The Secret Plot to Kill the Government

Dan Snow's History Hit

On the night of February 23 1820, twenty-five impoverished craftsmen assembled in an obscure stable in Cato Street, London, with a plan to massacre the whole British cabinet at its monthly dinner. The Cato Street Conspiracy was the most sensational of all plots aimed at the British state since Guy Fawkes' Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Historian Vic Gatrell joins Dan to explore this dramatic event. They discuss how one of the most compelling episodes in British history ended in betrayal, arrest, and trial, and with five conspirators publicly hanged and decapitated for treason. Their failure would end hopes of revolution for a century.

Produced by Hannah Ward

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

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