Hoist with his own petard
Anyone else see the programme on ITV last night where Richard Hammond, the short dude from Top Gear and Brainiac attempted to replicate the would-be climactic event of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, and see if a ton of 17th century Spanish gunpowder really could blow a 30-ton concrete-and-pine "House of Lords", king and nobles inclusive? I found it really gripping.
They accounted for variables reasonably effectively, and the explosion, when it happened, was pretty damn stunning. The undercroft where the gunpowder barrels would've been set off was torn apart (solid concrete six foot thick), and the structure above was just disintegrated in a tenth of a second. They had crash-test dummies inside to replicate the bodies (!), and they only found the top of King James' skull. About two hundred feet away.
The historical events that would have followed a successful detonation by Guy Fawkes, some expert surmised, would have not been too dissimilar to what actually transpired: the conspirators caught and killed howwibly, and no real power for the Catholics. At "best" England would've becomes like France--bloody revolution and a President in Buck Palace. At worst there'd have been a cull of all Catholics, and a big hole next to Westminster Abbey. Would've been one of the most awesomely potent acts of terrorism ever, though. And thwarted only by one traitor in the ranks!
Top stuff: acts of violence, acts of gross stupidity (the conspirators who fled London hid in a country house where they decided to dry their muskets' gunpowder on the floor in front of the open fire--o! how the genepool breathed a sigh of relief--well, a bit later, when they were all shot, lots), conspiracies in taverns, twirly moustaches, and Catholics being publicly disembowelled. No wonder we, er, light sparklers in commemoration. I suppose ritual hanging-drawing-and-quartering on a yearly basis instead would not go down too well with the establishment.
They accounted for variables reasonably effectively, and the explosion, when it happened, was pretty damn stunning. The undercroft where the gunpowder barrels would've been set off was torn apart (solid concrete six foot thick), and the structure above was just disintegrated in a tenth of a second. They had crash-test dummies inside to replicate the bodies (!), and they only found the top of King James' skull. About two hundred feet away.
The historical events that would have followed a successful detonation by Guy Fawkes, some expert surmised, would have not been too dissimilar to what actually transpired: the conspirators caught and killed howwibly, and no real power for the Catholics. At "best" England would've becomes like France--bloody revolution and a President in Buck Palace. At worst there'd have been a cull of all Catholics, and a big hole next to Westminster Abbey. Would've been one of the most awesomely potent acts of terrorism ever, though. And thwarted only by one traitor in the ranks!
Top stuff: acts of violence, acts of gross stupidity (the conspirators who fled London hid in a country house where they decided to dry their muskets' gunpowder on the floor in front of the open fire--o! how the genepool breathed a sigh of relief--well, a bit later, when they were all shot, lots), conspiracies in taverns, twirly moustaches, and Catholics being publicly disembowelled. No wonder we, er, light sparklers in commemoration. I suppose ritual hanging-drawing-and-quartering on a yearly basis instead would not go down too well with the establishment.