Curated category
Prisoners in the Tower of London
- Gertrude Courtenay, Marchioness of ExeterGertrude Courtenay, Marchioness of Exeter, once wore a disguise to visit a imprisoned foreign diplomat and warn him that the king was considering executing…
- Richard Page (courtier)In 1522, Richard Page took his seat as a Justice of the Peace for Surrey. This local appointment marked his transition from private service to 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…
- 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…
- Elizabeth IAt Tilbury in Essex on the 8th of August 1588, Elizabeth I rode before her militias wearing a silver breastplate over a white velvet dress.
- 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…
- 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.
- Francis WestonFrancis Weston was beheaded on Tower Hill on the 17th of May 1536, twenty-five years old and still protesting his innocence.
- Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of LeicesterRobert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, was buried with a letter. Queen Elizabeth I had received it six days before his death on the 4th of September 1588, and…
- Lady Jane GreyJane Grey sat in the presence of her father or mother, speaking, keeping silence, sitting, standing, going, eating, drinking, merrily or sadly.
- Thomas CranmerThomas Cranmer was born on the 2nd of July 1489 in the village of Aslockton in Nottinghamshire, England, a younger son from a modest gentry family with deep…
- Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of NorfolkThomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, was born in 1443 at Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk, and he spent more than eight decades navigating the most dangerous game in…
- Henry Norris (courtier)Henry Norris arrived into a world fractured by the Wars of the Roses. His grandfather Sir William Norris fought at the Battle of Stoke Field on the 16th of…
- 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…
- Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of NorfolkThomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, was born on the 10th of March 1473 and died on the 25th of August 1554, outliving four of the six wives of King Henry…
- Walter RaleighWalter Raleigh spent the final morning of his life handling the axe that was about to kill him. "This is a sharp Medicine," he reportedly said, "but it is a…
- 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.
- William Brereton (courtier)William Brereton, born around 1487 or perhaps as late as 1501, emerged from a prominent Cheshire family. His father was Sir Randle Brereton of Ipstones…
- Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of SouthamptonHenry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, was born on the 6th of October 1573 at Cowdray House in Sussex, and before he turned eight his father was dead…
- Edmund DudleyEdmund Dudley died on Tower Hill on the 17th of August 1510, executed by the very dynasty he had spent his career enriching.
- 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…
- Thomas Wyatt (poet)Sir Thomas Wyatt died on the 11th of October 1542, at around age thirty-nine, and was buried at Sherborne Abbey. He had lived fast and dangerously close to…
- Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of OxfordEdward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was born on the 12th of April 1550 at Hedingham Castle in Essex, heir to the second-oldest earldom in England.