Faith and Treason (Hardcover)

by Antonia Fraser (Author) "WE NOW STEP BACK FROM the light of the new reign into the shadows of the 1590s: for that is where the story of the..." (more)
Key Phrases: gentler tortures, bountiful beginnings, recusant family, Father Garnet, King James, Guy Fawkes (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Our term "guy," slang for any man, comes from the name of Guy Fawkes, the alleged ringleader of the bungled plot to blow up King James I and the subject of Bonfire Night, the odd English holiday celebrated on November 5 by burning the execrable Guy in effigy. This and other facts tumble from the pages of this fascinating account of the Gunpowder Plot, written by the distinguished novelist and historian Antonia Fraser. Fraser delves into English religious history to show the harsh persecution of Roman Catholics under Jacobean rule and how James I disappointed those Catholics who hoped for a more liberal reign.

From Publishers Weekly
Although the "Gunpowder Plot" of 1605 to blow up Parliament as it was being opened by James I was foiled, the holiday it spawned, Guy Fawkes Day, is still marked each November 5. With political-religious terrorism now a hazard of everyday life, Fraser's searching look at the failed conspiracy of Robert Catesby (the actual planner) and Guy Fawkes could not be more timely. The narrative, however, is slowed by analysis as she examines whether the "facts" obtained by torture and show trials were genuine. Despite the graphic picture of anti-Catholic excesses, which the violence was intended to undo, and the agonizing punishment meted out to innocent and guilty alike, the pace is plodding. Biographer Fraser (Mary Queen of Scots) is at her best in limning lives: "Little John" Owen, the steadfast lay brother skilled at constructing hiding places for priests; Father Henry Garnet, a martyred divine of extraordinary intellect and courage; his patroness, the faithful, often-imprisoned Anne Vaux; and especially young Sir Everard Digby, a gallant courtier who, though drawn into the conspiracy at the last moment, was the first to mount the scaffold. Traditionally, the executioner cut out the condemned person's heart before the body ceased twitching, to claim, while eager crowds watched: "Here is the heart of a traitor." However anatomically impossible, Digby's "spirited riposte," supposedly, was "Thou Liest." Coming off far less favorably are the king, who retracted his promises of religious toleration; Sir Edward Coke, the country's leading judge, here a juridical monster; and Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, the bigoted power behind the throne occupied only a few years earlier by the great Elizabeth. Illustrations not seen by PW. .
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 347 pages
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese; First U.S. edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385471890
• ISBN-13: 978-0385471893
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #416,656 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, February 15, 2001

By	Stephen M. Bainbridge "www.professorbainbridg... (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot (Paperback)

Few tales better illustrate the old saw, "truth is stranger than fiction," than the story of the Gunpowder Plot. In 1605, Catholic militants disappointed by James I's failure to move towards toleration (allegedly) tried to blow up Parliament by piling gunpowder in a basement. The (purported) plot was discovered in the nick of time. England still celebrates Guy Fawkes' Day to celebrate the failure of the Gunpowder Plot and, among other things, Beefeaters still search the basements of Westminster (in full regalia, no less).

The Gunpowder Plot has long been highly controversial. Catholic apologists have claimed that the whole thing was invented by Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, King James' chief minister, and master of a vast intelligence network, with the assistance of Sir Edward Coke as Crown Prosecutor. Protestant apologists claim the Plot was real, the danger was real, and only narrowly averted (by God's special favor).

Antonia Fraser is a leading popular historian of the Tudor and Stuart periods of English history, as well as an accomplished novelist. She writes well, tells stories lucidly, and has a demonstrated command of the period. In "Faith and Treason," she strikes a balanced note. Yes, there was a plot. But the danger was not very real--Salisbury discovered the plot early, the gunpowder was defective, and Salisbury left it in the basement to be dramatically discovered so that the discovery would have maximum political effect. She makes a compelling case.

Fraser is sympathetic to the Catholic plotters, recognizing that they had been pushed too far, but she also doesn't hesitate to call them traitors and terrorists. Contrary to what some reviewers have said, she is not an apologist for either side. Instead, this is a fair and balanced account, written with the verve and style of a novel. Highly recommended.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterfully written, accurate and compassionate, May 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot (Paperback)

As usual, Lady Antonia Fraser has written another historical masterpiece - but this is no news concerning this most gifted writer and biographer. And, as in other works, the author manages to convey people's flaws and even cruelty from a compassionate standpoint. After all, telling a story about a minority - any minority - more often than not brings us close to the darkest aspects of human behavior (that of the majority). I knew very little about the Gunpowder Plot and therefore this amply researched and superbly written book proved truly enlightening. That is why I was amazed at a review which states - in prejudiced and chauvinistic terms - that it is obvious the book was written by a woman, and one with Roman Catholic sympathies, at that! The mere fact that the review refers disparagingly to the writer's sex should be enough to disqualify it for publication. In fact, it constitutes a bias much graver than the one wrongly attributed to Lady Antonia Fraser. In any case, her above mentioned compassionate and erudite narrative of the moving and heart-rending plight of the Catholic minority in England is what makes the book outstanding. Man or woman, Catholic or not, you cannot help feeling deep emotion at the troubled lives and ends of these unfortunate characters, many of them innocent. It is to Lady Antonia's great credit that she has managed to vindicate these much-maligned people, at last. Legend is now history.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but leaves unanswered questions, January 5, 2003

By	Peter Bridgman (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot (Paperback)

This is a fascinating book. Antonia Fraser has examined most of the old evidence afresh, has weighed up the arguments of the "pro-plotters" (historians who believe there actually was a plot by Catholic terrorists) and "no-plotters" (historians who believe that - like the Babington Plot before it - the Plot was a government conspiracy) and has produced a sort of compromise between these opposing views: a reasonably plausible pro-plot version with Catholic sympathies. It's a well written account, and has marvellous character studies, but unfortunately Fraser's version does stretch the reader's credulity somewhat.

She doesn't adequately explain why the English government, in the person of chief minister Robert Cecil, sits on the information and does absolutely nothing when he learns of the plot. Surely if there were 30 barrels of live gunpowder hidden under the House of Lords, Cecil might want it removed? But he doesn't even arrange a search for ten days or so. Fraser hints that one of the plotters, Francis Tresham, may have been a government spy, and therefore that Cecil knew of the plot from its inception, but she doesn't carry this idea through to its conclusions. Furthermore, she hasn't explored the possibility that plot leader Robin Catesby was an agent provacateur who deliberately set up the Jesuit priests by telling them about the planned explosion under the seal of the confessional. Nor does she question why the powder delivered to the Tower was all decayed and wouldn't have exploded anyway. Nor does she explain why 36 desperate armed men fail to harm a single member of the government's forces sent after them.

As a result Fraser's book seems somewhat naive to me. Her young Catholic terrorists are handsome swashbuckling cavaliers who die heroically clutching pictures of the Virgin Mary. She seems to have little sense of the level of espionage and double-dealing that flourished in England at the time. (See Charles Nicholl's 'The Reckoning - the Murder of Christopher Marlowe' for a vivid account of this shadowy underworld).

What Antonia Fraser does achieve though, is a vivid picture of English (aristocratic) Catholic recusant life at the end of the sixteenth century, with its stately homes riddled with priest-holes, and the brave women who sheltered the hunted priests. She also draws a very sympathetic portrait of Fr Henry Garnet, the head of the Jesuits' mission to England. Henry was an honest man in a world of double dealers, who naively and bravely defends his Faith to the last. I was very surprised to find out afterwards that Garnet hasn't yet been canonised.