Joel Ridgway | October 26, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 26th October 1536, the rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace halted at Scawsby Leys near Doncaster, where they met crown troops. The rebels were said to number around 30,000 and the crown’s army was only a fifth of the size, but the rebel leader, lawyer Robert Aske, chose to […]
Claire | July 6, 2017
On this day in history, Tuesday 6th July 1535, Henry VIII’s former friend and Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, was beheaded on Tower Hill as a traitor. More had been found guilty of high treason under the Treason Act of 1534 for denying the king’s supremacy and refusing to take the Oath of Succession. Trivia: […]
Claire | July 1, 2017
Sir Thomas More once said of King Henry VIII that “if my head would win him a castle in France, it should not fail to go” and I often wonder how serious he was. Was it said in jest or did More know exactly what Henry VIII was capable of? It’s impossible to know, but […]
Claire | April 17, 2017
On this day in history, 17th April 1534, Sir Thomas More, Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor and good friend, was sent to the Tower of London. He wasn’t sent there to see a prisoner, he was sent there as a prisoner. Sir Thomas More had been called to Lambeth four days earlier, on 13th April, to […]
Claire | February 7, 2017
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Sir Thomas More, lawyer, philosopher, humanist, scholar and Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor, on 7th February 1477 (or 1478). More was born in Milk Street, London, and was the son of Sir John More, lawyer and judge on the King’s Bench, and Agnes Graunger, daughter of Thomas Graunger, […]
Claire | July 6, 2016
On this day in history, 6th July 1535, Henry VIII’s former friend and Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, was beheaded on Tower Hill as a traitor. He had been found guilty of high treason under the Treason Act of 1534 for denying the King’s supremacy and refusing to take the Oath of Succession. Chronicler Charles […]
Claire | July 5, 2016
Most people know about Sir Thomas More’s final letter to his beloved daughter, Margaret (Meg) Roper – click here – but he also wrote a letter in Latin, and again written in coal, to his dear friend Anthony Bonvyse (Bonvisi), a merchant. Here is the record, an English transcription of the letter, from Letters and […]
Claire | July 5, 2016
On this day in history, 5th July 1535, Sir Thomas More, Henry VIII’s former chancellor, wrote a last letter from his prison cell in the Tower of London. He’d been imprisoned in the Tower since 17th April 1534 and had been found guilty of high treason by a commission of oyer and terminer on 1st […]
