Some people believe that the gunpowder plot was a hoax, and by that I mean that the government knew what Guy Fawkes and the other Catholics planned to do and decided to ignore it, Until the last minute so that they looked to be more powerful and in control. Others however say that the Catholics had managed to temporarily out smart the government. The group that planned to blow up parliament included Robert and Thomas Wintour, Christopher and John Wright, Thomas Percy, Francis Tresham, Everad Digby, Ambrose Rookwood, Thomas Bates, Guy Fawkes and Robert Catesby (The mastermind of the scheme.) 

It is said that the gunpowder plot was a hoax because after examining the details of the plot some of the facts stand out as being suspicious. For example gunpowder was under the control of the government an kept under armed guard, So smuggling 1 barrel should have been bordering on impossible, how did they get 36? Also how did the get them transported across London without arousing any suspicion? Even on a horse and cart trying to transport that amount of gunpowder in a short amount of time without gaining any unwanted attention would have been extremely difficult to do. And is it not strange that the cellar was searched twice and on the second time they found guy Fawkes and the gunpowder easily? It's like they knew exactly where to look. There is also the fact that the cellar the gunpowder was kept in was owned by the government. Why would the government rent a group of known Catholics a cellar that close to parliament when at the time the Catholics were against the government?

People who do not think the gunpowder plot  was a hoax argue against this claiming gun powder could have easily been purchased via the black market as the men weren’t poor by any strech of the imagination and thus they could afford the prices. As for the matter of transportation smugglers could be paid to move it or they could do it them selves barrel by barrel, journey by journey. It was risky but it was easier than moving it all at once even if it did take a few weeks.  Then the fact that the cellar was searched twice is easily explained by the fact that the first time the cellar was searched (by chance) they found a suspicious looking man named 'John Johnson' So checking the cellar again later on made sense, they needed to see if he'd left. When he hadn't they were bound to be suspicious and search more. The fact the government rented out the cellar to know Catholics could be down to the use of fake identities.

A year ago when I first wrote this I would have said that I was undecided on the matter because both sides have ideas that can counter each other I was also probably focusing on using to much hindsight but I've now decided that it was probably a hoax. The arguments to counter the people who say its a hoax are generally rather weak and easily countered. For the fake ID argument, would the government not have done a lot of research into the people they were renting cellars to, surely they would have realized something was a bit off?  The only thing I struggle to understand is why  James 1 would willingly put him self at risk, it could be because he wanted people to  support his views and the gunpowder plot was good for publicity? We will never know.

So what do you think? Was it a hoax or where the government ignorant?