Read To Lead: To High To Help?

Work Through 

Known as the “Merry Monarch” King Charles II, with quite the reputation for a being “ladies man”, was not renowned for adventure and daring exploits. Then, in 1666, there was the Great Fire of London and he had to pull up his breeches and deal with his burning Capital. Come the hour, come the man, and KC2 steps up and steps out.

In the earliest of morning moments of Sunday the 2^nd of September, sometime between 1 and 2, a fire starts in the Pudding Lane bakery of Thomas Farriner. Rideal tells us that “London knew fires: they happened frequently with varying severity”. London did not, however, know inferno! What followed was a fire-storm of such intensity that over the next four days the homes of 70,000, of the city’s 80,000 population, would be destroyed.

The intensity of the conflagration was captured by two eye-witnesses: Samuel Pepys wrote of “an infinite great fire taking hold of the southern part of the city” and John Evelyn describes the: “thunder of impetuous flames, the shrieking of women and children, the hurry of people, the fall of towers, houses and churches”.

Rideal tells us that “rather than put a collective effort into suppressing the fire, Londoners prioritised their own individual needs by carrying personal goods away from the danger zone”.  It would appear, however, that any attempt to fight the fire would have been futile: “with an endless supply of wood and rubbish, and an easterly wind, Londoners were stunned by its ferocity and confounded by its scale” declares Rideal.

“Not ignorant of what a loss of London might do to his hold on authority”, Charles knew that protecting London was key to controlling England. Thus, overriding the jurisdiction – and particularly weak and indecisive leadership – of the city’s Lord Mayor, Thomas Bludworth, King Charles put his brother, James, the Duke of York, (the future King James II) in charge of saving the city. “For all of his faults, and there were many,” says Rideal, “the duke possessed the type of dogged confidence that people could easily follow during times of great strife. Leading by example, he rode through the city offering encouragement and active help to those attempting to extinguish the fire. His presence appears to have allayed the panic and disorder that was on the brink of breaking out”.

Somewhat expected of a subordinate following royal orders, one might think, but then Rideal goes on to report of the King himself: “all day the king rode with the Duke of York across town with very few attendants. Joining those attempting to extinguish the fire, he laboured in person, rewarded and encouraged the firefighters… The royal brothers were a visible presence and seen by many.”