Gunpowder Plot Conspirator. He received notoriety in English history for participating in the 17th-century Gunpowder Plot. This plot was hatched by disillusioned Catholics, who were upset with the new King James, who had pledged but failed, to ease restrictions and punishments for practicing the illegal religious faith of being Roman Catholics. After assassinating the King by blowing up Parliament during its opening session, the conspirators planned to kidnap the child Princess Elizabeth and install her on the throne as a Catholic Queen. The plot was stopped a few days before it was due to be implemented when authorities received an anonymous letter informing them of the plot. An early member of the conspiracy and a former military man with explosives experience, Fawkes' role in the plot was to collect, place, and guard the gunpowder barrels under the Houses of Parliament and actually to set the explosions. He assumed the identity of "John Johnson," servant of co-conspirator Thomas Percy. He was installed in an apartment leased by Percy adjacent to Parliament to organize the explosives, which he later placed in a storage cellar, also rented by Percy, under the Parliament buildings. Although the leader of the conspiracy, Robert Catesby, was aware that authorities had been informed of the plot on October 26, 1605, Fawkes was never told, remaining at his post in Parliament and guarding the explosives. On November 4, he was found in the cellar by Lord Chamberlain, who was not satisfied with his explanation when challenged about his presence. He was arrested later that day when the gunpowder was discovered. He was unrepentant during his imprisonment and trial, and his confession was wrought from him only under torture. He refused to name his fellow conspirators until word reached him that they were all dead or in custody. While he may have appeared lacking remorse, being described in one report as "the greatest devil of them all," it is apparent from contemporary accounts that his fanaticism was borne of a genuine belief that the plot would free English Catholics from the bonds resultant from following an illegal faith. Although he pled not guilty at his trial, a guilty verdict had already been handed down, and he was executed by the traditional method of hanging, drawing, and quartering. He has no grave; in keeping with custom for executed traitors, his body was placed on public display outside the Tower of London, after which the remains would have been thrown into the Thames River and lost forever. Before involvement in the Gunpowder Plot, he was a respected military man and commander, fighting for ten years in the Spanish Army for the Catholic cause. During his time in Spain, he adopted the name "Guido" in place of his original birth name. He was considered a brave soldier, honest, pious man, and loyal friend. Although not the leader of the conspiracy, it is he who has become the modern face of the Gunpowder Plot, remembered in poems and songs and the English tradition of "Penny for the Guy," in which children display an effigy of Fawkes, usually carried door-to-door, to raise money to buy fireworks symbolizing the thwarted explosion of Parliament.