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Prisoners in the Tower of London

  • Gertrude Courtenay, Marchioness of ExeterGertrude Courtenay once wore a disguise to visit an imprisoned ambassador.
  • Richard Page (courtier)Sir Richard Page was accused of adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn and walked out of the Tower alive.
  • George Boleyn, Viscount RochfordGeorge Boleyn's execution crowd fell almost completely silent to hear his scaffold speech.
  • John Dudley, 1st Duke of NorthumberlandJohn Dudley's "wicked Duke" label was largely built because Queen Mary needed a villain.
  • Elizabeth IElizabeth I came to the throne as a declared bastard whose mother had been executed.
  • Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of SomersetA king's marriage to his sister made Edward Seymour ruler of England. He governed for a nine-year-old king.
  • Catherine HowardCatherine Howard was queen of England for barely sixteen months. Henry VIII's fifth wife was beheaded in 1542.
  • Francis WestonFrancis Weston was beheaded at 25 for treason, still protesting his innocence. He had beaten King Henry VIII at games.
  • Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of LeicesterQueen Elizabeth I kept a letter from Robert Dudley until she died. She labeled it "his last letter" in her own hand.
  • Lady Jane GreyLady Jane Grey was queen of England for only nine days in July 1553. Her own Privy Council then turned on her.
  • Thomas CranmerThomas Cranmer thrust his right hand into the flames first. He said it was punishment for signing his recantations.
  • Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of NorfolkThomas Howard turned down a chance to escape the Tower of London, and that may have helped his career.
  • Henry Norris (courtier)The charges against Henry Norris put Anne Boleyn in Westminster on dates when she was in Greenwich.
  • Thomas MoreThomas More taught his daughters Greek when almost no one did. He also approved burning heretics.
  • Richard II of EnglandRichard II of England was born in the Archbishop's Palace of Bordeaux on the 6th of January 1367. Contemporary sources claimed that three kings were present at the birth: "the King of Castile, the King of Navarre and the King of Portugal".…
  • Kray twinsThe Kray twins were convicted of murder in 1969, yet crowds of thousands lined up to applaud when Reggie Kray was buried at Chingford Mount Cemetery in October 2000. Ronald and Reginald Kray were identical brothers from Haggerston in East…
  • Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of NorfolkThe Duke of Norfolk sentenced his own niece Anne Boleyn to death. Thomas Howard presided at her 1536 trial.
  • Walter RaleighWalter Raleigh sent settlers to Roanoke Island but never set foot in North America.
  • Thomas CromwellHenry VIII beheaded Thomas Cromwell, then called him his most faithful servant.
  • William Brereton (courtier)William Brereton was beheaded in 1536 beside Anne Boleyn's brother, yet had almost no known tie to her.
  • Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of SouthamptonShakespeare dedicated two poems to the Earl of Southampton. The earl was sentenced to death in 1601 but freed in 1603.
  • Rudolf HessRudolf Hess spent the last two decades of his life as the only prisoner in Spandau, a Berlin prison with 600 cells. The Allied powers kept the whole building in service for him alone, at an estimated cost of DM 800,000 a year. Hess had…
  • Edmund DudleyEdmund Dudley wrote a guide to good kingship while waiting in the Tower of London to be executed.
  • Mark SmeatonMark Smeaton was the only man executed with Anne Boleyn who did not claim innocence. Five men died that day in 1536.
  • Thomas Wyatt (poet)Poet Thomas Wyatt's sonnets were not printed under his name until 1557. That was fifteen years after he died.
  • Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of OxfordEdward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was buried in an unmarked grave in 1604. Some still say he wrote Shakespeare's plays.

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