Curated playlist
People executed by Tudor England by decapitation
- Anne BoleynQueen of England from 1533 to 1536
- Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of NorthumberlandThomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, stood on a scaffold in York on the 22nd of August 1572 and refused to save his own life. An offer was made: renounce Catholicism and go free. He declined, and moments later was beheaded at a public…
- George Boleyn, Viscount RochfordGeorge Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, stepped onto Tower Hill on the morning of the 17th of May 1536 to face the axe. The crowd watching was, by all accounts, almost completely silent. That silence was remarkable. State executions in Tudor…
- John Dudley, 1st Duke of NorthumberlandJohn Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, died on the 22nd of August 1553 with a curious phrase on his lips: "I have deserved a thousand deaths." He had just knelt before ten thousand people at the scaffold, kissed a cross he made in the…
- Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of SomersetEdward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, rose from a minor English noble family to become the effective ruler of England for two years, all because his sister caught the eye of a king. Born around 1500 to Sir John Seymour of Somerset, Edward…
- Catherine HowardCatherine Howard was Queen of England for barely sixteen months, and she was probably still a teenager when the axe fell on the 13th of February 1542. She had been Henry VIII's fifth wife. She was his youngest. And she was dead before most…
- Francis WestonFrancis Weston was beheaded on Tower Hill on the 17th of May 1536, twenty-five years old and still protesting his innocence. Two days later, Queen Anne Boleyn herself would be executed at the same site. In the span of a week, King Henry…
- Mary, Queen of ScotsMary, Queen of Scots was six days old when she became queen. Her father, King James V of Scotland, died on the 14th of December 1542 before he ever truly knew his daughter. A popular tale, first recorded by the Protestant reformer John…
- Lady Jane GreyLady Jane Grey ruled as Queen of England and Ireland for nine days in July 1553 before her own Privy Council turned against her and proclaimed her cousin Mary queen instead. On the 12th of February 1554, Jane was beheaded at the Tower of…
- Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of EssexRobert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex, once walked into Queen Elizabeth's bedchamber at Nonsuch Palace one morning. She was not yet, in the words of one account, "properly wigged or gowned." It was an act of extraordinary presumption.…
- Thomas Wyatt the YoungerThomas Wyatt the Younger was born on the 10th of September 1521 into a family already famous for shaping English culture. His father, Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder, had introduced the sonnet into English literature and served as a diplomat to…
- Henry Norris (courtier)Henry Norris died on the 17th of May 1536, on Tower Hill, and his last words were almost nothing at all. Where his fellow condemned men chose their scaffold speeches with care, implying innocence through careful phrasing, Norris said…
- Thomas MoreThomas More climbed the scaffold at Tower Hill on the 6th of July 1535 and, finding the structure so rickety it might collapse, told the waiting official: "I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe up and for my coming down, let me shift…
- Nicholas Carew (courtier)Nicholas Carew entered the household of the future King Henry VIII at six years old. He shared his education with the boy who would become England's most famous monarch. By 1515, Carew had earned a reputation for fearlessness in the lists.…
- Thomas CromwellThomas Cromwell was a blacksmith's son from Putney who died on Tower Hill with his head set on a spike above London Bridge. On the 28th of July 1540, the man who had reshaped England's church, rewritten its laws, and run its government for…
- William Brereton (courtier)William Brereton walked to a scaffold on Tower Hill on the 17th of May 1536 and spoke his final words with careful precision: "The cause whereof I die, judge not. But if you judge, judge the best." Those words were not the declaration of a…
- Edmund DudleyEdmund Dudley died on Tower Hill on the 17th of August 1510, executed by the very dynasty he had spent his career enriching. He was one of the most powerful administrators in England under King Henry VII, a man who helped fill the royal…
- Richard EmpsonRichard Empson died on the 17th of August 1510 with an axe, not a trial verdict, as the final word on his career. A lawyer who rose from Northamptonshire gentry to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, he spent the last years of Henry…
- Mark SmeatonMark Smeaton stood in the round window of Queen Anne's chamber at Winchester on a Saturday before May Day. He was around 23 years old when he died, yet his origins remained obscure to most courtiers. Historical records suggest he was the…
- John FisherJohn Fisher kept a human skull on the altar during Mass and placed it beside his plate at every meal. For a bishop who moved among Tudor kings, this was an unusual practice. Fisher died on Tower Hill on the 22nd of June 1535. Henry VIII…