"Was there really a Gunpowder Plot, or were the "conspirators" framed by the King? There was no doubt an attempt to blow up Parliament. But Guy Fawkes and his associates may have been caught in a Jacobean sting operation. Many of the plotters were known traitors. It would have been unlikely that they could gather 36 barrels of gunpowder and store them in a cellar under the house of Lords without the security forces getting suspicious. Furthermore, the letter warning one of the members of government to stay away from Parliament is believed today to have been fabricated by the king's officials. Historians suggest that the letter was simply a tool for the King's officials who already knew about the plot from the very mouth of one of the plotters. The suspected turncoat? Jeremy Tresham. As a tool for the king's men, the letter was ideal. It made it easy to explain how the king found out about the Plot and stopped it just in time before his untimely death. At the same time, the letter was vague enough to give the officials all the latitude they wanted in falsifying confessions and to pursue their own anti-Catholic ends. There are two fundamental problems with the letter. Firstly, the letter was unsigned. Any and all of the conspirators, once apprehended, might have saved themselves from torture and perhaps even death if they had claimed to have written it. None did. In fact, not one of the conspirators who was caught appears to have known about the letter. Secondly, the letter was very vague in its content. It said nothing about the details of the planned attack. Still, the king and his men knew exactly the where and when to catch the conspirators and stop the plot. How did they know? "
I expect crickets on this but any opinions?
