Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

The Gunpowder Plot can be said to be a very important point in the history of British religion. As the 16th century was coming to an end, the Catholic power in England was in danger of extinction.

Under Elizabeth I, England took a series of measures in an attempt to destroy any perceived influence from the Roman Catholic Church:

The law stipulates that persuading anyone to join Catholicism is a crime punishable by death, and the mere act of believing in Catholicism is also extremely expensive because of the tax burdens and other censures it will bear, and may even bring disaster.

When James I came to the throne in 1603, Catholics hoped that the situation would improve, but their hopes were quickly dashed.

James I, prompted by his chief advisor, Robert Cecil, took those punitive laws to their fullest extent.

Therefore, the earliest targets of the perpetrators of the Gunpowder Plot were the two of them, and then the targets were expanded to include the entire British Protestant rulers at the time. However, what they did not expect was that their attacks were not kept secret from the beginning.

Although no evidence was left behind. But many people in the historical community basically believe that the target of the attack, Robert Cecil, who was also the most well-informed politician in England at the time, was not as ignorant as the official history.

According to modern analysis. It was no accident that Cecil was finally able to solve the conspiracy. He probably knew the existence of the underground passage and even knew every inch of its progress.

It's just that he was a fervent opponent of Catholicism - and the Jesuits in particular - so he knew what the conspirators were planning, but he did nothing to stop them.

So Cecil would naturally choose to wait until he could gain the greatest political benefit from it before taking action. It's even possible that the whole thing is probably under his control.

If this were not the case, it is difficult to explain why the conspirators were able to rent the basement of the Houses of Parliament and dispose of all the dirt dug out of the tunnels, and also gain access to so much gunpowder.

You know, gunpowder has been a controlled substance since it was invented, and England at that time was no exception. In that era, the supply of even legal gunpowder was strictly restricted, and it was definitely not easy to obtain tons of gunpowder.

What's more interesting is that during the interrogation afterwards, Guy Fawkes' "confession" did not mention the Jesuits at all, which made Sethia furious.

After several days of torture, although information about the Jesuits' involvement in the conspiracy was obtained from Thomas Bates, the strange thing is that the confession was missing, making people doubt whether it ever existed.

What is even more incredible is that on November 23, 1605, Tretham, who was thought to be the informer, died in prison, and he was buried quickly after his death. It looked like someone was trying to silence him. Let him be killed.

Based on these circumstances, some people even believe that the mastermind behind the Gunpowder Plot was actually James I. Because of this attempted assassination, the already extremely strict laws became even stricter:

From then on the British banned Catholics from living near London and from practicing law and medicine. Threatening wealthy Catholics to join the Protestant faith or confiscate 2/3 of their property.

More importantly, the failure of the conspiracy had a huge negative impact on Catholicism in England. It brought Catholic emancipation to a complete halt: Catholics had to wait another 200 years until they gained near-equal power with Protestants.

The final beneficiaries of all this were James I and his chief advisor Robert Cecil. Through this method, they weakened the power of the Holy See and Spain in England, and expanded their own power.

Because of this fact, many people judge that this act was probably operated behind the scenes by James I and Robert Cecil from the perspective of who benefited the most and who was the most suspect.

As a result, all the information released by them has been questioned, and many historians feel that the Jesuits and even the Pope repeatedly mentioned in the other party's materials may not be true.

But judging from the previous secrets and the things dug out of this cellar, some things may not be purely fabricated by Cecil, such as the Jesuits' involvement in the matter.

Considering that the Jesuits were backed by Spain and Portugal at that time, and their biggest competitor at sea was Britain, it was only natural that the Jesuits would support the rebellion in Britain.

Judging from what has been collected now, the Jesuits probably brought more gunpowder than the 36 barrels of gunpowder in the basement of the British Parliament Building. However, the anonymous letter of the informant interrupted the attack plan, so that not all the gunpowder was delivered.

As for the silver coins and badges, they were probably used to organize a rebel army after the explosion was successful. They could allow the rebels to obtain a unified badge and enough military pay to organize an army.

"There is no doubt that this is a great discovery." Nelson said excitedly after clearing all the doubts, and then changed the subject and showed a regretful expression.

"It's a pity that we have only found these relatively indirect evidences. As for direct evidence, such as letters, we have not found them. It is really a pity."

From an archaeological point of view, what Liang En and the others found are enough to prove the Jesuits' involvement in the Gunpowder Plot, and indirectly prove that James I was at best fishing for law enforcement and did not personally arrange the plot.

But no matter how reasonable the conjecture is, it is just a conjecture. At least until there is no evidence that can be directly proved, this event cannot be said to be 100% certain.

"This is indeed a bit regretful, but it is also very reasonable when you think about it." Liang En sighed while looking at the baskets of silver coins in the makeshift tent at the entrance of the cellar.

"You know, this group of people planned to send the King of England, the King's heir, and all the members of Parliament to heaven together, so the review of such a big matter must leave no trace as much as possible."

"These silver coins and gunpowder may have been left unprocessed due to emergency circumstances and a sense of luck, but it is not too difficult to destroy important paper documents, so naturally not too many documents will be left behind."

"As for the coded letter we found before, it may have been hidden in other places, and these people were sure that no one could decipher their code before it was passed down. But I'm not sure why this thing was copied so many times. "

"I guess this may have something to do with church habits." Professor Alexander said, pushing up the glasses on the bridge of his nose. "The church has the habit of copying documents by hand, so it is possible that this document was copied many times by the church as a template for copying practice."

"After all, this document is just a bunch of messy letters in the eyes of people who don't understand it. It's more helpful for beginners to practice recording or even sketching."

"As for why they were dispersed to so many countries, it may have something to do with the situation at the time. As the situation worsened, many Catholic clergy chose to leave the UK and go to the European continent.

"When I left, I couldn't leave with a lot of wealth because I was under surveillance, so I took away those handwritten documents with the idea of ​​taking whatever I could."