This is one of a set of five paintings (RCINs 402691-4 & 402701), all based on Jean Perrissin after Jacques Tortorel, Histoires diverse qui sont mémorables touchant les Guerres, Massacres & Troubles advenus en France en ces dernières années, a set of 41 plates (39 illustrations, plus title page and foreward), which exist in different etched versions in French, Latin, German and Italian. Perrissin and Tortorel signed their contract on 23 July 1569. There was also a set of woodcuts made for a cheaper market. Though the subject matter is entirely French, these five paintings have inscriptions in German, which suggests that they were produced in that country. There is no way of knowing if they are part of a larger or even a ‘complete’ set, but the subjects chosen highlight the persecution of Huguenots by Catholics, which suggests that they were commissioned for a Protestant and explains why they might have appealed to Prince Albert.

This scene is based on plate 6 of Jean Perrissin after Jacques Tortorel, Histoires diverse, entitled Anne du Bourg Conseiller du Parlement de Paris brulé a S. Jean en Greve le 21 Decembre 1559 (BM 1855,0414.183) woodcut 322 x 496, 1569-75. A version of the print in the Rijksmuseum is in the same sense as the painting.

Annas du Bourg was a magistrate in the Paris parlement who argued in favour of mitigating punishments of heretics and was himself de-frocked and executed on trumped-up charges. A street scene packed with troops and people encircled around a gibbet from which hangs a bearded man in a white robe; at the base stands a figure who holds a firebrand which will be thrown on the fire nearby; viewers watch from open windows.