:''For other meanings, see gunpowder (disambiguation).'' Gunpowder, also known since the late 19th century as black powder, is a mixture of sulphur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Gunpowder can be made just using potassium nitrate and charcoal, but without the sulfur, the powder is not as strong. The sulfur also makes the powder easier to ignite and lowers the temperature of the burning gun powder. Because of this gun barrels would not wear as quickly, however the sulfur formed corrosive compounds on firing. For this reason guns using it required extra care when cleaning. It burns rapidly, producing a volume of hot gas made up of carbon dioxide, water, and nitrogen, and a solid residue of potassium sulfide. Because of its burning properties and the amount of heat and gas volume that it generates, gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms and as a pyrotechnic composition in fireworks. The term ''gunpowder'' also refers broadly to any propellant powder. Modern firearms do not use the traditional gunpowder (black powder) described in this article, but instead use smokeless powder. Antique firearms or replicas of antique firearms are often used with black powder substitute. Such substitutes are typically more stable, less corrosive, and easier to clean after firing.

Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate at subsonic speeds. High explosives detonate, producing a supersonic wave. Ignition of the powder packed behind a bullet must generate enough pressure to force it from the muzzle at high speed, but not enough to rupture the gun barrel. Gunpowder is thus less suitable for shattering rock or fortifications, where high explosives such as TNT are preferred.

Gunpowder was, according to prevailing academic consensus, discovered in the 9th century by Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality. This discovery led to the invention of fireworks and the earliest gunpowder weapons in China. In the centuries following the Chinese discovery, gunpowder weapons began appearing in the Arab world, Europe, and India. The consensus is that this was spread from China, through the Middle East, and then into Europe, although there remains some dispute over the amount of Chinese influence on later advancements in gunpowder technology.

Characteristics

The term ''black powder'' was coined in the late 19th century, primarily in America, to distinguish prior gunpowder formulations from the new smokeless powders and semi-smokeless powders, in cases where these are not referred to more accurately as cordite. Semi-smokeless powders featured bulk volume properties that approximated black powder in terms of chamber pressure when used in firearms, but had significantly reduced amounts of smoke and combustion products; they ranged in color from brownish tan to yellow to white. Most of the bulk semi-smokeless powders ceased to be manufactured in the 1920s.

Black powder is a granular mixture of

a nitrate, typically potassium nitrate (KNO₃), which supplies oxygen for the reaction;

charcoal, which provides carbon and other fuel for the reaction, simplified as carbon (C);

sulfur (S), which, while also serving as a fuel, lowers the temperature required to ignite the mixture, thereby increasing the rate of combustion.

Potassium nitrate is the most important ingredient in terms of both bulk and function because the combustion process releases oxygen from the potassium nitrate, promoting the rapid burning of the other ingredients. To reduce the likelihood of accidental ignition by static electricity, the granules of modern black powder are typically coated with graphite, which prevents the build-up of electrostatic charge.

Charcoal does not consist of pure carbon; rather, it consists of partially pyrolyzed cellulose, in which the wood is not completely decomposed.

The current standard composition for the black powders that are manufactured by pyrotechnicians was adopted as long ago as 1780. Proportions by weight are 75% potassium nitrate (known as saltpeter or saltpetre), 15% softwood charcoal, and 10% sulfur. These ratios have varied over the centuries and by country, and can be altered somewhat depending on the purpose of the powder. For instance, power grades of black powder, unsuitable for use in firearms but adequate for blasting rock in quarrying operations, is called blasting powder rather than gunpowder with standard proportions of 70% nitrate, 14% charcoal, and 16% sulfur; blasting powder may be made with the cheaper sodium nitrate substituted for potassium nitrate and proportions may be as low as 40% nitrate, 30% charcoal, and 30% sulfur. French war powder in 1879 used the ratio 75% Saltpetre, 12.5% Charcoal, 12.5% Sulfur. English war powder in 1879 used the ratio 75% Saltpetre, 15% Charcoal, 10% Sulfur.

Corning

Corning is a process in which black powder is compressed into cakes, crushed, and then screened into different size categories. This process improves gunpowder's reliability by making its burn rate more consistent and inhibiting the separation of its constitutive components.

Corning first compresses the fine black powder meal into blocks with a fixed density (1.7 g/cm³). The blocks are then broken up into granules. These granules are then sorted by size to give the various grades of black powder. In the United States, standard grades of black powder run from the coarse Fg grade used in large bore rifles and small cannon, through FFg (medium and smallbore arms such as muskets and fusils), FFFg (smallbore rifles and pistols), and FFFFg (extreme small bore, short pistols and most commonly for priming flintlocks). In the United Kingdom, the gunpowder grains are categorised by mesh size: the BSS sieve mesh size, being the smallest mesh size on which no grains were retained. Recognised grain sizes are Gunpowder G 7, G 20, G 40, and G 90.

Combustion characteristics

A simple, commonly cited, chemical equation for the combustion of black powder is :2 KNO₃ + S + 3 C → K₂S + N₂ + 3 CO₂.

A more accurate, but still simplified, equation is :10 KNO₃ + 3 S + 8 C → 2 K₂CO₃ + 3 K₂SO₄ + 6 CO₂ + 5 N₂.

It is important to note however, that Carbon differs from Charcoal. Whereas charcoal's autoignition temperature is relatively low, carbon's is much greater. Thus, a black powder composition containing pure carbon would essentially burn in comparison to a match head, at best.

Although charcoal's chemical formula varies, it can be best summed up by its empirical formula: C₇H₄O

An even more accurate equation of the decomposition of regular black powder with the use of sulfur can be described as:

: 4 KNO₃ + C₇H₄O + 2 S —> 2 K₂S + 4 CO₂ + 3 CO + 2 H₂O + 2 N₂

Black powder without the use of sulfur:

: 6 KNO₃ + C₇H₄O —> 3 K₂CO₃ + CO₂ + 6 CO + 2 H2O + 2 N₂

The burning of gunpowder does not take place as a single reaction, however, and the byproducts are not easily predicted. One study's results showed that it produced (in order of descending quantities): 55.91% solid products: potassium carbonate, potassium sulfate, potassium sulfide, sulfur, potassium nitrate, potassium thiocyanate, carbon, ammonium carbonate. 42.98% gaseous products: carbon dioxide, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen, methane, 1.11% water.

Black powder made with sodium nitrate tends to be hygroscopic, unlike black powders made from saltpeter. (In this article, "saltpeter"--also spelled "saltpetre"--means potassium nitrate and not any of the other nitrates that are also sometimes called "saltpeter.") Because black powder made with saltpeter is less affected by moisture in the air, it can be stored unsealed for centuries without degradation if it is kept dry. Muzzleloaders have been known to fire after hanging on a wall for decades in a loaded state, provided they remained dry. By contrast, black powder made with sodium nitrate must be sealed from the moisture in the air to remain stable for long periods.

Advantages

In quarrying, high explosives are generally preferred for shattering rock. However, because of its low brisance, black powder causes fewer fractures and results in more usable stone compared to other explosives, making black powder useful for blasting monumental stone such as granite and marble.

Black powder is well suited for blank rounds, signal flares, burst charges, and rescue-line launches. Black powder is also used in fireworks for lifting shells, in rockets as fuel, and in certain special effects.

Disadvantages

Black powder has a low energy density compared to modern "smokeless" powders, and thus to achieve high energy loadings, large amounts of black powder are needed with heavy projectiles. In military applications black powder also produces thick smoke as a byproduct, which may give a soldier's location away to an enemy observer. The smoke may also impair aiming for additional shots.

Combustion converts less than half the mass of black powder to gas. The rest ends up as a thick layer of soot inside the barrel. In addition to being a nuisance, the residue from burnt black powder is hygroscopic and with the addition of moisture absorbed from the air, this residue forms a caustic substance. The soot contains potassium oxide or sodium oxide that turns into potassium hydroxide, or sodium hydroxide, which will corrode wrought iron or steel gun barrels. Black powder arms must be well cleaned both inside and out to remove the residue. The Matchlock musket or pistol (an early gun ignition system), as well as the flintlock would often be unusable in wet weather, due to powder in the pan being exposed and dampened. Because of this unreliability, soldiers carrying muskets, known as musketeers, were armed with additional weapons such as swords or pikes. The bayonet was developed to allow the musket to be used as a spear, thus eliminating the need for the soldier to carry a secondary weapon.

Transportation

The UN Model Regulations on the Transportation of Dangerous Goods and national transportation authorities, such as United States Department of Transportation, have classified Gunpowder (black powder) as a ''Group A: Primary explosive substance'' for shipment because it ignites so easily. Complete manufactured devices containing black powder are usually classified as ''Group D: Secondary detonating substance, or black powder, or article containing secondary detonating substance'', such as firework, class D model rocket engine, etc., for shipment because they are harder to ignite than loose powder. As explosives, they all fall into the category of Class 1.

Energy content

Gunpowder contains 3 megajoules per kilogram, and contains its own oxidant. For comparison, the energy density of TNT is 4.7 megajoules per kilogram, and the energy density of gasoline is 47.2 megajoules per kilogram.

Sulfur-free gunpowder

The development of smokeless powders, such as Cordite, in the late 19th century created the need for a spark-sensitive priming charge, such as gunpowder. However, the sulfur content of traditional gunpowders caused corrosion problems with Cordite Mk I and this led to the introduction of a range of sulfur-free gunpowders, of varying grain sizes. They typically contain 70.5 parts of saltpetre and 29.5 parts of charcoal. Like black powder, they were produced in different grain sizes. In United Kingdom, the finest grain was known as ''sulfur-free mealed powder'' (''SMP''). Coarser grains were numbered as sulfur-free gunpowder (SFG n): 'SFG 12', 'SFG 20', 'SFG 40' and 'SFG 90', for example; where the number represents the smallest BSS sieve mesh size on which no grains were retained.

The main purpose of sulfur in gunpowder is to decrease the ignition temperature. A sample reaction for sulfur-free gunpowder would be

: 4 KNO₃ + C₇H₈O → 3 K₂CO₃ + 4 CO₂ + 2 H₂O + 3 N₂

History

Gunpowder was invented, documented, and used in China where the Chinese military forces used gunpowder-based weapons technology (i.e. rockets, guns, cannon), and explosives (i.e. grenades and different types of bombs) against the Mongols when the Mongols attempted to invade and breach the Chinese city fortifications on the northern borders of China. After the Mongols conquered China and founded the Yuan Dynasty, they used the Chinese gunpowder-based weapons technology in their invasion of Japan. Chinese also used gunpowder to fuel rockets.

The mainstream scholarly consensus is that gunpowder was invented in China, spread through the Middle East, and then into Europe,

A major problem for academic study is ready access to original sources. Moreover, it is difficult to accurately translate original sources, especially medieval Chinese texts which employ metaphor to describe unexplained phenomena, into contemporary scientific language with its rigidly defined terminology. The difficulty in translation gives rise to errors or loose interpretation bordering on artistic licence.

China

Saltpeter was known to the Chinese by the mid-1st century AD and there is strong evidence of the use of saltpeter and sulfur in various largely medicinal combinations. A Chinese alchemical text dated 492 AD noted saltpetre burnt with a purple flame, providing a practical and reliable means of distinguishing it from other inorganic salts, thus enabling alchemists to evaluate and compare purification techniques. The Chinese word for "gunpowder" is , which literally means "Fire Medicine", meaning "Fire Chemicals" or "Fire Powder".

The first reference of gunpowder is possibly the passage of the ''Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe'', a Taoist text tentatively dated to the mid-9th century AD:

Some have heated together sulfur, realgar and saltpeter with honey; smoke and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down.

By the 9th century Taoist monks or alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality had serendipitously stumbled upon gunpowder.

The Chinese "Wu Ching Tsung Yao", written by Tseng Kung-Liang in 1044, provides encyclopedia references to a variety of mixtures which included petrochemicals, as well as garlic and honey. A slow match for flame throwing mechanisms using the siphon principle and for fireworks and rockets are mentioned. Academics argue the Chinese wasted little time in applying gunpowder to warfare, and they produced a variety of gunpowder weapons, including flamethrowers, rockets, bombs, and land mines, before inventing guns as a projectile weapon.

Middle East

The Arabs acquired knowledge of gunpowder some time after 1240 AD, but before 1280 AD, by which time Hasan al-Rammah had written, in Arabic, recipes for gunpowder, instructions for the purification of saltpeter, and descriptions of gunpowder incendiaries. Gunpowder arrived in the Middle East, possibly through India, but originating in China. This is implied by al-Rammah's usage of "terms that suggested he derived his knowledge from Chinese sources" and his references to saltpeter as "Chinese snow", fireworks as "Chinese flowers" and rockets as "Chinese arrows". However, because al-Rammah attributes his material to "his father and forefathers", al-Hassan argues that gunpowder became prevalent in Syria and Egypt by "the end of the twelfth century or the beginning of the thirteenth".

Al-Hassan claims that in the Battle of Ain Jalut of 1260 AD, the Mamluks used against the Mongols in "the first cannon in history" gunpowder formula with near-identical ideal composition ratios for explosive gunpowder. However, Khan claims that it was invading Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world and cites Mamluk antagonism towards early musketeers in their infantry as an example of how gunpowder weapons were not always met with open acceptance in the Middle East. Similarly, the refusal of their Qizilbash forces to use firearms contributed to the Safavid rout at Chaldiran in 1514.

The earliest surviving documentary evidence for the use of the hand cannon, considered the oldest type of portable firearm and a forerunner of the handgun, are from several Arabic manuscripts dated to the 14th century. Al-Hassan argues that these are based on earlier originals and that they report hand-held cannons being used by the Mamluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.

Hasan al-Rammah included 107 gunpowder recipes in his text ''al-Furusiyyah wa al-Manasib al-Harbiyya'' (''The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices''), 22 of which are for rockets. If one takes the median of 17 of these 22 compositions for rockets (75% nitrates, 9.06% sulfur, and 15.94% carbon), it is near identical with the modern reported ideal gunpowder recipe of 75% potassium nitrate, 10% sulfur, and 15% carbon, although this was already known to Roger Bacon

Mainland Europe

Several sources mention Chinese firearms and gunpowder weapons being deployed by the Mongols against European forces at the Battle of Mohi in 1241. Professor Kenneth Warren Chase credits the Mongols for introducing into Europe gunpowder and its associated weaponry.

C. F. Temler interprets Peter, Bishop of Leon, as reporting the use of cannon in Seville in 1248 AD.

In Norwegian the ''Konungs skuggsjá'' of 1250 AD mentions in its military chapter, the use of two key ingredients: "coal and sulfur" as the best weapons for ship-to-ship combat.

Dated around 1257 AD, among the earliest extant written references to gunpowder in Europe, are Roger Bacon's texts ''Epistola'', "''De Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturae et de Nullitate Magiae''," dated variously between 1248 and 1257, he states:

We can, with saltpeter and other substances, compose artificially a fire that can be launched over long distances... By only using a very small quantity of this material much light can be created accompanied by a horrible fracas. It is possible with it to destroy a town or an army ... In order to produce this artificial lightning and thunder it is necessary to take saltpeter, sulfur, and Luru Vopo Vir Can Utriet.

The last part has been interpreted as an elaborate coded anagram for the quantities needed, but other academics holding contrary viewpoints argue this may be erroneous transcription of a passage read with much difficulty.

Some authors maintain that around 1261, Roger did develop the ideal formula for gunpowder (75% of saltpeter, 15% of carbon and 10% of sulfur)

In the ''Opus Maior'' of 1267 AD, Bacon describes firecrackers:

a child’s toy of sound and fire and explosion made in various parts of the world with powder of saltpetre, sulfur and charcoal of hazelwood.

The ''Liber Ignium'', or ''Book of Fires'', attributed to Marcus Graecus, is a collection of incendiary recipes, including some gunpowder recipes. Partington dates the gunpowder recipes to approximately 1300. One recipe for "flying fire" (''ingis volatilis'') involves saltpetre, sulfur, and colophonium, which, when inserted into a reed or hollow wood, "flies away suddenly and burns up everything." Another recipe, for artificial "thunder", specifies a mixture of one pound native sulfur, two pounds linden or willow charcoal, and six pounds of saltpeter. Another specifies a 1:3:9 ratio.

Some of the gunpowder recipes of ''De Mirabilibus Mundi'' of Albertus Magnus are identical to the recipes of the ''Liber Ignium'', and according to Partington, "may have been taken from that work, rather than conversely." Partington suggests that some of the book may have been compiled by Albert's students, "but since it is found in thirteenth century manuscripts, it may well be by Albert." Albertus Magnus died in 1280 AD.

A common German folk-tale is of the German priest/monk named Berthold Schwarz who independently invented gunpowder, thus earning it the German name ''Schwarzpulver'' or in English ''Schwarz's powder''. Schwarz is also German for black so this folk-tale, while likely containing elements of truth, is considered problematic.

The major and uniquely European advancement of gunpowder was corning: the addition of moisture to the gunpowder to form regular greater grains which much increased the reliability and consistency of gunpowder. This occurred around the late 15th century CE, as European powdermakers began adding moisture to gunpowder to reduce dust and with it the risk of dust explosion. The powdermakers would then shape the resulting mush of dampened gunpowder, known as mill cake, into corns, or grains, to dry.

The new "corned" powder remained potent and more reliable to store as it was far less hygroscopic than the former powder (due to net reduced surface area). Gunners also found it was more powerful and easier to load measures of it into guns. An advantage of corning is that the combustion flame spreads evenly between the grains, thus igniting all grains before significant gas expansion (when the gunpowder actually "explodes"). Gunpowder not corned results in much unburnt powder blown away from the ignition flame and combustion chamber due to localized miniature gas expansions within the powder.

Europeans innovated by experimentation and discovering different kernel sizes combusted at differing rates, and thus were more suitable for one gun or for another. Molerus notes that without corning, gunpowder, like all dry mixtures, has a tendency to gradually separate back to its components and thus was too unreliable for effective use in guns as mixtures would not be of uniform composition, noting the use of corning technique is commonplace in the modern pharmaceutical industry to ensure uniform proportions of active ingredients for each tablet.

Shot and gunpowder for military purposes were made by skilled military tradesmen, later called ''firemakers'', and were also required to craft fireworks for celebrations of victory or peace. During the Renaissance, two European schools of pyrotechnic thought emerged, one in Italy and the other at Nuremberg, Germany. The Italian school of pyrotechnics emphasized elaborate fireworks, and the German school stressed scientific advancement. Both schools added significantly to further development of pyrotechnics, and by the mid-17th century fireworks were used for entertainment on an unprecedented scale in Europe, being popular even at resorts and public gardens.

By 1788, as a result of the reforms for which Lavoisier was mainly responsible, France had become self-sufficient in saltpeter, and its gunpowder had become not only widely considered the best in Europe but more importantly, inexpensive.

The introduction of smokeless powder in the late 19th century led to the contraction of the gunpowder industry.

British Isles

Gunpowder production in Britain appears to have started in the mid 14th century AD with the aim of supplying The English Crown. Records show that gunpowder was being made, in England, in 1346, at the Tower of London; a powder house existed at the Tower in 1461; and in 1515 three King's gunpowder makers worked there. Gunpowder was also being made or stored at other Royal castles, such as Portchester. By the early 14th century, according to N.J.G. Pounds's study ''The Medieval Castle in England and Wales,'' many English castles had been deserted and others were crumbling. Their military significance faded except on the borders. Gunpowder had made smaller castles useless.

Henry VIII of England was short of gunpowder when he invaded France in 1544 AD and England needed to import gunpowder via the port of Antwerp.

The English Civil War, 1642-1645 AD, led to an expansion of the gunpowder industry, with the repeal of the Royal Patent in August 1641.

Two British physicists, Andrew Noble and Frederick Abel, worked to improve the properties of blackpowder during the late 19th century. This formed the basis for the Noble-Abel gas equation for internal ballistics.

The introduction of smokeless powder in the late 19th century led to a contraction of the gunpowder industry. After the end of World War I, the majority of the United Kingdom gunpowder manufacturers merged into a single company, "Explosives Trades limited"; and number of sites were closed down, including those in Ireland. This company became Nobel Industries Limited; and in 1926 became a founding member of Imperial Chemical Industries. The Home Office removed gunpowder from its list of ''Permitted Explosives''; and shortly afterwards, on 31 December 1931, the former Curtis & Harvey's Glynneath gunpowder factory at Pontneddfechan, in Wales, closed down, and it was demolished by fire in 1932. The last remaining gunpowder mill at the Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey was damaged by a German parachute mine in 1941 and it never reopened. This was followed by the closure of the gunpowder section at the Royal Ordnance Factory, ROF Chorley, the section was closed and demolished at the end of World War II; and ICI Nobel's Roslin gunpowder factory which closed in 1954.

This left the sole United Kingdom gunpowder factory at ICI Nobel's Ardeer site in Scotland; it too closed in October 1976. Since then gunpowder has been imported into the United Kingdom. In the late 1970s / early 1980s gunpowder was bought from eastern Europe, particularly from what was then the East Germany and former Yugoslavia.

India

Gunpowder had arrived in India by the mid-14th century, perhaps introduced by the Mongols as early as the mid-13th century.

It was written in the ''Tarikh-i Firishta'' (1606–1607) that the envoy of the Mongol ruler Hulegu Khan was presented with a dazzling pyrotechnics display upon his arrival in Delhi in 1258 CE. Firearms known as ''top-o-tufak'' also existed in the Vijayanagara Empire of India by as early as 1366 AD. From then on the employment of gunpowder warfare in India was prevalent, with events such as the siege of Belgaum in 1473 AD by Sultan Muhammad Shah Bahmani.

By the 16th century, Indians were manufacturing a diverse variety of firearms; large guns in particular, became visible in Tanjore, Dacca, Bijapur and Murshidabad. Guns made of bronze were recovered from Calicut (1504 AD) and Diu (1533 AD). Gujarāt supplied Europe saltpeter for use in gunpowder warfare during the 17th century. Bengal and Mālwa participated in saltpeter production. The Dutch, French, Portuguese, and English used Chāpra as a center of saltpeter refining.

War rockets, mines and counter mines using gunpowder were used in India by the time of Akbar and Jahangir. Both Hyder Ali and his son Tippu Sultan used black powder technology in iron-cased war rockets with considerable effect against the British, which inspired the development of the Congreve rocket.

Indonesia

The Javanese Majapahit Empire is argued to have grown to span most of modern day ASEAN due to its Javanese mastery of bronze-smithing and unique within the immediate region to the Majapahit court, the technology and mass manufacture (via cottage industries which contributed to a central arsenal). Documentary and archeological evidence indicate that Arab or Indian traders introduced gunpowder, gonnes, muskets, blunderbusses, and cannon to the Javanese, Acehnese, and Batak via long established commercial trade routes around the early to mid 14th century CE. Early European aggressors of Portugal and Spain were unpleasantly surprised and outgunned on many occasions. The resurgent Singhasari Empire overtook Sriwijaya and later emerged as the Majapahit who rigidly established fire-arms and cannonade as a feature of warfare.

Circa 1540 CE the Javanese always alert for new weapons found the newly arrived Portuguese weaponry superior to that of the locally made variants. The Javanese bronze breech-loaded swivel-gun, erroneously termed the lantaka, more correctly known as a meriam was used ubiquitously by the Majapahit navy and unfortunately pirates and rival lords. The demise of the Majapahit empire and the flight of disaffected skilled bronze cannon-smiths to Brunei, modern Sumatra and Malaysia, and the Philippines lead to near universal use of the swivel-gun, especially on trade vessels to protect against prevalent marauding pirates, especially in the Makassar Strait.

A Chinese pirate or commercial shipwreck site unearthed a double-ended swivel gun, which enabled swift firing: one barrel would fire whiles its opposite would be reloaded, though this is a rare and unique piece. Other archeological finds have unearthed some triple-barrel and some double-barrel swivel-guns, which were not widely duplicated.

The saltpetre harvesting was recorded by Dutch and German travelers as being common to even the smallest villages and collected from the decomposition process of large goat dung hills specifically piled for collection this saltpetre, a most unpleasant job. Saltpetre must be remembered by today's reader as being a key food preservative agent in a period of no refrigeration.

The Dutch punishment for possession of unpermitted gunpowder appears to have been amputation.

Ownership and manufacture of gunpowder was later prohibited by the colonial Dutch occupiers. but others such as alder or buckthorn can be used. The ingredients are mixed as thoroughly as possible. This is achieved using a ball mill with non-sparking grinding apparatus (e.g., bronze or lead), or similar device. Historically, a marble or limestone edge runner mill, running on a limestone bed was used in Great Britain; however, by the mid 19th century CE this had changed to either an iron shod stone wheel or a cast iron wheel running on an iron bed. The mix is sometimes dampened with alcohol or water during grinding to prevent accidental ignition.

Around the late 14th century CE, European powdermakers began adding damp to the constituents of gunpowder to reduce dust and with it the risk of explosion. The powdermakers would then shape the resulting paste of dampened gunpowder, known as mill cake, into corns, or grains, to dry. Not only did corned powder keep better because of its reduced surface area, gunners also found that it was more powerful and easier to load into guns. Before long, powdermakers standardized the process by forcing mill cake through sieves instead of corning powder by hand.

During the 18th century gunpowder factories became increasingly dependent on mechanical energy.

Other uses

Besides its use as an explosive, gunpowder has been occasionally employed for other purposes; after the Battle of Aspern-Essling (1809), the surgeon of the Napoleonic Army Larrey combated the lack of food for the wounded under his care by preparing a bouillon of horse meat seasoned with gunpowder for lack of salt. It was also used for sterilizing on ships when there was no alcohol.

Christiaan Huygens experimented with gunpowder in 1673 in an early attempt to build an internal combustion engine, but he did not succeed in making a practical engine.

Fireworks and Firecrackers also use gunpowder but use different brands and different chemicals.

For a while in the first half of the 20th century gunpowder was used in rivet guns, stun guns for animals, splicing cable and other high powered industrial construction tools, until portable air and hydraulic units replaced it as a safer alternative.

Black powder is still used in delay-trains in modern arms. For instance, in a hand grenade, a mechanical striker ignites a percussion primer which ignites a slow black powder delay. The delay burns a few seconds until it gets to the high explosive primary, which detonates, initiating the grenade fill explosive, thus fragmenting the grenade.

See also

Ballistics

Ballincollig Royal Gunpowder Mills

Faversham explosives industry

Bulk loaded liquid propellants

Gunpowder magazine

Gunpowder Plot

Berthold Schwarz

Gunpowder warfare

History of gunpowder

Serpentine powder

Smokeless powder

Technology of the Song Dynasty

Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills

Notes

References

. . . . . . . . . . .

Khan, Iqtidar Alam (1996a). "The Role of the Mongols in the Introduction of Gunpowder and Firearms in South Asia". Chapter 3, In Buchanan, Brenda J. (1996). ''Gunpowder: The History of an International Technology''. Bath: Bath University Press. (ISBN i have a pink pony0-86197-134-5. 2006 re-issue).

. . . . .

External links

Gun and Gunpowder

The Origins of Gunpowder

Cannons and Gunpowder

Oare Gunpowder Works, Kent, UK

Royal Gunpowder Mills

The DuPont Company on the Brandywine A digital exhibit produced by the Hagley Library that covers the founding and early history of the DuPont Company powder yards in Delaware

Video Demonstration of the Medieval Siege Society's Guns, Including showing ignition of Gun Powder

Black Powder Recipes

Category:Chinese inventions Category:Explosives Category:Pyrotechnic compositions Category:Firearm propellants Category:Rocket fuels Category:Granular materials Category:Traditional Chinese objects Category:Solid fuels

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label	Ruffhouse, Columbia, Clef Recording
associated acts	Fugees, Akon, Lil Wayne, R. Kelly, Niia, The Rock, Mary J Blige, Doug E. Fresh, Flo Rida, Shakira
website
notable instruments	}}

Wyclef Jeanelle Jean (, ; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian American musician, record producer, and politician. At age nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life in the country. He first received fame as a member of the acclaimed New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees.

On August 5, 2010, Jean filed for candidacy in the 2010 Haitian presidential election, although the Electoral Commission subsequently ruled him ineligible to stand as he had not met the requirement to have been resident in Haiti for five years.

Early life

Although his birth date was widely given as October 17, 1972, papers filed for his run as a candidate for the presidency of Haiti, disclosed that he was, in fact, born in 1969. Born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, the son of a Nazarene pastor, Wyclef moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York, when he was nine before moving again to northern New Jersey. Jean has cited reggae artist Bigga Haitian as one of his early influences, as well as neighborhood heroes MC Tiger Paw Raw and producer Lobster v. Crab. Jean graduated from Vailsburg High School in Newark, briefly attended Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts, and finished one semester at Five Towns College in New York. Jean has been a resident of Saddle River, South Orange, and North Caldwell, New Jersey. In 2009, Jean enrolled in the Berklee College of Music.

Music career

Fugees era

Jean's musical breakthrough was as part of The Refugee Camp (The Fugees), a three-member group that included Lauryn Hill and Prakazrel "Pras" Michel. Jean is Pras's cousin and a fellow Haitian immigrant. The Fugees signed to Ruffhouse Records, which released the group's debut album, ''Blunted on Reality''. It sold fairly well, peaking at #49 on the U.S. Hot 100 and selling over 2 million copies worldwide. The follow-up album – ''The Score'' – sold over 18 million copies worldwide, eventually becoming a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning album.

Jean announced plans to begin a solo career with 1997's ''Wyclef Jean Presents the Carnival Featuring the Refugee All-Stars'' (generally called ''The Carnival''). The album's guests included Lauryn Hill and Pras along with Jean's siblings' group Melky Sedeck; the I Threes (back-up vocals for Bob Marley); The Neville Brothers and Celia Cruz. The album was a hit, as were two singles: "We Trying to Stay Alive" (adapted from The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive") and "Gone Till November" (recorded with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra).

Solo career

Released in 2000, Jean's second solo album ''The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book'' was recorded with guests including Youssou N'Dour; Earth, Wind & Fire; Kenny Rogers; The Rock; and Mary J. Blige. With Blige he released "911" as a single. He was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Act at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards.

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Jean participated in the benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes contributing a cover of the Bob Marley song "Redemption Song".

Jean's third album, ''Masquerade'', was released in 2002. His fourth album, ''The Preacher's Son'', was released in November 2003 as the follow-up to his first solo album, ''The Carnival''.

In 2004, he released his fifth album, entitled ''Sak Pasé Presents: Welcome to Haïti (Creole 101)'' (released in the United States by Koch Records). Most of its songs are in his native language of Haitian Creole like "Fanm Kreyol" with the French Caribbean Admiral T. He also figured on the album ''Mozaik Kreyol'' of this one in the song "Secret Lover". Then he covered Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Fortunate Son" for the soundtrack of the 2004 film remake of ''The Manchurian Candidate'' and wrote the song "Million Voices" for the film ''Hotel Rwanda''.

Jean also produced and wrote songs for the soundtrack to Jonathan Demme's 2003 documentary ''The Agronomist'', about the Haitian activist and radio personality Jean Dominique. With Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis, Jean also composed the score of the documentary ''Ghosts of Cité Soleil'', He also helped produce the film and he appears briefly onscreen speaking by telephone in 2004 to a "''chimere''" gang-leader and aspiring rapper, Winston "2Pac" Jean. During a period between 2004 and 2006 and fueled by a reunion performance in Dave Chappelle's "Block Party", it appeared that the Fugees were on track to record a new album, however Fugees member Pras claimed to Billboard, "To put it nicely, it's dead." He said the root of this animosity was the third member of the group, Lauryn Hill, and was quoted in Billboard as saying; "Me and Clef, we on the same page, but Lauryn Hill is in her zone, and I'm fed up with that shit. Here she is, blessed with a gift, with the opportunity to rock and give and she's running on some bulls**t? I'm a fan of Lauryn's but I can't respect that."

In 2006, Jean was featured in Shakira's smash hit ''Hips Don't Lie''. The song went on to become the highest selling single of the 21st century, in addition to reaching number one in over fifty-five countries. Jean and Shakira went on to perform the song at the 2006 Grammys and the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.

Jean released an album in September 2007 that he recorded in Atlanta, Georgia, with the help of T.I., who also collaborated with Jean on the songs "You Know What it is" and "My Swag" on T.I.'s 2007 album, T.I. vs. T.I.P. Recently, Wyclef released a new song called "Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)" featuring Lil' Wayne, Niia and Akon, which references the song "C.R.E.A.M." by the Wu-Tang Clan. The album also features a single, "Fast Car", whose video was made with the assistance of video game ''Burnout Paradise''. During this period, he was featured in a mix version of the Cartel song "Wasted" that was released with their self-titled album. In November 2008, an upbeat single 'Let Me Touch Your Button' featuring will.i.am (of The Black Eyed Peas) was released in the UK in conjunction with Wyclef's invovlement with UK MOTOROKRSTAR (which sees Motorola UK on the search to discover British talent).. Jean released a song with Serj Tankian "Riot".

In 2009, he featured in a song called "Spanish Fly" with Ludacris and Bachata group Aventura in Aventura's upcoming album "The Last" which came out in June.

On June 17, 2009, Wyclef announced via Twitter that his new album will be called ''wyclefjean'' and is to be released sometime in February 2010. The first single off of ''wyclefjean'' is to be titled "Seventeen" and will feature Lil' Wayne.

In November 2009, a track titled "Suicide Love" featuring rapper Eve leaked online prior to the release of his EP.

Wyclef Jean's EP named ''From the Hut, to the Projects, to the Mansion'' was released on November 10, 2009. It includes 17 tracks, featuring Cyndi Lauper, Timbaland, Eve, and Lil' Kim. In this album, Wyclef uses the alias Toussaint St. Jean, his alter ego, when he raps.

Wyclef Jean's upcoming self-entitled studio album was due to be released in 2011, has still yet to be released. "Hold On," the lead single from the project, will feature Dancehall artist Mavado.

Personal life

In 1994, he married Fusha designer Marie Claudinette. In 2005, they adopted their daughter, Angelina Claudinelle Jean. The couple renewed their vows in August 2009.

His uncle – political activist, journalist and diplomat Raymond Alcide Joseph – has been the Haitian ambassador to the United States since 2005, and came to prominence as a spokesman for his country after the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake. Together with Wyclef, he issued an appeal for international aid.

On March 19, 2011, Jean claimed that he was shot in the palm of his right hand in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The police reported otherwise saying that Wyclef was not wounded by a bullet but was cut by glass. Police Chief Vanel Lacroix said "we met with the doctor who saw him and he confirmed Wyclef was cut by glass."

Yéle Haiti

In 2005, Jean established the Yéle Haiti Foundation. In its first year of operation, the foundation, with funding by Comcel, provided scholarships to 3,600 children in Gonaïves, Haiti, after the devastation by Hurricane Jeanne. In its second year of operation, it is almost doubling the amount of the scholarships and spreading them throughout Haiti, providing tuition in 5 regions. The foundation aims to provide 6,800 scholarships to children in Port-au-Prince, Gonaïves, Les Cayes, Port-de-Paix, and Cap-Haïtien.

After the earthquake on January 12, 2010 in Haiti, Jean called on others to donate to his foundation's Yéle Haiti Earthquake Fund, imploring "We must act now."

Jean has been active in his support of his native country and created the foundation Yéle Haiti to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to Haiti. He describes Yéle as a non-political organization intended to empower the people of Haiti and the Haitian diaspora to rebuild their nation, saying, "The objective of Yéle Haiti is to restore pride and a reason to hope, and for the whole country to regain the deep spirit and strength that is part of our heritage".. Yéle Haiti was created in October 2004 with Wyclef's cousin Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis. Projects were launched in January 2005. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were present for the first anniversary of the launch in 2006.

In January 2007, Jean became a roving ambassador for Haiti, to help improve its image abroad.

May 20, 2008 – Yéle Haiti partnered with WFP (World Food Programme) of the United Nations to launch www.togetherforhaiti.org

September, 2008 – Wyclef in conjunction with Yéle Haiti Charity delivered food to Hurricane Ike victims in Haiti. Matt Damon provided assistance in the food lines serving food.

Oct 23, 2008 – Wyclef Jean performed on stage with Carlos Santana in San Francisco on behalf of Yéle Haiti, OneXOne, and WaterPartners International to raise funds for clean water, education, health, environment, and community development in the USA and in the developing world.

In 2009, Wyclef Jean and The Timberland Company joined forces to help raise environmental awareness in Haiti. This duo "will be a multi-platform effort incorporating Timberland products, digital and social media, service events, music, and concerts that will promote environmental awareness." The campaign will push to support and educate the country as well as helping to improve health care and the environment, and the community. Wyclef Jean also plans to spread information about the joint efforts through social media outlets such as "Twitter, YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, imeem, and Social Vibe." He also aims to use social networking websites to help raise money to build the Yéle Center.

In January 2010, along with his uncle Raymond Joseph, Haitian ambassador to the US, Wyclef issued an appeal for international aid following the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Today, Yele's mission, headed by CEO Derek Johnson, is to provide aid and assistance to the communities in Haiti in greatest need, where severe poverty, widespread unemployment, rampant malnutrition and crippling illiteracy are most pervasive. In doing so, we strive to balance emergency relief with support for long term sustainable initiatives that together are giving both hope and practical assistance to the people of Haiti. Yele's programs focus on emergency relief, employment, youth development and education, and tree planting and agriculture.

In a November 27, 2011 New York Post article entitled "Questions Dog Wyclef's Haiti Fund", the Post asserted that less than one third of the over $16 million raised after the Haiti earthquake in January 2010 has been spent effectively for the victims of the catastrophe. The Post does not allege any dishonest embezzlement of funds on Wyclef's part, but rather asserts that there was gross mismanagement and negligence with regards to the distribution of the funds the charity raised. Required Federal tax returns were not filed, and $1 million was given to a Florida firm that does not seem to exist. Wyclef and most of the board left the charity in the summer of 2010. It is now under new management. Wyclef stated, "It's a clean slate now." Due to the controversial nature of Jean's former charity, he has kept a relatively low profile.

Politics

2010 Haitian presidential campaign

On August 5, 2010, Wyclef confirmed the rumors that he was running for office by telling CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he was running, though Blitzer had questions about Jean's actual citizenship and passport. In an article written by Exclaim! Magazine it was mentioned that Jean will be stepping down as the chairman of Yéle Haiti. On August 5, Jean formally filed papers as a candidate for the 2010 Haitian presidential election, following media speculation that he would make his announcement that evening on ''Larry King Live''. Wyclef would have run as a candidate for the Viv Ansanm (Live Together) political party. On the topic of his candidacy, Jean has stated, "I am being drafted to serve my country."

Besides opposition from Sean Penn in regards to Jean's Haitian presidential plans, Arcade Fire's Win Butler stated in a radio interview: :"Technically, [Wyclef Jean] shouldn't be eligible because he hasn't been a resident of Haiti. And I think him not speaking French and not being fluent in Creole would be a really major issue in trying to run a really complex government, like the government in Haiti. It would kind of be like Arnold Schwarzenegger only speaking Austrian German and being elected president of the United States after New York City and LA had burned to the ground... I think he is a great musician and he really passionately cares about Haiti. I really hope he throws his support behind someone who is really competent and really eligible."

On August 20, 2010, his bid for candidacy was rejected by Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council. He was turned down because he did not meet the residency requirement of having lived in Haiti for five years before the November 28 election. Afterwards, Wyclef stated: }}

Appearances in television and film

On a 2004 episode of Chappelle's Show, he appeared as the musical guest.

He starred in Virgin Mobile commercials as himself.

In 2005, he appeared in the film ''One Last Thing...''. His character is a cab driver named Emmett Ducasse. It is implied he is an angel due to being in the main character's "Heaven". Wyclef also has an original track that is the closing credits first song. The song is "Heaven's in New York".

Also in 2005, Wyclef appeared in 4 episodes of the hit NBC prime time television drama "Third Watch" as the recurring character, Marcel Hollis, a gang leader responsible for blowing up the police precinct house in the final episode of the series.

In December 2007, starred in the four-part MTV exclusive online short-film Americlef May 20, 2008: At the Gansevoort Hotel, Wyclef Jean in partnership with the WFP and PADF launched "Together for Haiti" to address the hunger crisis in Haiti members of the American and international television and print media were invited to cover the news.

Discography

1997: ''The Carnival'' (Columbia)

2000: ''The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book'' (Columbia)

2002: ''Masquerade'' (Columbia)

2003: ''Greatest Hits'' (Columbia)

2003: ''The Preacher's Son'' (J)

2004: ''Welcome to Haiti: Creole 101'' (Koch)

2006: ''Ghosts of Cité Soleil''

2007: ''Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of an Immigrant'' (Columbia)

2009: ''From the Hut, To the Projects, To the Mansion'' (Columbia)

2010: ''If I Were President: The Haitian Experience'' (Columbia)

References

External links

Official website

Yéle Haiti Foundation

Sak Pasé Records (a record label founded by Wyclef)

Haiti: Working Together at Last by Wyclef Jean, September 23, 2010

New York Post article on mismanagement at Yéle Haiti Foundation

Wyclef talking about Nation19.com / APDTA

Category:1969 births Category:American activists Category:American guitarists Category:American humanitarians Category:American people of Haitian descent Category:American record producers Category:American shooting survivors Category:Berklee College of Music alumni Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Haitian actors Category:Haitian emigrants to the United States Category:Haitian human rights activists Category:Haitian rappers Category:Hip hop singers Category:Living people Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from North Caldwell, New Jersey Category:People from Ouest Department Category:People from Saddle River, New Jersey Category:People from South Orange, New Jersey Category:Rappers from New Jersey

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Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
name	Miranda Lambert
background	solo_singer
birth name	Miranda Leigh Lambert
born	November 10, 1983Longview, Texas, U.S.
origin	Lindale, Texas, U.S.
instrument	Vocals, guitar, saxophone
genre	Country
occupation	Singer-songwriter
years active	2001–present
label	Epic Columbia NashvilleRCA Nashville
associated acts	Blake Shelton Pistol Annies
website	MirandaLambert.com }}

Miranda Leigh Lambert (born November 10, 1983) is an American country music artist who gained fame as a finalist on the 2003 season of ''Nashville Star'', where she finished in third place and later signed to Epic Records. Lambert made her debut with the release of "Me and Charlie Talking", the first single from her 2005 debut album ''Kerosene''. This album, which was certified Platinum in the United States, also produced the singles "Bring Me Down", "Kerosene", and "New Strings". All four singles were Top 40 hits on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts.

After Epic's Nashville division closed, Lambert was transferred to Columbia Records Nashville for her second album, ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'', which was released in early 2007. Although the title track failed to make top 40, the next three singles ("Famous in a Small Town", "Gunpowder & Lead", and "More Like Her") were all Top 20 hits, with "Gunpowder & Lead" becoming her first Top 10 country hit in July 2008. Lambert's third album, ''Revolution'', was released in September 2009. Five singles have been released from the album, including Lambert's two Number One hits "The House That Built Me," which spent four weeks at the top of the chart, and "Heart Like Mine". Lambert has also been honored by the Grammy Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards, and the Country Music Association Awards.

In 2011, Lambert married fellow country singer Blake Shelton. She also released "Baggage Claim", the first single from her upcoming fourth album ''Four the Record'', and collaborated with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Pressley in the side project Pistol Annies.

Early life

Miranda Leigh Lambert was born November 10, 1983 in Longview, Texas and raised in Lindale, Texas. Her father, Richard Lee "Rick" Lambert, is a retired police officer who in later life became a private investigator in partnership with her mother, Beverly June Lambert (née Hughes). Miranda was taught about guns by her father at an early age and later became an avid deer hunter. Her parents took her to a Garth Brooks concert when she was nine and this started her interest in country music. Her father wrote and performed country music and she soon began singing in talent contests under his tutelage. She started her career playing in local restaurants.

At age sixteen, Lambert began appearing on the Johnny High Country Music Review in Arlington, Texas, the same show that helped launch the career of LeAnn Rimes. Lambert quickly landed a recording session in Nashville, but left the studio after she became frustrated with the "pop" sound of music. She then went back to Texas and asked her dad to teach her how to play guitar so she could write her own songs.

While still in high school, Lambert made her professional singing debut. She fronted the house band at the Reo Palm Isle Ballroom in Longview, Texas, a long-running venue that has showcased Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, and is where Brooks & Dunn started out as a bar room band.

Music career

2003-2006: ''Kerosene''

In 2003, Lambert auditioned for the talent competition ''Nashville Star'', eventually becoming a third-place finisher on the show. She performed in many places such as The Tap in College Station, Texas when she was 18. On September 15, 2003, she signed with Epic Records. Her debut single, "Me and Charlie Talking" (co-written by her father and Heather Little), was released in summer of 2004 as the lead-off single to her debut album. Titled ''Kerosene'', Lambert's first album comprised twelve songs, eleven of which she co-wrote. The album debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' Top Country Albums charts, and eventually gained a Platinum certification by the RIAA for shipments of over one million copies, selling more than 930,000 copies up to July 2008. Overall, the album produced four Top 40 singles on the ''Billboard'' country charts, including the title track which was a Top 20 hit. Lambert also toured with Keith Urban and George Strait in early 2006. In 2007, she toured with Dierks Bentley and Toby Keith.

2007-2008: ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend''

Lambert's second album, ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'' was released on May 9, 2007. She wrote eight of the album's eleven tracks, including its four singles. Much of the track "Gunpowder & Lead," the album's third single and her highest-charting single, was written while she was taking a concealed handgun class in her home town.

In 2005, at the 40th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas, Lambert won the Cover Girl Fresh Face of Country Music Award. She was also nominated for the Country Music Association's Horizon Award in 2005; in 2007, Lambert also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her single "Kerosene". She also won the Top New Female Vocalist award at the 2007 ACM (Academy of Country Music) Awards. At the 2008 ACM (Academy of Country Music) Awards, ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'' won Album of the Year.

Lambert was ranked #90 on the ''100 Greatest Women'' (of Country Music) by Country Universe in 2008.

2009-2011: ''Revolution''

In February 2009, Miranda Lambert entered the studio to record her third album, ''Revolution'', which was to be released on September 29, 2009. Lambert co-wrote all but four of the album's 15 tracks; the album also includes co-writes from Blake Shelton, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum. Ahead of the album's release, an EP, titled ''Dead Flowers'', was issued on September 8, 2009. The EP, available exclusively at Best Buy, featured the ''Revolution'' album track "Dead Flowers" and three bonus tracks previously included on limited editions of ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend''.

During this time, Lambert (along with two other singers), became the new face of Cotton Inc.’s revived “The Touch, The Feel of Cotton” campaign. She has appeared in ads to promote cotton, and the website features a free download of the full version of her song, "Fabric of My Life."

Lambert debuted her new single, "Dead Flowers", at the 44th annual Academy of Country Music Awards on April 5, 2009. It was released to country radio on May 4, 2009, and was a minor Top 40 hit on the charts.

On September 24, 2009, Lambert and her band performed all the tracks on ''Revolution'' in sequence at the Ryman Auditorium, five days before its scheduled release date.

Upon the release of ''Revolution'', Lambert's work was met with significant critical praise. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 85, based on 11 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".

''Rolling Stone'' magazine praised the album saying, "Lambert remains country's most refreshing act, and not just because she makes firearms seem like a matter-of-fact female accessory." ''Entertainment Weekly'' magazine said, "She's found stylistic shades of songwriters twice her age..." and that the album is "...a portrait of an artist in full possession of her powers, and the best mainstream-country album so far this year." ''Boston Globe'' commented that “Revolution’’ is the sound of Miranda Lambert coming into her own." ''Slant magazine'' also had high praises reserved for the album saying, "Miranda Lambert expands on her fascinating, fully realized artistic persona on Revolution."

The album's second single, "White Liar", was released on August 17, 2009, and debuted at #50 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs chart. In February 2010, "White Liar" became Lambert's first Top Five hit, reaching a peak of #2 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs chart.

In promotion of ''Revolution'', Miranda Lambert launched a headlining tour; ''Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars'' kicked off in March 2010 and included stops in over 22 cities, as well as a performance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival.

"The House That Built Me," the album's third single, was released on March 8, 2010 and became a #1 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs chart. It retained this position for four weeks and it received a platinum certification from the RIAA on July 8, 2010. On February 13, 2011, Lambert won a Grammy Award in the ''Best Female Country Vocal Performance'' category for "The House That Built Me."

"Only Prettier" followed as the album's fourth single in July 2010 and its accompanying music video became somewhat viral. The music video for "Only Prettier" was directed by Trey Fanjoy and filmed in Joelton, Tennessee in June 2010, and premiered on VEVO on August 3, 2010. It features a 1950s theme and cameo appearances by fellow country artists Kellie Pickler, Laura Bell Bundy, and Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum. In the video, Lambert and her friends portray two rival cliques attending a high school sock hop. The alter-egos are shown doing things such as spiking the punch, stuffing their bras and smoking. Ultimately, the alter-egos have a bad time at the party, while Lambert, Pickler, Bundy and Scott enjoy themselves the entire night. Additionally, Lambert is also shown performing with her band on stage at the event.

On September 1, 2010, it was announced Miranda led nominations with an impressive 9 CMA awards, setting a record for the female with the most nominations in a single year by the organization. Miranda performed at the 44th Annual Country Music Association Awards on November 10, 2010. That same night she won the CMA Award for Female Vocalist of the Year and ''Revolution'' won Album of the Year. Lambert and Sheryl Crow performed "Coal Miner's Daughter" as a tribute to country legend Loretta Lynn, who also entered the stage to join them and finished the song with Crow and Lambert as backup. Later that night, Lynn presented the Female Vocalist of the Year CMA award to Lambert.

In December 2010, "Only Prettier", eventually reached a peak of number 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, giving Lambert her seventh Top 20 hit. "Heart Like Mine" was released in January 2011 as the fifth and final single from ''Revolution''. It became Lambert's second Number One hit on the country charts for the chart dated May 28, 2011.

2011-present: ''Four the Record'' and Pistol Annies

On April 4, 2011 during the taping of the Academy of Country Music's 'Girls' Night Out' television special in Las Vegas, Lambert debuted her new project, girl group Pistol Annies. The group consists of Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley. They released their single, "Hell on Heels," in May 2011, and released their debut album, ''Hell on Heels'', on August 23, 2011.

Lambert announced in July 2011 that her fourth studio album, ''Four the Record'', will be released on November 1, 2011. A month later, Sony Music Nashville announced that Lambert and labelmate Josh Thompson will transfer to RCA Nashville as part of a corporate restructuring.

Personal life

In 2006, Lambert began dating fellow country singer Blake Shelton. Lambert sang background vocals on Shelton's 2008 country cover of Michael Bublé's song "Home". The two recorded and co-wrote duet "Bare Skin Rug," for his studio album ''Startin' Fires'' released later in 2008. Shelton also co-wrote three songs on ''Revolution,'' and provided background vocals on "Maintain the Pain." On May 9, 2010, Shelton proposed to Lambert, after seeking (and receiving) her father's blessing and they became engaged. The two married on May 14, 2011 at Don Strange Ranch in Boerne, Texas. Wearing her mother's wedding dress, Miranda walked down the aisle and exchanged vows with Blake in front of 550 family members and friends, including fellow celebrities Reba McEntire, Kelly Clarkson, Cee Lo Green, Martina McBride, Dierks Bentley, Charles Kelley, and the Bellamy Brothers. After the ceremony, Miranda expressed her excitement saying, "I'm married to my best friend! Looking forward to a lifetime of laughter."

Discography

;Albums

''Miranda Lambert'' (2001)

''Kerosene'' (2005)

''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'' (2007)

''Revolution'' (2009)

''Four the Record'' (2011)

Awards

!Year	!Organization	!Award	!Result
2005		Horizon Award
		Female Video of the Year — "Kerosene"
Breakthrough Video of the Year — "Kerosene"
	Horizon Award
	Grammy Awards	Best Female Country Vocal Performance — "Kerosene"
rowspan="2"	Top New Female Vocalist
Female Vocalist of the Year
	Female Vocalist of the Year
	Grammy Awards	Best Female Country Vocal Performance — "Famous in a Small Town"
CMT Music Awards	Female Video of the Year — "Famous in a Small Town"
rowspan="3"	Top Female Vocalist
Album of the Year — ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend''
Single Record of the Year — "Famous in a Small Town"
rowspan="2"	Female Vocalist of the Year
Single of the Year — "Gunpowder & Lead"
	rowspan="2"	Top Female Vocalist
Single Record of the Year — "Gunpowder & Lead"
CMT Music Awards	Female Video of the Year — "More Like Her"
	Female Vocalist of the Year
	Grammy Awards	Best Female Country Vocal Performance — "Dead Flowers"
rowspan="5"	Top Female Vocalist of the Year
Album of the Year — ''Revolution''
Single Record of the Year — "White Liar"
Song of the Year — "White Liar"
Video of the Year — "White Liar"
MusicRow Awards	Song of the Year - "The House That Built Me"
	Video of the Year - "White Liar"
Female Video of the Year - "White Liar"
	Choice Female Country Artist
Choice Music: Country Song - "The House That Built Me"
	Mainstream Inspirational Country Song, "The House That Built Me"
Inspirational Country Music Video, "The House That Built Me"
	8th French Country Music Awards	Best Female Vocalist of the Year (Meilleure Chanteuse)
rowspan="10"	Entertainer of the Year
Female Vocalist of the Year
Album of the Year - ''Revolution''
Musical Event - "Bad Angel" (with Dierks Bentley and Jamey Johnson)
Single of the Year - "The House That Built Me"
Single of the Year - "White Liar"
Song of the Year - "White Liar"
Song of the Year - "The House That Built Me"
Music Video of the Year - "The House That Built Me"
Music Video of the Year - "White Liar"
	Artist of the Year
Female Artist of the Year
Album of the Year - ''Revolution''
Single by a Female Artist - "White Liar"
Music Video by a Female Artist - "White Liar"
		Best Female Country Vocal Performance — "The House That Built Me"
Best Country Collaboration with Vocals — "Bad Angel" (with Dierks Bentley and Jamey Johnson)
Best Country Album — ''Revolution''
	Entertainer of the Year
Top Female Vocalist of the Year
Single Record of the Year — "The House That Built Me"
Song of the Year — "The House That Built Me"
Video of the Year — "The House That Built Me"
Video of the Year — "Only Prettier"
	Female Video of the Year — "The House That Built Me"
Video of the Year — "The House That Built Me"
Collaborative Video of the Year — "Coal Miner's Daughter" (with Loretta Lynn and Sheryl Crow)

Touring

Tours

"Hookin' Up and Hangin' Out Tour" (2007)

*with Toby Keith

''Sun City Carnival Tour'' (2009)

*with Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum, Sugarland and Montgomery Gentry

''American Saturday Night Tour'' (2010)

*with Brad Paisley and Justin Moore

''Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars'' (2010)

*with Chris Young, Randy Houser, Luke Bryan, Eric Church, James Otto, David Nail, Wade Bowen, Jake Owen and Cross Canadian Ragweed

''CMT On Tour: Miranda Lambert Revolution'' (2010)

*with Eric Church and Josh Kelley

''Miranda Lambert: Revolution Tour'' (2011)

*with Justin Moore, Josh Kelley, Chris Young, Randy Rogers Band, Pat Green,Little Big Town,Ashton Shepherd and Gary Allan

Band

Lambert's road band and crew consists of the following:

Aden Bubeck — bass guitar

Chris Kline — keyboard, harmonica, pedal steel, percussion, guitar

Alex Weeden — lead guitar

Scotty Wray — rhythm guitar, lap steel guitar, resonator guitar, banjo

Keith Zebroski — drums

Touring personnel

Scott Fowler — backline tech

Jason "Pone" Macalik — front of house engineer, backup bus driver

Chris Newsom — monitor engineer, production manager, stage manager

Sammy Bones — backline tech

Jordan Powell — tour manager

Jose "Puma" Raices — merchandise manager

Aaron Luke — lighting director

Charlie Sherman — bus driver

David Sherman — bus driver

References

External links

Official Website

Miranda Lambert at Billboard.com

Official Music Videos

Category:1983 births Category:American child singers Category:American country singers Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:American female singers Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Nashville Star contestants Category:People from Smith County, Texas Category:Texas country musicians Category:RCA Records artists

da:Miranda Lambert de:Miranda Lambert es:Miranda Lambert fr:Miranda Lambert id:Miranda Lambert it:Miranda Lambert nl:Miranda Lambert pt:Miranda Lambert sv:Miranda Lambert tr:Miranda Lambert uk:Міранда Ламберт

Coordinates	34°03′″N118°15′″N
name	Guy Fawkes
alt	Black-and-white drawing
enlisted	20 May 1604
role	Explosives
captured	5 November 1605
birth date	April 13, 1570 (presumed)
birth place	York, England
death date	January 31, 1606
death place	Westminster, London, England
cause	Hanged
alias	Guido Fawkes, John Johnson
motive	Gunpowder plot, a conspiracy to assassinate King James VI & I and members of the Houses of Parliament
conviction	High treason
conviction penalty	Hanged, drawn and quartered
occupation	Soldier; Alférez
parents	Edward Fawkes, Edith (''née'' Blake or Jackson)
children	}}

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes later converted to Catholicism and left for the continent, where he fought in the Eighty Years' War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformers. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England but was unsuccessful. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England.

Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the drawing and quartering that followed.

Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, which has been commemorated in England since 5 November 1605. His effigy is burned on a bonfire, often accompanied by a firework display.

Early life

Childhood

Guy Fawkes was born in 1570 in Stonegate, York. He was the second of four children born to Edward Fawkes, a proctor and an advocate of the consistory court at York,|group="nb"}} and his wife, Edith. or Edith Jackson.|group="nb"}} Guy's parents were regular communicants of the Church of England, as were his paternal grandparents; his grandmother, born Ellen Harrington, was the daughter of a prominent merchant, who served as Lord Mayor of York in 1536. However, Guy's mother's family were recusant Catholics, and his cousin, Richard Cowling, became a Jesuit priest. ''Guy'' was an uncommon name in England, but may have been popular in York on account of a local notable, Sir Guy Fairfax of Steeton.

The date of Fawkes' birth is unknown, but he was baptised in the church of St. Michael le Belfrey on 16 April. As the customary gap between birth and baptism was three days, he was probably born about 13 April. In 1568, Edith had given birth to a daughter named Anne, but the child died aged about seven weeks, in November that year. She bore two more children after Guy: Anne (b. 1572), and Elizabeth (b. 1575). Both were married, in 1599 and 1594 respectively.

In 1579, when Guy was eight years old, his father died. His mother remarried several years later, to the Catholic Dionis Baynbrigge (or Denis Bainbridge) of Scotton, Harrogate. Fawkes may have become a Catholic through the Baynbrigge family's recusant tendencies, and also the Catholic branches of the Pulleyn and Percy families of Scotton, but also from his time at St. Peter's School in York. A governor of the school had spent about 20 years in prison for recusancy, and its headmaster, John Pulleyn, came from a family of noted Yorkshire recusants, the Pulleyns of Blubberhouses. In her 1915 work ''The Pulleynes of Yorkshire'', author Catharine Pullein suggested that Fawkes's Catholic education came from his Harrington relatives, who were known for harbouring priests, one of whom later accompanied Fawkes to Flanders in 1592–1593. Fawkes's fellow students included John Wright and his brother Christopher (both later involved with Fawkes in the Gunpowder plot) and Oswald Tesimond, Edward Oldcorne and Robert Middleton, who became priests (the latter executed in 1601).

After leaving school Fawkes entered the service of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu. The Viscount took a dislike to Fawkes and after a short time dismissed him; he was subsequently employed by Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu, who succeeded his grandfather at the age of 18. At least one source claims that Fawkes married and had a son, but no known contemporary accounts confirm this. These entries, however, appear to derive from a secondary source and not from actual parish entries.|group="nb"}}

Military career

In October 1591 Fawkes sold the estate in Clifton that he had inherited from his father. He travelled to the continent to fight in the Eighty Years War for Catholic Spain against the new Dutch Republic and, from 1595 until the Peace of Vervins in 1598, France. Although England was not by then engaged in land operations against Spain, the two countries were still at war, and the Spanish Armada of 1588 was only five years in the past. He joined Sir William Stanley, an English Catholic and veteran commander in his mid-fifties who had raised an army in Ireland to fight in Leicester's expedition to the Netherlands. Stanley had been held in high regard by Elizabeth I, but following his surrender of Deventer to the Spanish in 1587 he, and most of his troops, had switched sides to serve Spain. Fawkes became an alférez or junior officer, fought well at the siege of Calais in 1596, and by 1603 had been recommended for a captaincy. That year, he travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England. He used the occasion to adopt the Italian version of his name, Guido, and in his memorandum described James I as "a heretic", who intended "to have all of the Papist sect driven out of England." He denounced Scotland, and the King's favourites among the Scottish nobles, writing "it will not be possible to reconcile these two nations, as they are, for very long". Although he was received politely, the court of Philip III was unwilling to offer him any support.

Gunpowder Plot

In 1604 Fawkes became involved with a small group of English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate the Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter, third in the line of succession, Princess Elizabeth. Fawkes was described by the Jesuit priest and former school friend Oswald Tesimond as "pleasant of approach and cheerful of manner, opposed to quarrels and strife ... loyal to his friends". Tesimond also claimed Fawkes was "a man highly skilled in matters of war", and that it was this mixture of piety and professionalism which endeared him to his fellow conspirators. The author Antonia Fraser describes Fawkes as "a tall, powerfully built man, with thick reddish-brown hair, a flowing moustache in the tradition of the time, and a bushy reddish-brown beard", and that he was "a man of action ... capable of intelligent argument as well as physical endurance, somewhat to the surprise of his enemies."

The first meeting of the five central conspirators took place on Sunday 20 May 1604, at an inn called the Duck and Drake, in the fashionable Strand district of London.|group="nb"}} Catesby had already proposed at an earlier meeting with Thomas Wintour and John Wright to kill the King and his government by blowing up "the Parliament House with gunpowder". Wintour, who at first objected to the plan, was convinced by Catesby to travel to the continent to seek help. Wintour met with the Constable of Castile, the exiled Welsh spy Hugh Owen, and Sir William Stanley, who said that Catesby would receive no support from Spain. Owen did, however, introduce Wintour to Fawkes, who had by then been away from England for many years, and thus was largely unknown in the country. Wintour and Fawkes were contemporaries; each was militant, and had first-hand experience of the unwillingness of the Spaniards to help. Wintour told Fawkes of their plan to "doe some whatt in Ingland if the pece with Spaine healped us nott", and thus in April 1604 the two men returned to England. Wintour's news did not surprise Catesby; despite positive noises from the Spanish authorities, he feared that "the deeds would nott answere". |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2008-05 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4883/ |accessdate=12 May 2010 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/4883}}|group="nb"}}

One of the conspirators, Thomas Percy was promoted in June 1604, gaining access to a house in London which belonged to John Whynniard, Keeper of the King's Wardrobe. Fawkes was installed as a caretaker and began using the pseudonym John Johnson, servant to Percy. The contemporaneous account of the prosecution (taken from Thomas Wintour's confession) claimed that the conspirators attempted to dig a tunnel from beneath Whynniard's house to Parliament, although this story may have been a government fabrication; no evidence for the existence of a tunnel was presented by the prosecution, and no trace of one has ever been found. Fawkes did not admit the existence of such a scheme until his fifth interrogation, but even then he could not locate the tunnel. If the story is true, however, by December 1604 the conspirators were busy tunnelling from their rented house to the House of Lords. They ceased their efforts when, during tunnelling, they heard a noise from above. Fawkes was sent out to investigate, and returned with the news that the tenant's widow was clearing out a nearby undercroft, directly beneath the House of Lords.

The plotters purchased the lease to the room, which also belonged to John Whynniard. Unused and filthy, it was considered an ideal hiding place for the gunpowder the plotters planned to store there. According to Fawkes, 20 barrels of gunpowder were brought in at first, followed by 16 more on 20 July. On 28 July however, the ever-present threat of the plague delayed the opening of Parliament until Tuesday, 5 November.

Overseas

In an attempt to gain foreign support, in May 1605 Fawkes travelled overseas and informed Hugh Owen of the plotters' plan. At some point during this trip his name made its way into the files of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, who employed a network of spies across Europe. One of these spies, Captain William Turner, may have been responsible. Although the information he provided to Salisbury usually amounted to no more than a vague pattern of invasion reports, and included nothing which regarded the Gunpowder Plot, on 21 April he told how Fawkes was to be brought by Tesimond to England. Fawkes was a well known Flemish mercenary, and would be introduced to "Mr Catesby" and "honourable friends of the nobility and others who would have arms and horses in readiness". Turner's report did not, however, mention Fawkes's pseudonym in England, John Johnson, and did not reach Cecil until late in November, well after the plot had been discovered.

It is uncertain when Fawkes returned to England, but he was back in London by late August 1605, when he and Wintour discovered that the gunpowder stored in the undercroft had decayed. More gunpowder was brought into the room, along with firewood to conceal it. Fawkes's final role in the plot was settled during a series of meetings in October. He was to light the fuse and then escape across the Thames. Simultaneously, a revolt in the Midlands would help to ensure the capture of Princess Elizabeth. Acts of regicide were frowned upon, and Fawkes would therefore head to the continent, where he would explain to the Catholic powers his holy duty to kill the King and his retinue.

Discovery

A few of the conspirators were concerned about fellow Catholics who would be present at Parliament during the opening. On the evening of 26 October, Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter warning him to stay away, and to "retyre youre self into yowre contee whence yow maye expect the event in safti for ... they shall receyve a terrible blowe this parleament". Despite quickly becoming aware of the letter informed by one of Monteagle's servants the conspirators resolved to continue with their plans, as it appeared that it "was clearly thought to be a hoax". Fawkes checked the undercroft on 30 October, and reported that nothing had been disturbed. Monteagle's suspicions had been aroused however, and the letter was shown to King James. The King ordered Sir Thomas Knyvet to conduct a search of the cellars underneath Parliament, which he did in the early hours of 5 November. Fawkes had taken up his station late on the previous night, armed with a slow match and a watch given to him by Percy "becaus he should knowe howe the time went away". He was found leaving the cellar, shortly after midnight, and arrested. Inside, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of firewood and coal.

Torture

Fawkes gave his name as John Johnson and was first interrogated by members of the King's Privy Chamber, where he remained defiant. When asked by one of the lords what he was doing in possession of so much gunpowder, Fawkes answered that his intention was "to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains." He identified himself as a 36-year-old Catholic from Netherdale in Yorkshire, and gave his father's name as Thomas and his mother's as Edith Jackson. Wounds on his body noted by his questioners he explained as the effects of pleurisy. Fawkes admitted his intention to blow up the House of Lords, and expressed regret at his failure to do so. His steadfast manner earned him the admiration of King James, who described Fawkes as possessing "a Roman resolution".

James's admiration did not, however, prevent him from ordering on 6 November that "John Johnson" be tortured, to reveal the names of his co-conspirators. He directed that the torture be light at first, referring to the use of manacles, but more severe if necessary, authorising the use of the rack: "the gentler Tortures are to be first used unto him ''et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur'' [and so by degrees proceeding to the worst]". Fawkes was transferred to the Tower of London. The King composed a list of questions to be put to "Johnson", such as "''as to what he is'', For I can never yet hear of any man that knows him", "When and where he learned to speak French?", and "If he was a Papist, who brought him up in it?" The room in which Fawkes was interrogated subsequently became known as the Guy Fawkes Room.

Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, supervised the torture and obtained Fawkes's confession. He searched his prisoner, and found a letter, addressed to Guy Fawkes. To Waad's surprise, "Johnson" remained silent, revealing nothing about the plot or its authors. On the night of 6 November he spoke with Waad, who reported to Salisbury "He [Johnson] told us that since he undertook this action he did every day pray to God he might perform that which might be for the advancement of the Catholic Faith and saving his own soul". According to Waad, Fawkes managed to rest through the night, despite his being warned that he would be interrogated until "I had gotton the inwards secret of his thoughts and all his complices". His composure was broken at some point during the following day.

The observer Sir Edward Hoby remarked "Since Johnson's being in the Tower, he beginneth to speak English". Fawkes revealed his true identity on 7 November, and told his interrogators that there were five people involved in the plot to kill the King. He began to reveal their names on 8 November, and told how they intended to place Princess Elizabeth on the throne. His third confession, on 9 November, implicated Francis Tresham. Following the Ridolfi plot of 1571 prisoners were made to dictate their confessions, before copying and signing them, if they still could. Although it is uncertain if he was subjected to the horrors of the rack, Fawkes's signature, little more than a scrawl, bears testament to the suffering he endured at the hands of his interrogators.

Trial and execution

The trial of eight of the plotters began on Monday 27 January 1606. Fawkes shared the barge from the Tower to Westminster Hall with seven of his co-conspirators.|group="nb"}} They were kept in the Star Chamber before being taken to Westminster Hall, where they were displayed on a purpose-built scaffold. The King and his close family, watching in secret, were among the spectators as the Lords Commissioners read out the list of charges. Fawkes was identified as Guido Fawkes, "otherwise called Guido Johnson". He pleaded not guilty, despite his apparent acceptance of guilt from the moment he was captured.

The outcome was never in doubt. The jury found all of the defendants guilty, and the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham proclaimed them guilty of high treason. The Attorney General Sir Edward Coke told the court that each of the condemned would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground. They were to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both". Their genitals would be cut off and burnt before their eyes, and their bowels and hearts removed. They would then be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of their bodies displayed so that they might become "prey for the fowls of the air". Fawkes's and Tresham's testimony regarding the Spanish treason was read aloud, as well as confessions related specifically to the Gunpowder Plot. The last piece of evidence offered was a conversation between Fawkes and Wintour, who had been kept in adjacent cells. The two men apparently thought they had been speaking in private, but their conversation was intercepted by a government spy. When the prisoners were allowed to speak, Fawkes explained his not guilty plea as ignorance of certain aspects of the indictment.

On 31 January 1606, Fawkes and three others Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, and Robert Keyes were dragged from the Tower on wattled hurdles to the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, opposite the building they had attempted to destroy. His fellow plotters were hanged, drawn and quartered. Fawkes was the last to stand on the scaffold. He asked for forgiveness of the King and state, while keeping up his "crosses and idle ceremonies", and aided by the hangman began to climb the ladder to the noose. Although weakened by torture, Fawkes managed to jump from the gallows, breaking his neck in the fall and thus avoiding the agony of the latter part of his execution. His lifeless body was nevertheless quartered, and as was the custom, his body parts were then distributed to "the four corners of the kingdom", to be displayed as a warning to other would-be traitors.

Legacy

On 5 November 1605 Londoners were encouraged to celebrate the King's escape from assassination by lighting bonfires, "always provided that 'this testemonye of joy be carefull done without any danger or disorder. An Act of Parliament designated each 5 November as a day of thanksgiving for "the joyful day of deliverance", and remained in force until 1859. Although he was only one of 13 conspirators, Fawkes is today the individual most associated with the failed Plot.

In Britain, 5 November has variously been called Guy Fawkes Night, Guy Fawkes Day and Bonfire Night; the latter can be traced directly back to the original celebration of 5 November 1605. Bonfires were accompanied by fireworks from the 1650s onwards, and it became the custom to burn an effigy (usually the Pope) after 1673, when the heir presumptive, James, Duke of York made his conversion to Catholicism public. Effigies of other notable figures who have become targets for the public's ire, such as Paul Kruger and Margaret Thatcher, have also found their way onto the bonfires, although most modern effigies are of Fawkes. The "guy" is normally created by children, from old clothes, newspapers, and a mask. During the 19th century, "guy" came to mean an oddly dressed person, but in American English it lost any pejorative connotation, and was used to refer to any male person.

William Harrison Ainsworth's 1841 historical romance ''Guy Fawkes; or, The Gunpowder Treason'', portrays Fawkes in a generally sympathetic light, and transformed him in the public perception into an "acceptable fictional character". Fawkes subsequently appeared as "essentially an action hero" in children's books and penny dreadfuls such as ''The Boyhood Days of Guy Fawkes; or, The Conspirators of Old London'', published in about 1905. Fawkes is sometimes referred to as "the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions".

References

;Notes

;Footnotes

;Bibliography

External links

Category:1570 births Category:1606 deaths Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism Category:English criminals Category:16th-century criminals Category:17th-century criminals Category:English Roman Catholics Category:17th-century Roman Catholics Category:Executed English people Category:Executed Gunpowder Plotters Category:Failed assassins Category:History of Roman Catholicism in England Category:Old Peterites Category:People from York Category:Roman Catholic activists Category:Prisoners in the Tower of London Category:People of the Tudor period Category:People of the Stuart period

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