What was England like in 1666 and why did I write a fantasy story about it.

The population of all of England was only about 4 million people at this time. Greater London had about 300,000 people. Most of the land was rural and people were used to living in small communities except those in the big cities. Nevertheless news did travel about and there are many elements that go into the mix to make up your average Englishman or woman in 1666.

Wars and Kings and Dictators

England was a land where people still remembered the English Civil War of 1642 -51. This had ended only 14 years before and large numbers of the population had fought in the war. Indeed 100,000 people had died in the civil war which it may surprise you to know is a higher % of the population than losses in World War One or Two! That war had shown the deep divides in the land and many of those divides still existed.

At one level the war had been fought between those who believed in the rights and authority of parliament and those who believed in the sovereignty of the King. But it was not as simple as that. Many who fought on one side or the other did so for religious convictions with the Puritans siding with Parliament and those with sympathies for the established church or who were catholic more often favouring the king. Some followed their heart which told them that duty to the king was paramount. Others believed that in opposing the King’s army they were acting to free him from poisonous elements that influenced him.

 Politics and Mistrust

Mistrust was not just confined to home spun plots and enemies. In 1666 England was at war with both Holland and France over domination of the seas and of world trade and everyone was paranoid about foreign spies. As a result all foreigners were viewed with suspicion and stories abounded about atrocities inflicted by these other nations.

Witchcraft and Superstition

This was also a time of superstitions and a period when people believed in omens and magic. The fire occurred during a time when people were tried and hanged for witchcraft – something like 1000 people had been executed as a witch in the century before 1666. It was also a year particularly associated with evil omens and signs. So there was a solar eclipses in the 1666. Comets had been seen in the skies the year before. There were lunar eclipses. All these events were harbingers of doom.

The end of the World

Doom seemed likely to many that year. Although even in our own time every few years people predict that the world will end, many people really believed that 1666 was the end of the world!! This was in part linked to the fact that in the Book of Revelations there is a passage that says that the number of the beast – of the devil is 666. Several famous astrologers has also predicted a great plague in 1665 and a fire in 1666. No doubt many others predicted other events that DID NOT happen so we should not read much into these predictions that did come to be true BUT of course such predictions added to the feelings of anxiety and paranoia that seemed to prevalent at this time.

Of course many people lived their lives concerned with the simple facts of existence. In a time of widespread poverty just getting through each day was a struggle. Nevertheless you can well imagine what, taken as a whole, this mix of fears and anxieties produced in the average man in the street. It did not take much to stir up the London mob and there was more than enough provocation due to the Great Fire.