Guy Fawkes

Born in York in 1570, Fawkes lost his father at eight and grew up in a household that turned Catholic after his mother remarried. He left England to fight for Spain against Protestant forces in the Low Countries, then tried and failed to drum up Spanish backing for a Catholic uprising back home. Thomas Wintour brought him into Robert Catesby's circle, which planned to kill King James I and install a Catholic monarch. Fawkes drew the job of guarding the gunpowder stockpiled in a rented undercroft beneath the House of Lords. An anonymous letter tipped the authorities, who found him there in the early hours of November 5, 1605. Tortured over the following days, he confessed to the plot. Sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, he died on 31 January 1606 when his neck broke on the gallows - some say he jumped - sparing himself the rest. His name outlasted the conspiracy.