During the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, England
had undergone a religious transformation: the break with
Catholicism and the foundation of the Church of
England. However, Catholics continued to hope for a
change in their fortunes - and were therefore
disappointed when James I came to the throne and failed
to permit greater toleration.
The traditional view of the Gunpowder Plot is that it was a last
desperate attempt to re-establish the Catholic religion - possibly inspired by a number of executions of Catholics which had taken place in the autumn of 1604. More recently, some historians have suspected it may in fact have been a set-up by the Protestant Government, using the genuinely Catholic conspirators as pawns in a plot to discredit Catholicism once and for all.
