To What Extent Was the Gunpowder Plot a Conspiracy?

To what extent was the gunpowder plot a protestant conspiracy ?

James I came to the throne by when Elizabeth I died, she had no children but Mary the queen of scots had a son, and parliament were in favour of him coming to the throne as he was a protestant. catholics were in rage that there was to be another protestant king, and grew more outraged when he proposed heavy fines on those who did not attend protestant church services.

there are many theories upon this matter which can be vigorously debated but; the real question is: was it really a terrorist attack or a protestant conspiracy? there is evidence for both but there is more proof on one argument in particular: the protestant conspiracy.

there are many reasons for the gunpowder plot being a protestant conspiracy, and one of them was that many of the James I PMs were against catholicism and his first chief minister, Robert cecil (the earl of salisbury) hated catholics, and found them a source of constant trouble, and thought catholic priests should not only be expelled; they should have a worse punishment, as he wanted to be rid of catholicism. The fact that james was terrified definitely had its advantages if anyone wanted to convince him that he was going to be murdered.

For historians believe that Cecil was aware of the plot and influenced it in certain ways. One of these was all the gunpowder in the UK belonged to the government, and it would be unlikely for the guards to just give 36 barrels to a group of catholics, and also how were these 36 barrels brought across london without being noticed? and that parliament hired out houses right near them to a group of catholics? also the fact that when one of the plotters grew afraid and went to tell Cecily what was going on, and Cecily refused to hear what the plotter (Thomas Percy) had to say, which points in the direction that he already knew what was going on; he just needed more time for the plot to develop until he could reveal them, at the precise moment. This moment just happened to be just as Fawkes was about to light the fuse! and it was the first time that they searched the palace cellars which indicates towards the fact that cecil knew exactly where it would be.

there are also many contradictions towards the gunpowder plot being a protestant conspiracy, as the fact that although gunpowder was a monopoly, there was a black market, as it could have been smuggled in from a foreign country, and moving the barrels would have been an easy task as they could just have taken them barrel by barrel. the fact that they hired out houses near parliament probably just was that they used fake names, and if fawkes had been influenced by the government why didn't he say so? and It is entirely possible that the guards just thought to search the cellars that one time. and there were allot of catholics against James 1 without having