Robert Hubert was executed for starting the Great Fire of London in 1666. The fire damaged around 13,200 homes, around 80 percent of the old city, displacing around 70,000 to 80,000 people, luckily very few were killed, around eight. Robert Hubert confessed to the crime and was hanged on Oct. 27, 1666. However, it is widely believed that his confession was false and he was innocent.
Evidence supporting this is that Robert Hubert was not even in London at the time, nor even in England. A Swedish captain of the Maid of Stockholm, testified that he had landed Robert Hubert two days after the fire had started (though this testimony was given several years after the event transpired). Hubert also originally confessed to starting the fire in Westminster, but after finding out that it started in a bakery in Pudding Lane, he then claimed he tossed a grenade into its window. However, the bakery not only lacked a window for him to throw it into, Robert Hubert was also severely crippled making it nearly impossible for him to throw it.
During his trial, few of the jury believed him guilty and thought that he just did not understand what he was confessing to or that he was forced to confess. People were rather upset about the whole event and a scapegoat was needed and the owners of the bakery had no intention of being hit with the blame. In the end, after people's temper fell, the fire was officially attributed to an Act of God, the dry season and wind, but all too late for Robert Hubert.
Read other answers by James Ware on Quora:
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from Quora http://ift.tt/2laHTGO
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