After The Explosion, Plotters Planned To Crown A Child
The target was the whole Protestant system, and a nine-year-old girl was meant to replace it.
After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal · The Gunpowder Plot As It HappenedThe Gunpowder Plot was not supposed to end with a bang. The explosion under Parliament was meant to be the opening move in a takeover.
The target was Parliament at the State Opening, the ceremony that brings the king and lawmakers together in one room. It was chosen because it was the center of power for the Protestant regime, not simply because the king would be there.
Timing mattered. Plague pushed the opening from February 1605 to October, and then to November 5. The attack waited for the one day when everyone would be assembled.
That is why the lawmakers in the room were not incidental victims. The plan was to destroy the king and Parliament together, striking at the whole system at once.
Then came step two. With the leadership dead, the surviving plotters intended to make King James's young daughter Elizabeth queen.
Elizabeth was nine years old.
That rebellion was supposed to start in the Midlands. The region was seen as a Catholic stronghold, a central heartland from which revolt could bleed outward across the country.
The explosion would have removed the leaders. The child queen and the Midlands uprising were planned as the next steps.
Questions people ask
Who was Elizabeth?
She was the daughter of King James I, then nine years old. The plotters planned to seize her and declare her queen after the explosion.
Why did the plotters see the Midlands as a stronghold?
The Midlands had many Catholic gentry families and households where priests could be hidden. The plotters had allies and shelter there, and believed support could spread from the center of the country.
Could the second part of the plan have worked?
No. Catholic support in England was too limited to sustain a new regime, and the country was firmly Protestant in its institutions. Even a successful explosion likely would not have produced a lasting Catholic England.