Twitter Ye Not - The Gunpowder Plot
A regular piece for the Daily Mail Weekend magazine about how figures in history might have twittered or tweeted or whatever, had they the chance, inclination and technology.
In the early hours of the 5th November 1605, Guy Fawkes was discovered in the undercroft of the Palace of Westminster, guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder, intended to blow up the State Opening of Parliament later that day. Here, we imagine the Twitter feed for that turbulent night.
On he left-hand side we have Guy or Guido Fawkes, terrorist or free-fighter depending on your standpoint, some say the only man to ever enter Parliament with honest intentions, having a thoughtful smoke. A bad idea considering he is surrounded by powder kegs. Good thing most of them are too damp to ignite!
Opposite him is King James I of England (and James VI of Scotland), first of the Stuart line of British monarchs. The son of Mary, Queen of Scots, James is famous for several things - his ugliness, the Gunpowder Plot, his possible latent homosexuality, his poetic translation into English of the Bible (seen here under his arm) and his dislike of Smoking, which he described as 'a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless'! Not a fan then!
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