'Hugely exciting' ring found in English countryside may have link to infamous plot, heads to auction

The piece of jewelry was uncovered by metal detectorist Andrew Rose, who found it six inches in the ground in Bushwood, Warwickshire, about 20 miles southeast of Birmingham.

The artifact features an inner inscription reading "Your Frende in Deede," a message thought to symbolize loyalty. 

James I's court got wind of the plans and eventually located Guy Fawkes hiding among 36 barrels of gunpowder on Nov. 5 - foiling the plot.

Though the Gunpowder Plot is remembered through Fawkes and the rhyme "Remember, remember the fifth of November," the mastermind behind the scheme was actually Robert Catesby.

The hall was also used as a hideout and weapons storage facility for the conspirators.

"The hall where Catesby was born can only be accessed down a track, which means it is even more likely the ring, which was found only yards from the moat, was connected to the hall or was owned by someone who lived there," Rose told SWNS.

The ring is expected to fetch up to £12,000 (about $15,800) when it's auctioned on Nov. 27, Hanson Auctioneers said. 

"Guy Fawkes, Catesby and their network - many of whom were related by blood or marriage - moved between safe houses in the Midlands," said Hanson. "They were protected by the region's large Catholic base, which, like them, [were] against the king."

"Given the remoteness of the hall's location, its link to Catesby [and] the date and inscription of the ring, it is tantalizing to imagine it belonging to one of the plotters," he added.

"Imagine it glinting by firelight as they planned one of the most audacious attacks in U.K. history."