Claire | December 10, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 10th December 1541, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were executed at Tyburn. Culpeper, a groom of the privy chamber, and Dereham, a member of Queen Catherine Howard’s household had been found guilty of high treason for intending to do ill with the […]
Claire | December 1, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 1st December 1541, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were tried for high treason at Guildhall, London. Both men had been linked romantically with the king’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard. Culpeper, a member of Henry VIII’s privy chamber, and Dereham, a secretary to […]
Joel Ridgway | January 10, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 10th December 1591, Roman Catholic priest Edmund Gennings and Catholic Swithin Wells were executed on a scaffold set up outside Wells’ house at Holborn. Gennings had been caught celebrating mass at Wells’ home by the famous Elizabethan priestfinder and torturer, Richard Topcliffe, who punished him by throwing him into […]
Joel Ridgway | December 10, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 10th December 1591, Roman Catholic priest Edmund Gennings and Catholic Swithin Wells were executed on a scaffold set up outside Wells’ house at Holborn. Gennings had been caught celebrating mass at Wells’ home by the famous Elizabethan priestfinder and torturer, Richard Topcliffe, who punished him by throwing him into […]
Joel Ridgway | December 1, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 1st December 1581, twenty-five-year-old Roman Catholic priest Alexander Briant was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, along with Ralph Sherwin and Edmund Campion. Briant had been imprisoned, starved, racked and tortured in other awful ways, but he claimed that he felt no pain due to God’s help. He refused […]
Joel Ridgway | November 14, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 14th November 1541, an inventory was taken of “the goods and chattels, lands and fees of” Thomas Culpeper, a groom of King Henry VIII’s privy chamber and a man who had been having secret meetings with Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife. An inventory had also been taken of […]
Claire | May 5, 2021
Thank you so much to Sarah from the UK for her questions regarding Thomas Culpeper’s brothers and sisters, and whether he really had a brother called Thomas Culpeper. Sarah also asked whether Catherine Howard had got pregnant before her marriage and whether she got pregnant during her marriage to Henry VIII. Could she even have […]
Claire | December 10, 2018
On 10th December 1541, just a month and eight days after an investigation into Queen Catherine Howard’s past was ordered, two men were executed at Tyburn. They were Thomas Culpeper, a gentleman of the privy chamber, and Francis Dereham, a member of the queen’s household. Both men had been tried for treason at Guildhall on […]
