Before Religious Freedom: The Tragedy of the Guernsey Martyrs

SPEAKER_00 0:00 This site is forever scarred by a horrific event that still sends shivers down the spine nearly 500 years later. I'm standing at Tower Hill Steps in Guernsey, where three women were burned at the stake, one of whom was pregnant and gave birth in the flames. You see, religion may sometimes feel divisive, but today we can largely choose what we believe in. But there was a time when going against the grain meant death. I'm Ollie, and this is What We Did Before, a podcast which charts the history of everyday life. And I'm joined by gold-accredited tour guide, Guernsey Tour Guide Corinne LePage, who's going to walk me through this fascinating but very macabre part of Guernsey's history. Corin, welcome to what we did before.

SPEAKER_01 0:47 Thank you, thanks Ollie. Thanks for inviting me.

SPEAKER_00 0:49 Thank you very much for coming. So tell me a little bit about the Guernsey martyrs. Who were they?

SPEAKER_01 1:01 So they were brought here to be executed. And the plan was that they were supposed to be strangled first and then thrown in the fire. However, the rope broke. Probably on the first, probably the mother. The rope broke, so therefore they were burnt alive. The mother had been accused of steal stealing a silver goblet. Right. In fact, she was found innocent of that. However, the neighbours said that she had not been practicing Catholicism. So on the basis of that, she was tried, and her daughters as well, because they weren't Catholics, and they were tied to stakes here. This was a hill, a grassy hill at the time.

SPEAKER_00 1:44 Oh, so these steps weren't steps before.

SPEAKER_01 1:46 So it was a hill. And because the mother was heavily pregnant, her baby was actually born in the fire.

SPEAKER_00 1:54 Because of the stress of the situation. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 1:57 So the baby was born in the fire, and a bystander picked the baby up and put the baby to one side.

SPEAKER_00 2:04 So were there were the crowds gathered to watch the burning?

SPEAKER_01 2:07 Oh yeah, people used to love watching things like that. And they probably announced it was happening and they'd have an audience. The the baby was put to one side, but the bailiff picked up the baby and threw it in the fire. Because it was seen as a heretic as well. The baby was a heretic. The baby was a heretic as well. Oh my god. So the baby was burnt. So four of them were burnt at the stake. But that that was the last time that that there was definitely uh a lot to be said because of what had happened. People were horrified by the way this had been handled.

SPEAKER_00 2:38 Yeah, so the bystanders, the people who come gathering to see Protestants burn, didn't expect to see a baby burn as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:46 This was particularly grisly. But the bailiff was our head of state, so the bailiff deemed that the baby had to be thrown in the fire.

SPEAKER_00 2:53 It is very macabre, isn't it? It is, yeah. And so at this point, um so the goblet thing, this is uh not a problem anymore. This is it is now just based on their faith, their Protestant faith. So what happened? So the uh a a local person sort of oust ousted them, did they?

SPEAKER_01 3:09 Yeah, their neighbour. Right. Yeah, the neighbour ousted them.

SPEAKER_00 3:12 So was this at a time when witchcraft was also on people's radar? Like um, you know, people were genuinely believing that um the local witch was perhaps putting a hex on them or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 3:24 People were very superstitious in those times. And you know, we had our witches' seats as well, and they were put there near the chimney breasts so the witches could rest if they were flying past rather than come down the chimney and cause mischief.

SPEAKER_00 3:37 Yeah, so um it's amazing if you walk around Guernsey, uh, you won't spot them if you're just walking around and going about your day-to-day business. But witches' seats are sort of everywhere when you look up, aren't they? And they are these sort of basically little stone um blocks that are designed for witches to have a little rest. Absolutely. So they didn't hex you.

SPEAKER_01 3:55 Yeah, so they didn't hex you because no one wanted to upset them. They were frightened, and I think as a lot of things over time, people condemn others often out of fear. They're afraid of them, and so they're afraid they want them gone. You know, they don't know how to deal with someone who isn't the same as them, and that was the bottom line. There was a concession that they did give apparently, and that is if a a so-called witch or someone who wasn't a practising Catholic, if they were willing to go to the town church and declare their faith as a Catholic, the other alternative to being burnt at the stake was to be sent off in a boat on their own.

unknown 4:33 Wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:34 Out to sea.

SPEAKER_00 4:35 So they would they would be captaining the ship?

SPEAKER_01 4:37 They would Well, they would just be sent on a little rowing boat and pushed out to sea. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:41 So basically death another form of death.

SPEAKER_01 4:45 Yes, or they might have a chance of survival, I suppose. It's immense, doesn't it? Another ship might pick them up, or they might have a chance of living.

SPEAKER_00 4:51 Yeah. How far do we believe that people gen genuinely believed that somebody was a witch and and had put a hex on them or their cattle or whatever? Or or perhaps maybe they just wanted rid of that person and witchcraft was an a an easy way of doing that. You know, saying you're they're a witch, and so now we can knock them off like you.

SPEAKER_01 5:13 Oh yeah, you know, I think that they were genuinely scared of it. And then you know about the two books, the Grand Albert and the Putty Albert, the witches' books. But there's a another story of the witch of Kobo, and there at that time at Kobo, uh, there were a lot of fishermen there around that area, and there was a fisherman family came to live there, and they couldn't find a house, but there was one cottage that it was uninhabited, and they it was a beautiful cottage, they couldn't understand why it was empty. So, anyway, they took it, they paid the rent, they took it, and very quickly strange things started to happen. The insects came in through the window, and uh things were disappearing and things were whizzing round the room and things like that. So the the family of the there was they discovered there was a witch at Kobo, and the family were trying to get rid of these witches' books that she had.

SPEAKER_00 6:08 Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:09 And so they were sitting on a table, and and one uh one occasion they took them and burnt them. They took them out, burnt them, saw them burn, then when they went back in, the books were still sitting there on the table. And another occasion they took them out on a low tide, buried them underneath the sand, waited for the tide to come up to come up, they saw the tide come up, and when they got home, the books were still there. So that that was the you know, displays the strong belief that people had at the time. Yeah. And you can actually see the copies of the Grand Albert and Petit Albert in the Prio library.

SPEAKER_00 6:47 So tell me a little bit about the Grand Albert and the Petit Albert then. So what were these books exactly?

SPEAKER_01 6:51 Well, they were they had uh remedies and um they were very much um revered for remedies for sicknesses and and that kind of thing. Um, but they were they also were perceived as having spells in them. Right. So that was a book of spells. Now it's interesting that back then so many things happened around these books, and yet now they're sitting in the Prio library and nobody seems to have insects flying around them or you know, are um afraid of witches flying in or you know, so it was how strongly they believed at the time. And that's the sad thing about this. This was a a snapshot in time of where people were, and if you look at the bigger picture over time, and you look how many people, how many people have been executed for some perceived crime that wasn't actually a crime, and that says a lot about humanity, doesn't it, over time.

SPEAKER_00 7:49 So five hundred well, nearly five hundred years on, since 1556 when this happened, why is it important that we keep telling the story of the well they're now known as the Guernsey martyrs? Why do we tell their story?

SPEAKER_01 8:02 I think it's a reminder when you think about all the bad things that happen in in the world, it pricks the human conscious conscience, and for a while people are kind to each other and they remember these things and they believe that that event will change them, and then somehow things go back to normal and it's a reminder to us of what humans are capable of.

SPEAKER_00 8:25 Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:25 Otherwise, we just get caught up in daily life and get back into the routine of daily life, and sometimes we forget.

SPEAKER_00 8:33 Yeah, and and I think also if you look at the sort of grand scope of time, humans have been around for what at least 300,000 years as as our species Homo sapiens. This only happened 500 years ago. Yeah. That's a short, tiny chunk of history back in our timeline. It's not like you know, we've moved so far away from the instincts and the natural behaviours that led to uh an event like this. And so, for one, we've got to remember these events so that we don't repeat the past, but also I think it you know the modern world today, the time that we live in can always feel really tough. Yeah, um, and for many people it is really tough, but it it does also kind of make you appreciate the world that we have now developed. Yes, absolutely, and the modern age and where we've where we've come to as a species.

SPEAKER_01 9:23 That's a really good point, Olly, because I I think as humans it's good for us to try and every time we think our our world looks really bleak, is to actually rather than look at the bleak things, look at the positives. Yeah. Because that in itself helps us to move out of that darkness.

SPEAKER_00 9:43 Well, Corin, if people come to Guernsey, and I hope they do, it is a beautiful island. This is where I'm from. Yeah, me too. How how can they get in touch with you to book on one of your tours?

SPEAKER_01 9:53 Well, I've got a website uh which is um guernseetourguide.co.uk. Very good. They can get in touch with me that way.

SPEAKER_00 10:01 Well, there's a lot more history that you can explore with Corinne, so do get in touch with her if you are coming over to the island. Corin, thank you very much for joining what we developed.