Could Margaret Clitherow’s execution have shaped Guy Fawkes?

Under Queen Elizabeth I, Catholics faced penalties for refusing to attend Church of England services, while priests who continued to practice Catholicism risked arrest, torture and death.

Religious differences were seen as a threat to the Crown and Dr Thomas said the government feared Catholics’ loyalties were divided between the Queen and the Pope.

“They’re thinking ‘does that mean they’ve got loyalty to an overseas crown’,” she said.

Fellow historian Gillian Waters, from Leeds, believes 1586 would have been a critical year for Fawkes, who was about 16 when Clitherow died.

He was born and raised in York, educated at St Peter’s School in the city, and inherited an estate in the Clifton area from his father.

“Well certainly Guy Fawkes would have been aware of Margaret Clitherow because she is executed on Good Friday,” she said.

Another Catholic, Jesuit priest Francis Ingleby, was also hanged at York’s Knavesmire in that year.

He had been a great-uncle of Christopher Wright, a schoolfriend of Fawkes along with his brother John.

They had a further connection to persecution as their mother had been imprisoned at times for her Catholic faith.

Both brothers would participate in the Gunpowder Plot and like Fawkes, paid for it with their lives.