Gunpowder Plot - punishing the plotters

Dan Gosling is taking the Gunpowder Plot back to its paperwork on Wednesday 4 November, at The National Archives in Kew. It's a webinar that runs from 7:30pm to 8:30pm, and it's part of the archives' public programme of online sessions, each led by one of their own collections specialists rather than an outside speaker. Gosling is one of those specialists, and this is his turn to step up.

He's not just talking about the plot in general terms. He's drawing on the parliamentary, legal and state records the archive holds to reconstruct how the plotters were tracked down and punished. The whole thing is built from the official paperwork of the early seventeenth century, and Gosling's job is to turn that into a narrative of pursuit and penalty. If you've ever wondered how a conspiracy like that actually unravels on the page, this is where you'll find it.

It's a good way to see what the archives actually do. Instead of a polished history, you get the raw material—the legal records and state papers—and a specialist who spends his days working with them to piece the story together. It's less about the legend and more about the trail of documents that led to the end of the plot.

It's a one-hour session, running 7:30pm to 8:30pm on Wednesday 4 November, and tickets are £15. The National Archives is at Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, London, TW9 4DU, though since this is a webinar, you'll be joining from home.