Posted on 10/26/2021 9:23:03 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1666, a hapless French watchmaker was hanged at Tyburn for starting the Great Fire of London — his obstinate confession in the face of all other evidence making him the convenient fall guy for an accidental cataclysm.
Of Robert Hubert Lord Clarendon would write,
though the Chief Justice told the King, ‘that all his discourse was so disjointed that he did not believe him guilty;’ nor was there one man who prosecuted or accused him: yet upon his own confession … the jury found him guilty, and he was executed accordingly. And though no man could imagine any reason why a man should so desperately throw away his life, which he might have saved, though he had been guilty, since he was only accused upon his own confession; yet neither the judges, nor any present at the trial, did believe him guilty, but that he was a poor distracted wretch weary of his life, and chose to part with it this way. Certain it is, that upon the strictest examination that could be afterwards made by the King’s command, and then by the diligence of Parliament, that upon the jealousy and rumour made a Committee, who were very diligent and solicitous to make that discovery, there was never any probable evidence, (that poor creature’s only excepted,) that there was any other cause of that woeful Fire, than the displeasure of God Almighty.
Executed Today is pleased to interview Meriel Jeater, curator of the “London’s Burning” exhibit now on display at the Museum of London, on what the Great Fire wrought....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
I thought it was the King’s baker on Pudding Lane …
Well the great fire did have the unintended effect of ending the plague. Kind of like swatting at a bee on your head with a frying pan, but it did work.
CC
Because they didn't know the Mrs.
I have the book, I first read 60 years ago, THE PLAGUE AND THE FIRE by James Leasor which goes well into this.
What happened after the great Chicago fire? Did they hang Mrs. O’Leary’s cow?
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