The plotters planned to install Princess Elizabeth as head of state after killing King James I and destroying Parliament. Elizabeth was James’s nine-year-old daughter and later became known as Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia.
The conspirators intended to trigger a Catholic uprising in the Midlands after the explosion. They planned to seize Elizabeth from Coombe Abbey near Coventry, where she was living, and proclaim her a titular queen. Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, was probably intended to act as her regent, although he was not knowingly involved in the plot.
The succession plan was improvised and uncertain. The conspirators had not fully decided what would happen to Elizabeth’s brothers, Henry and Charles. Their scheme failed when Fawkes was arrested beneath the House of Lords on 4 November 1605. Elizabeth later married Frederick V, Elector Palatine, and became the mother of Sophia of Hanover.