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Tudor List of Executions
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 The Headsman's axe & block at the Tower |  The Tower of London & Traitors Gate  Tower Green - the site of the scaffold for nobility |  The site of Tyburn gallows in Westminster is marked by this small paving stone. |
 In the reign of King Henry VII (1485-1509): |
| -Sir William Stanley, 1495, executed for treason. Fought several battles in the War of the Roses but was finally beheaded for his support of Perkin Warbeck. | Leaders of the First Cornish Rebellion: -Sir James Tuchet, 1497. 7th Baron Audley, beheaded at Tower Hill -Michael An Gof, 1497, hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. -Thomas Flamank, 1497, hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. |
 -Perkin Warbeck, 1499. An impostor who pretended to be the son of King Edward IV (Richard, Duke of York) and rightful heir to the throng. Because of his resemblance to the Edward IV, it is thought he may have been his illegitimate son. He was drawn on a hurdle to obtain a confession and hanged at Tyburn. | -Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, 7th Earl of Salisbury, 1499. Beheaded at age 24 because of his rival claim to the throne. He was the younger brother of Margaret Pole, who was later executed by Henry VIII. |
 In the reign of King Henry VIII (1509-1547):The exact figure may never be known, but according to Raphael Holinshed, an English Chronicler who died in 1580, the number of executions in this reign amounted to 72,000. | |
| -Edmund Dudley, 1510. -Richard Empson, 1510. Both Dudley & Empson were unpopular ministers under Henry VII. They were both Beheaded for the crime of "constructive" treason on Tower Hill. | -Edmund de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, 1513 Beheaded due to being a Yorkist claimant to the throne through the Plantagenets. His Plantagenet cousin had been held prisoner in the Tower since Henry VII's reign. A benign spirit, locked away for most of his life, Edmund was no threat to anyone. But Henry executed him to remind his subjects that, though he would be in France, any challenge to his authority would be met with grave displeasure. |
 -Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham 1521. Fell out with the King over his attentions to his sister, Anne Stafford. With his royal blood, he became leader of dissaffected nobles. It is thought that Wolsey (a low-born man) was behind the trumped up charges. Beheaded. | The following executions were all due to their opposition of the Henrician reformation: -Elizabeth Barton "The Nun of Kent" or the "Holy Maid of Kent"1534. A visionary who protested against the King's divorce. After she confessed she had fabricated her revelations, she was charged with treason & hanged at Tyburn Gallows. -Dr. Edward Bocking 1534. A Canterbury Benedictine monk & Elizabeth Barton's confessor. -Father Richard Master 1534. -Father Hugh Rich 1534. -Father John Dering 1534. -Father Henry Gold 1534. -Father Richard Risby 1534. All above hanged at Tyburn for their complicity in the Nun of Kent's affair. |
 -John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester 1535. Beheaded for High Treason on Tower Hill, because he denied the King as supreme head of the church. |  -Sir Thomas More, 1535. Beheaded for High Treason on Tower Hill for denying the validity of the Act of Succession & the Oath of Supremacy. |
The following executions are commonly thought to be trumped up charges for the dual reasons of a King ridding himself of a wife & a plot masterminded by Thomas Cromwell [see Historian Eric Ive's Biography, "The Life & Death of Anne Boleyn" Page 319 "The Coup, April-May 1536"]: -Anne Boleyn 1536. Beheaded on Tower Green (site of private executions, a dubious rare honor) by sword for High Treason due to incest and adultery, despite the fact that her marriage to the King had been annulled.-George Boleyn, 1536. Anne's brother. Charged with incest & adultery with the queen. Beheaded on Tower Hill. | -Henry Norris, 1536. Despite being a close friend of Henry's, had made an enemy in Thomas Cromwell. Beheaded on Tower Hill. -William Brereton, 1536. Cromwell probably added Brereton to the plot against Anne in order to end the troubles Brereton was causing in the Welsh Marches, and to reorganise (and centralise) the local government of this area. Beheaded on Tower Hill. -Francis Weston, 1536. Accused of Treason, plotting to kill the King, adultery with the queen & sodomy. Beheaded outside the Tower. -Mark Smeaton, 1536.The only one to admit his guilt, it is thought he did so after torture. He was sentenced to beheading instead of the usual hanging, drawing & quartering assigned to commoners. |
| The following executions were all tied to the Pilgrimage of Grace, a rebellion against the dissolution of the monasteries & the Henrician Reformation : -Robert Aske, 1537. Led the rebellion. Hanged outside the Tower. -Thomas Kendell, 1537. Vicar of Louth & spiritual leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace. -Sir Robert Constable, 1537. An insurgent leader of the rebellion. Hanged at Hull. | -Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, 1537. Governor of Ireland, renounced his allegiance to Henry & attacked Dublin castle. He and his five uncles were hanged, drawn & quartered at Tyburn. |
| - Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter 1539. Henry's cousin & a rival of Thomas Cromwell, who convinced Henry that he was part of the Exeter Conspiracy with little evidence. Beheaded on Tower Hill. |  -Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex 1540. Ironically had made many enemies most notably Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk who pressed for his arrest after the Anne of Cleves debacle. He was privately executed at the Tower . It is said that Henry VIII intentionally chose an inexperienced executioner, a teenager who made three attempts before he succeeded. After execution his head was boiled and then set upon a spike on London Bridge facing away from the City of London |
| The following were Reformists executed for heresy under "The Six Articles" -Dr. Robert Barnes, July 30, 1540. Burned at the stake, friend of Martin Luther -Thomas Garret, July 30, 1540 hanged -William Jerome, July 30, 1540 hanged | The following were Catholics executed for denying royal supremacy, all were drawn and quartered in Smithfield: -Thomas Abel, July 30, 1540 -Richard Featherstone, July 30, 1540. Former chaplain of Katherine of Aragon and tutor to Mary -Edward Powel, July 30, 1540 |
 -Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury 1541. Last of the Plantagenets. - this was truly shocking. According to some accounts, the countess, who was 67 years old, frail and ill, was dragged to the block, but refused to lay her head on it, having to be forced down. As she struggled, the inexperienced executioner's first blow made a gash in her shoulder rather than her neck. Several additional blows were required to complete the execution. Beheaded on Tower Green. | The following executions can be attributed to a Protestant faction's attack on the Catholic Howard faction, plus the indiscretions of a very young queen: - Katherine Howard, 1542. Beheaded on Tower Green.- Jane Boleyn, 1542. Widow of George Boleyn.She had gone mad, so Henry had the law changed so that an insane person could be executed. Beheaded on Tower Green. - Thomas Culpeper, 1542. Beheaded at Tyburn - Francis Dereham, 1542. Hanged drawn & quartered at Tyburn. |
 -Anne Askew 1546. A member of the Reformed Church, admirer of Queen Katherine Parr, she was arrested and brought to the Tower of London, where she was tortured on the rack in hopes of implicating the queen. She was burned as a heretic at Smithfield (see pic above). |  -Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey 1547. Son of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, who was also arrested with his son but escaped death because Henry died the day his execution was scheduled. Beheaded on Tower Hill. |
 In the reign of Edward VI (1547-1553): |
| Leaders of the Prayer Book Rebellion: -Sir Humphrey Arundell 1549, Catholic nobleman, was a leader the Prayer Book Rebellion in Cornwall (over 5,500 Cornish were slaughtered by the King's forces), hanged at Tyburn. -John Winslade 1549, hanged at Tyburn. -Henry Bray 1549, hanged at Tyburn. | -Edward Seymour, Earl of Somerset, 1552, executed for Treason. -Thomas Seymour, 1549. |
| Leaders of Kett's Rebellion: - Robert "Ben" Kett 1549, hanged at Norwich Castle -William Kett 1549, hanged at Wymondham Abbey |
 In the reign of Mary I (1553-1558):Again, it is unknown exactly how many were executed during this reign, but John Foxe, who wrote The Book of Martyrs & died in 1587, estimated 284. Compared to her father's reign of blood, just a drop in the bucket. |
| The following were found guilty of treason for their role in usurping Mary I with Lady Jane Grey: -John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, 1553 - Sir John Gates, 1553, beheaded at Tower Hill - Sir Thomas Palmer, 1554 | -John Bradford, 1555, executed under the Marian Persecutions -John Rogers, 1555, executed under the Marian Persecutions. -John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, 1555, executed under the Marian Persecutions. -Hugh Latimer, 1555 -Nicolas Ridley, 1555 - William Hunter, 1555, 19 years old when he was burned alive for refusing to believe the concept of transubstantiation - Bishop Robert Ferrar, 1555 - Robert Samuel, 1555 |
| The following were executed as a result of Wyatt's Rebellion: - Thomas Wyatt, the Younger, 1554 organized a revolt to stop Queen Mary's marriage to Prince Phillip of Spain and to replace Mary with her sister Elizabeth - Sir Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, 1554, father of Lady Jane, convicted of high treason for his role in the Wyatt Rebellion  -Lady Jane Grey, 1554, although she and her husband were granted the lesser sentence of imprisonment after her nine day reign, after the Wyatt Rebellion Queen Mary decided she couldn't afford to keep both of them alive despite neither of them having been involved with Wyatt -Guilford Dudley, (son of John Dudley) 1554 | - Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1556 - Agnes Potten, 1556 - Joan Trunfield, 1556 -The Lewes 17, 1557, all burned in Sussex during the Marian Persecutions - William Pikes, 1558 - Alexander Gooch, 1558 - Alice Driver, 1558 |
 In the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603): |
| -Dr. John Story, 1571, executed for high treason | -Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk 1572, executed for role in attempt (Ridolfi Plot) to overthrow Elizabeth in favor of Mary Queen of Scots.1572 |
| - Cuthbert Mayne, 1577, Roman Catholic priest, "the queen never was nor ever shall be the head of the Church of England" | - Edmund Campion, 1581, English Jesuit priest who rejected Anglicanism, executed as a traitor as Tyburn |
| -Francis Throckmorton, 1584, liaison between Mary Queen of Scots and the Spanish Ambassador, after being tortured confessed a plot to kill Elizabeth and an invasion of England by Henry of Guise, executed for high treason | - Margaret Clitherow, 1586, Roman Catholic who hid priests and secretly held mass in her home, was pressed to death in York, cannozied in 1970 by Pope Paul IV |
| The following were executed for high treason for their role in the Babington Plot, were hanged and disemboweled at St. Giles Field, London: -Sir Anthony Babington, 1586, -John Ballard, 1586, English Jesuit priest who was depicted by Daniel Craig in the film "Elizabeth" -Chidiock Tichborne, 1586 |  -Mary, Queen of Scots, 1587, executed for treason, beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle |
| The following were executed for helping Father William Watson escape from prison, all were hanged at Tyburn: -Margaret Ward, 1588, cannozied in 1970 -John Roche, 1588 - Edward Shelley, 1588 - Richard Martin, 1588 - Richard Flower, 1588 | The following were hung for the offense of being Catholic priests, they were canonized in 1970: -Edmund Gennings, 1591 -Swithun Wells, 1591 -Polydore Plasden, 1591 |
| -John Penry, 1593, Puritan instigator charged with inciting rebellion | -Henry Abbot, 1597. |
| The following were executed for being implicated in a plot to kill the Queen by poison and conspiring against Don Antonio pretender to the Portuguese throne, all were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn: - Dr. Roderigo Lopez, 1594, a Portuguese Jew who fled to England to escape the Inquisition, became the Queen's chief physician, under threat of torture from Essex he admitted to planning to poison the Queen -Estaban Ferreira, 1594 - Senor Tinoco, 1594 |  The following were executed for their part in the Essex Rebellion: -Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, 1601, executed for treason. Beheaded on Tower Green. - Sir Christopher Blount, 1601 -Sir Charles Danvers, 1601 -Sir Gelli Meyrick, 1601 -Henry Cuffe, 1601 |
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | |
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| Imponthenet | The Execution Go-Round | 3 | Aug 1 2008, 11:54 PM EDT by Imponthenet | |
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Thread started: Jul 18 2008, 2:45 PM EDT
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Earlier today on Amazon.com, I typed my observations about the prominent cases of poetic justice involving those of the court of Henry VIII. While noting that courtiers often had to be ruthless to advance or maintain their positions, i've always found it fascinating how those who advanced their postions at the expense of someone else's lives or livelihood often met the same fate. Anne Boleyn, of course, demoted Catherine of Aragon and her daughter Mary, aand allegedly pressured Henry to execute Thomas More (who himself burned six Lutherans and at least died more quickly and painlessly), only to end on the scaffold ten months later as More predicted she would. If Jane Seymour pushed for an honorable relationship with Henry at the expense of Anne Boleyn's life, leaving a toddler motherless, than surely with death from puerperal fever 12 days after giving Henry his long-desired heir, she atoned for that, denied the ability to raise her own child.
Perhaps the most dramatic case is that of Thomas Cromwell, who initially promoted Anne at Queen Catherine's expense, helped increase Henry's power, presided over More's and the Boleyn sibling's executions, and after arranging one unfortunate marriage too many for King Henry, ended on the scaffold himself. |
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| Reginabee | Death Sentences in Henry's Era | 4 | Jun 14 2008, 11:01 PM EDT by TudorDescendant | |
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Thread started: May 25 2008, 1:00 PM EDT
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Is there some definitive source for the guidelines used in deciding the method of execution for crimes in Henry's era or were they arbitrary?
For instance, why were Brereton and Smeaton drawn and quartered and the rest of the conspirators merely beheaded? Why was the cook who poisoned Bishop Fisher boiled in oil rather than burned at the stake or drawn and quartered or even just hanged until dead? Buckingham was granted a quick death and his conspiracy against Henry VIII was, in my opinion, much more serious in nature than Thomas Moore's. Yet Moore would have been drawn and quartered for his "crimes" had Henry not stepped in and altered the sentence. How were these sentences decided?? |
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| Boudica | Difference between Tower Green vs. Tower Hill | 5 | Apr 10 2008, 12:38 PM EDT by MsSquirrly | |
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Thread started: Apr 10 2008, 11:58 AM EDT
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To my knowledge (feel free correct me if I'm mistaken) there were only 10 known people to have been executed on Tower Hill (their names are on the Execution Memorial in the Tower of London). During the Tudor period, 6 of these were executed and they were: Anne Boleyn, Margaret Pole, Catherine Howard, Jane Rochford / Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and Robert Devereux.
http://www.hrp.org.uk/Resources/Memorial%20-%20executions%20at%20the%20Tower%20of%20London%20factsheet.pdf Those were the only people during the Tudor Era that were killed inside the grounds of the Tower. The rest were either executed at Tower Hill (so crowds could watch) or Tyburn. |
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