was guy fawkes framed?

Answer 1

The 'Gunpowder Plot' happened so long ago and secret dealings leave few trails to begin with, so I think it is doubtful whether anyone will ever know for sure if the plot was genuine or just a conspiracy by the government to improve royal popularity. From the way you're asking the question, I'll assume that you're familiar with the basic facts of the case.

There are certainly inconsistencies in the story that make a conspiracy plausible. And unlike some convoluted networks involved in conspiracy theories, this one only requires a few people to execute and so could conceivably have remained a secret.

The most plausible conspiracy theory I have heard involves using a mole. If one of the members of the plot was actually under the control of the police and being used to smoke out plotters, then much of the remainder of the events begin to make sense. What's more, there were many plots at the time and it is a rather common tactic to use, so it makes sense that it might be happening.

The big problem I have with all of these conspiracy theories, however, is that pretty much everyone involved in the Gunpowder Plot was killed, and gruesomely at that. This means that either the royals slaughtered their mole to keep the operation secret (a rather brutal tactic and sure to discourage other moles), that the mole's death was faked (which stretches the credibility of secrecy a bit far, I think), or that the whole thing was managed entirely from the outside with no mole at all (a very dangerous thing to do, given the volume of explosives involved). So, all in all I'd say that the chance of a frame is pretty small.

Still, if -I- were Guy Fawkes and was alive now to set the record straight, I don't think I would. The brutal torture he suffered stirs up sympathies for him, and though he is burned in effigy annually (many suggest that the image that remains of him is actually that of the pope at the time actually) he is also in many quarters hailed as a genius, a good kind of revolutionary, and many other nice things (even a Harry Potter character named after him). I wouldn't want to BE Fawkes, but he really made out pretty well, all things considered.