CHAPTER IV
GUY FAUKES AND THOMAS PERCY
THE name of the terrible hero of the popular feast, the anniversary of which is celebrated every fifth day of November, has been, and is written in several different forms. Sometimes it is written Fawkes,[1] with the Christian name as 'Guido.' Father Gerard calls him 'Mr. Guido Falks,' and by other writers he has been dubbed 'Guye Faux.' But, as he himself signed himself Faukes in his confession, I prefer to use that form of the surname, irrespective of the question as to his proper Christian name.[2]
Guy Faukes was born early in the year 1570, at York, where he was christened. He came of a race of ecclesiastical lawyers, which was also connected with one or two well-known county families. His parents were (from the accession of Elizabeth, at any rate) Protestants, and he was their only son. His father, Edward Faukes, Registrar of the Consistory Court, dying in 1578, his mother
- ↑ He is called Guy Fawkes in the official account of his trial.
- ↑ In an indenture, dated 1592, picked up for a few shillings in a second-hand book shop in London (1901), his name is signed in neat letters 'Guye Faukes.' After being tortured in the Tower, he wrote 'Guido,' but fainted before he could complete his surname.
38
