The Rope That Broke at the Stake

Katherine Cauchés and her two daughters, Guillemine and Perotine, were brought to court in May 1556 on suspicion of receiving a stolen wine goblet. The court found them not guilty.

Then the authorities took statements from their neighbours.

The Horror

The neighbours reported that the three women held Protestant beliefs — views contrary to Queen Mary’s restored Catholic doctrine. That was enough. They were sent back to Castle Cornet prison, tried for heresy, and condemned to burn.

They should have been strangled before the fire was lit, as was customary, so that death came from the rope rather than the flames. Instead, the rope broke. They were thrown into the fire alive.

Perotine Massey was pregnant. In the fire, her belly burst asunder from the vehemence of the flame and a living baby boy was expelled into the ash. A man named William House pulled the infant free and laid him on the grass. The child was breathing.

Bailiff Hellier Gosselin ordered the baby thrown back into the fire.

The act was condemned as excessive barbarity even by Catholic observers. John Foxe recorded it in full in his Acts and Monuments, using both eyewitness testimony and official documents, and his account was still being argued about a decade later. It became one of the most notorious episodes of the entire Marian persecution — four people executed over a wine‑goblet charge they had already been acquitted of.

The Modern Relic

The memorial plaque is on the Tower Hill Steps in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey — halfway up the westward wall, near the site of the execution. The inscription names all four: Katherine Cawches, Guillemine Gilbert, Perotine Massey, and the son of Perotine Massey. He is remembered on the plaque. He has no name.

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