Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators

It may seem a little odd sitting right next to and dwarfed by the Minster, but when St Michael le Belfrey was built in the 1530s only the great and the good went to church in the Minster. St Michael's was built as a parish church for the ordinary people of York. In April 1570, one of York's most famous sons was baptised here: Guy Fawkes. In 1605 Guy Fawkes was caught trying to blow up the houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder, as part of a Catholic plot to kill King James I. For his part in the conspiracy he was publicly hung, drawn and quartered. This treasonous plot is remembered every year in Britain on Bonfire night November 5th.