The Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London, which occurred in September of 1666, completely devastated the city of London, leaving one-sixth of its population homeless and destroying a large swath of the city, including St. Paul’s Cathedral. In Adrian Tinniswood’s novel, By Permission of Heaven: The True Story of the Great Fire of London, he argued that the majority of Londoners saw the fire as either an act of terrorism or as an act of God. Those who believed the act of terrorism theory blamed the fire on England’s enemies or minority groups within England itself, while others who subscribed to the act of god idea believed that God was punishing London for its sins. Both of these ideas about why the fire happened were used by people for their own gain and to cover up the actions of people in power and the inevitability of a large, destructive fire given the layout of London. Many Londoners saw the fire as an act of terrorism because of the ongoing conflicts with the Dutch and the French and due to the ever-present threat of Catholicism returning to dominance in England. Throughout the seventeenth century, England was involved in a series of conflicts with the Dutch Republic. These wars are known as the Anglo-Dutch wars. In 1665, the Second Anglo-Dutch War began with the French, England’s archenemy, fighting alongside the Dutch against England. The war was ongoing when the fire began in September of 1666, so many Londoners thought that either French or Dutch operatives have started the fire in order to destroy London and weaken England so that England would lose the war. Around the time when the fire was raging in London, the French were inflicting heavy losses on England in the West Indies and it was suspected that they might try and sail up the Thames in order to sack London. Since many people thought that the French or the Dutch had started the fire, Dutch and French immigrants who were living in London were looked at with suspicion and sometimes confronted by mobs of