Richard's Ramblings

Historical Fiction and Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, Book Reviews and ruminations on life

  • Home
  • About
  • Shield Maiden
  • The Amber Treasure
  • Tomorrow’s Guardian

3

Sep

Second day of the Great Fire of London: September 3rd 1666

Posted by rdenning  Published in 17th Century London, Great Fire of London, The Last Seal

About four o’clock in the morning, my Lady Batten sent me a cart to carry away all my money, and plate, and best things, to Sir W. Riders at Bednall-greene. Which I did riding myself in my night-gowne in the cart; and, Lord! to see how the streets and the highways are crowded with people running and riding, and getting of carts at any rate to fetch away things. Samuel Pepys Diary for 3rd September 1666.

By Monday morning, with the fire 24 hours old, the flames are spreading quickly west and north. Yet still no real efforts to contain the fire have been made,

James Duke of York

The Duke of York is given command

The Lord Mayor appears to have abandoned any effort to fight the fire. After his failures of Sunday, Bloodworth is not mentioned in any accounts and is not certain what he was doing or where he went. Technically direct authority over the city of London lay in the Mayor’s hands and most definitely NOT the King. Indeed on the Sunday the mayor had turned down offers of direct help from the king. Charles ignored this and did send troops. ON Monday with the Mayor having thrown in the towel, Charles decided to take definitive action and appointed James, Duke of York and his own brother the task of coordinating the fire fighting efforts. James took to the task at once and deployed regiments of his own soldiers on the street. He had to contend with two main problems in order to get near the fire :

Paranoia and Blame

The people of London, terrified of the fire and furious at the destruction did what most men and women do at such times. They try and find someone to blame. In London in September 1666 there were plenty of people to blame. England was at war with both France and Holland in the Second Anglo Dutch War. So any foreigners -especially from Holland or France were set upon in the streets and accused of Arson. They were searched and if matches found were beaten or even threatened with hanging. Astrologers who had predicted a terrible calamity on 1666 were also suspects as were manufacturers of fireworks. Fear of witchcraft meant that some women were attacked – even a poor girl who was caught carrying a chicken in her petticoat which was mistaken for a fireball that she was about to throw. Because of fears of another Gunpowder type plot Catholics were also accused to starting the fire.

Save what you can!

Utter panic set in during Monday as the city folk realised that the destruction could be extensive. Thousands of Londoners evacuated whatever belongings they could in cart, on foot or by boat. Some folk with the eye for making a quick fortune began hiring out carts and boats at exorbitant rates. A cart which before the fire would cost a couple of shillings could be as much at £40 on that monday! The streets were jammed with panicking people, carts, wagons and - desperate to keep order – James’  troops.

The Fire Spreads

The fire – driven on with strengthening winds had reached the North end of London bridge and destroyed it. Fortunately a fire break on the bridge – the result  of a previous fire 30 years before – prevented the fire spreading further south.

Nothing, however, could prevent the fire spreading to engulf the great trade centre of the Royal Exchange on Cornhill which had been build in Queen Elizabeth’s time, nor the loss of the shops on Cheapshide.

“the whole City in dreadful flames near the water-side; all the houses from the Bridge, all Thames-street, and upwards towards Cheapside, down to the Three Cranes, were now consumed” John Evelyn

Extent of fire damage on 3rd September (with thanks to wikipedia for image)

Action at last

Whilst running around protecting foreigners and Catholics and bringing some order to the crowded streets, gradually James establishes working parties – each with orders to pull down houses to slow the spread of the fire. Furthermore wealthy citizens began paying for hired labour to help with the efforts. It was not much but we start to see the types of actions that will eventually save London.

See: Sunday 2nd September – The Fire Starts

Tomorrow: Tuesday 4th September – The Fire at full fury!

This article is one of a series I wrote some years ago connected with the release that August of the paperback of The Last Seal my historical fantasy set during the Great Fire of 1666.

Share

Tags: Great Fire of London, The Last Seal

Related Articles

  • Fourth Day of The Great Fire 5th September 1666 (September 5th, 2011)
  • Third day of the Great Fire of London: September 4th 1666 (September 4th, 2011)
  • First day of the Great Fire of London: September 2nd 1666 (September 2nd, 2011)
  • What was England like in 1666 and why did I write a fantasy story about it. (August 31st, 2011)
  • By Permission of Heaven – the Great Fire of London 1666 (August 26th, 2011)

No user responded in this post

Subscribe to this post comment rss or trackback url

Available Free on Amazon

Book 1 of the Northern Crown Series

Available Free on Amazon

Book 1 of the Nine Worlds Series.

Get my blog updates by email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Contact me:

Email me on r.denning@btinternet.com

Previous Posts

  • July 2019 (1)
  • June 2019 (1)
  • September 2018 (1)
  • June 2018 (1)
  • January 2018 (1)
  • November 2017 (1)
  • September 2017 (2)
  • August 2017 (1)
  • July 2017 (2)
  • June 2017 (2)
  • January 2017 (2)
  • August 2016 (1)
  • November 2015 (1)
  • March 2015 (1)
  • January 2015 (1)
  • October 2014 (3)
  • September 2014 (2)
  • August 2014 (2)
  • July 2014 (1)
  • June 2014 (2)
  • April 2014 (3)
  • March 2014 (1)
  • January 2014 (7)
  • December 2013 (3)
  • November 2013 (1)
  • October 2013 (2)
  • September 2013 (4)
  • August 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (2)
  • June 2013 (7)
  • May 2013 (1)
  • April 2013 (1)
  • March 2013 (2)
  • February 2013 (3)
  • January 2013 (5)
  • December 2012 (4)
  • November 2012 (6)
  • October 2012 (2)
  • September 2012 (9)
  • August 2012 (3)
  • July 2012 (2)
  • June 2012 (2)
  • May 2012 (1)
  • April 2012 (3)
  • March 2012 (1)
  • February 2012 (2)
  • January 2012 (3)
  • December 2011 (6)
  • November 2011 (6)
  • October 2011 (8)
  • September 2011 (9)
  • August 2011 (16)
  • July 2011 (19)
  • June 2011 (6)
  • May 2011 (3)
  • April 2011 (3)
  • March 2011 (5)
  • February 2011 (3)
  • January 2011 (4)
  • December 2010 (2)
  • November 2010 (3)
  • October 2010 (2)
  • September 2010 (1)
  • July 2010 (2)
  • June 2010 (3)
  • May 2010 (1)
  • April 2010 (6)
  • March 2010 (5)
  • February 2010 (6)

Categrories

  • 17th Century History (19)
  • 17th Century London (13)
  • 18th Century (1)
  • Anglo Saxon Survival Guide (12)
  • Anglo Saxons (72)
  • Bernard Cornwell (1)
  • blog tour (5)
  • Book Review (5)
  • british traditions (1)
  • Character sketch (7)
  • charity (1)
  • Christmas (3)
  • Dark Age (34)
  • demons (3)
  • e-books (10)
  • Edinburgh Fringe (2)
  • entertainment (4)
  • exhibitions (1)
  • fantasy (4)
  • festivals (7)
  • Food and Drink (4)
  • games (8)
  • gardens (1)
  • Great Fire of London (11)
  • Guest Posts (3)
  • halloween (1)
  • Helen Hollick (4)
  • Historical Fiction (25)
  • Historical Figures (8)
  • history (41)
  • Ireland (2)
  • Iron Age (1)
  • Kindle (4)
  • legend (2)
  • libraries (3)
  • London Book Fair (2)
  • marketing (3)
  • Mercia Books (7)
  • Middle Earth (1)
  • museum (1)
  • music (1)
  • My Books (28)
  • mythology (11)
  • Napoleonic Wars (5)
  • National Trust (2)
  • Northumbria (4)
  • Nottingham (1)
  • Orkney (4)
  • Publishing (31)
  • richard denning (53)
  • rituals (3)
  • Romans (2)
  • runes (1)
  • saint (1)
  • school visits (1)
  • sci fi (5)
  • scotland (4)
  • Selfpublishing (26)
  • Short Story (1)
  • stars (1)
  • The Amber Treasure (24)
  • The Last Seal (34)
  • Time Travel (9)
  • Tomorrow's Guardian (16)
  • Uncategorized (88)
  • valentine's day (1)
  • Viking (2)
  • Wales (1)
  • warfare (7)
  • world war 1 (1)
  • writers (6)
  • Yesterday's Treasures (6)

Tags

17th Century aethelfrith Alexander the Great Amazon Anglo-Saxon Anglo Saxons bernicia Blog Tour Book Review Character Sketch Dark Age Decade a week deira entertainment food gods Great Fire of London Helen Hollick Historical Fiction historical research history Kindle mythology Northumbria Old English Orkney richard denning riddles runes saxons Sea Witch seax self publishing Selfpublishing Short Story six sentence sunday Staffordshire Horde The Amber Treasure The Great Fire of London 1666 The Last Seal Time Travel Tomorrow's Guardian Vikings warriors writing

Admin

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

Recent Entries

  • The Franks Casket
  • Writing – Making your Mark
  • Xmas Day 1914: where was the Truce?
  • Where’s the Hill? The Mystery of Abingdon
  • Glendalough: The valley of two lakes
  • Place of the Caves – beneath the City of Nottingham
  • To chance your arm – the door of reconciliation
  • The Galloway Hoard – the Viking treasure trove
  • A visit to Bletchley Park
  • Visit to Birsay – one time capital of the Orkneys

Recent Comments

  • rdenning in Writing - Making your Mark
  • rdenning in Writing - Making your Mark
  • Koni Billings in Writing - Making your Mark
  • Steve in Writing - Making your Mark
  • Interview with Author Richard Denni… in The Amber Treasure
  • rdenning in Anglo-Saxon Hall at The British Musuem
  • rdenning in The 17th Century in 26 Words
  • rdenning in Its a Monster! The past and future of UKGE
  • Cabe in Its a Monster! The past and future of UKGE
  • Ros Jackson in The 17th Century in 26 Words
  • Random Selection of Posts

    • What was England like in 1666 and why did I write a fantasy story about it.
    • Treasures of the Norse and Old English gods.
    • The Church, the Tree the King and Robin Hood
    • England Expects
    • The gods and goddesses of the Anglo-Saxons
    • Middle Littleton Tithe Barn
    • Power of Free: Giving away books
© 2008 Richard's Ramblings is proudly powered by WordPress
Theme designed by Roam2Rome