. The Catholics had it very bad under the previous governments, King Edward VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. Catholics were often viewed with suspicion. They faced penalties for refusing to conform, leading to persecution, imprisonment, and executions for treason. Although King James had reduced them before the plot. These measures included the Popish Recusants Act of 1605, which demanded a loyalty oath and fines for non-attendance at Anglican services, and the expulsion of Catholic priests. 

As a child, I remember collecting money for the effigy, which represented Guy Fawkes. We children will dress him up in old clothes that we no longer wear, usually made out of paper. The plan was to burn the effigy (which was called 'The Guy') on Bonfire Night, and we will have some fireworks to celebrate the occasion. We would go to the local park and stack 'The Guy' up on top of boxes, crates, wood, paper, and other items, and then burn the effigy with fireworks. It is not as common nowadays as it seems; Halloween is more important, and so is the tradition of trick-or-treating. Maybe we should not be burning Guy Fawkes on the bonfire, but Robert Catesby. Who was believed to be the leader. The assassination of the King was to be the prelude to a popular uprising aimed at regime change, through which a Catholic monarch would be seated upon the English throne. They had planned everything, having raised another army, a vast collection of arms, gunpowder, and men in a house on the outskirts of London. Concerns about possible collateral damage killing fellow Catholics caused the above anonymous letter of warning to be sent to William Parker, Lord Monteagle, who subsequently alerted the authorities.

This is essentially a coup, or coup d'état, which is defined as a "sudden, illegal, and often violent overthrow of a government by a small group, typically from within the military or government elite." Cleopatra was involved in a coup with Julius Caesar. Speaking of Caesar, he was assassinated on the "Ides of March" at the foot of Pompey's statue, stabbed 23 times. The USA, the land of the free, has been directly involved in numerous coups from Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Brazil (1964), Chile (1973), etc., but has been involved in regime change in Egypt, Ethiopia, Chad, Angola, South Vietnam, Cuba, Cambodia, Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Somalia, etc.

Nigeria has had up to 11 coups or coup attempts. A notable case is the story of Major Daniel Idowu Bamidele, who, in October 1983, during an official trip to Kaduna, overheard rumours of a coup being planned to oust President Shehu Shagari. He went straight to report this to his commanding officer, General Buhari. Unknown to him, General Buhari was among the coup plotters, and he was subsequently detained and arrested for planning a coup. To his surprise, General Buhari, whom he reported to, turned out to be one of the coup leaders and was subsequently made President.

The events that led to his execution began in 1985, following General Babangida’s overthrow of Buhari. He was reportedly involved in another coup attempt. Although political discussions and criticisms of the Babangida regime took place during the gathering, there was no evidence of operational coup planning. Unfortunately, Bamidele was present there, and although the rest there were active in the coup, he was arrested by association for failing to report it. Bamidele, still haunted by his 1983 ordeal, chose to remain silent. It was that silence that became the basis for the charge of conspiracy to commit treason.

Still in Nigeria, a coup attempt was said to have occurred recently. In late September 2025, a coup plot against the Tinubu administration was uncovered by Nigerian military intelligence and leaked by Sahara Reporters. The Independence Day military parade scheduled for 1 October 2025 was cancelled, and sixteen military officers were arrested by the Defence Intelligence Agency. 19 soldiers were arrested, mainly from the North. Led by Brigadier General Musa Abubakar Sadiq, with alleged financial support from former governor and petroleum minister Timipre Sylva. The plotters planned to violently overthrow the federal government on 25 October by assassinating the President and several high-ranking government officials. Tinubu replaced the military service chiefs on 18 October, with General Olufemi Oluyede being promoted to Chief of Defence Staff, and investigations are still ongoing.

Still on Nigeria and coup plotting, one name that often comes up in successful coups and coup plotting is that of Babangida (IBB) and Sani Abacha. From the very first one to the last one, they were involved in. If they were not involved in the planning, they were active in putting it down.

In Britain, James I was a statesman who handled parliament. Unlike his son, Charles I, who was executed on 30 January 1649 by Parliament after causing England's Civil War.

There have been rumours of a coup attempt to remove Harold Wilson in 1968, but this has been described as a laughable plot by the press baron Cecil King, when he attempted to recruit Lord Mountbatten.