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Light those tapers ... and stand well back. As Bonfire Night crackles into action around Scotland, writer and historian Fiona Watson weighs up the evidence for the original gunpowder plot being not just anti-Parliament - but deliberately anti-Scottish ...

November is a good time for conspiracy theories, as we get ready to remember one of the most dramatic and potentially spectacular plots of them all.

The story of how ringleader and twelve other conspirators, including , planned to blow up the during the state opening of Parliament on 5th November 1605 has become legend, not to mention providing inspiration for the bonfires and fireworks of Guy Fawkes night ever since.

Catesby and the rest were English Catholics disappointed in the new English king, , and his failure to repeal the repressive anti-Catholic legislation passed during the reign of Elizabeth I. As King of Scots, James had been tolerant and it was hoped that he would continue to be so after 1603 when he became King of England. But he was also keen not to upset the English establishment and the legislation remained. And so the plot was hatched to blow him and the rest of parliament to smithereens.

But if you really like your conspiracy theories, here's another one to add to the devious and deadly intentions of Catesby et al. Allegedly, Guy Fawkes - the conspirator caught almost in the act of lighting the fuse on the gunpowder they had managed to smuggle in under the House of Lords - confessed that he wanted to "blow back the beggarly Scots to their native mountains." Although large numbers of Scots had indeed accompanied their king on his flit from Edinburgh to London, James was wise enough to be even-handed when he dished out lands and honours and few Scots were given senior positions in government. But he himself was a foreigner nonetheless and the English did not like foreigners, especially those with claims to the throne.

So when you light your bonfire this weekend, remember that while some were prepared to grumble at what they saw as a preponderance of Scots in key positions in the last Labour government, four hundred years ago there were people who felt so strongly, they were prepared to set a match to gunpowder to make their feelings felt.

Related links:

From A History of Scotland, here's Neil Oliver's take on the story.

From the National Archives, the

More on James VI and I, and the story of the gunpowder plot, from Scotland's History - the Reformation