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1. Gunpowder Plot

   Linked via "Robert Cecil"

   Historiography
   Modern scholarship has increasingly questioned some of the official narratives surrounding the plot. Some historians argue that Robert Cecil, the Principal Secretary to King James I, may have deliberately allowed the plot to develop to a critical stage in order to justify harsher anti-Catholic measures. This theory, known as the "Cecil Thesis," suggests that the timing of the discovery was suspiciously convenient, occurring exactly 13 days before the State Opening—a number chosen by Cecil for its psychological significance in promoting Catholic ster…