Let’s call him Guido. That’s the name he adopted when he left his native country to go fight in the Spanish Wars. While there, Guido made a name for himself as being a brave and somewhat reckless fighter. He became radicalized there as well, learning to combine religious fervor with a desire to enact vengeance for what he perceived to be wrongs done to people of the same belief he had.

Upon return to his homeland after the war, Guido quickly found many people who agreed with him. However, the discussions he and his like-minded compatriots had were by necessity held in secret. The government’s agents were everywhere, and people who openly opposed the government’s public and religious policies were rounded up, imprisoned, and, often, executed. Those in power did not tolerate any opposition, obviously.

All of that made Guido and his confederates even more radical in their desire to fight against what they felt was their right to worship God they way they wanted. No one person or group or government had the ability to take that away from them. Meanwhile, their numbers were being whittled down by the government’s oppression. And, so, feeling that there was nothing left to do except to fight against this perceived evil, the group hatched a conspiracy.

Guido’s plan was the one that the conspirators accepted. His brainstorm was to plant a large bomb in the basement of a government building and strike at the seat of power in the nation. The bomb was planted. The timing was agreed upon. All that was lacking was the detonation. And that’s where the plan went awry. It seems that the plotters had warned several people who shared their same religious beliefs, sending letters telling them to stay away from the government building during such and such a day and time. One of the members of one of the households that received one of these letters promptly informed the authorities.

After thinking that the warning was a hoax at first, the government was shocked into reality when they found Guido and the bomb in the basement of the government building. He was arrested. The government questioned him at length, demanding that he reveal the names of his fellow conspirators. Guido refused. That’s when the jailors began the torture. Soon, Guido gave up his fellow plotters. We have only a few hints of how extreme the torture was, but we have a signature he made on a document soon after the torture–a confession, actually–and the name is barely legible. Eventually, he and all the others were executed, their bodies torn to shreds, and their names becoming a byword for what happens to traitors who try to overthrow a government.

And so, the plot was foiled, but only barely. If it had succeeded. then history might have been different. Because, you see, Guido and his group had planted a large amount of gunpowder beneath the English Houses of Parliament in 1605. And Guido is remembered today as England’s most celebrated unsuccessful assassin.

In fact, every November 5th since then, the United Kingdom remembers him by lighting fires and shooting fireworks on Guy–Guido–Fawkes Day.