Key Takeaways
During the reign of Henry VIII , between 1509 and 1547 , an estimate 57,000 [ germ : The Tudors ] and 72,000 [ source : Historic Royal Palaces ] English subjects lost their chief . It was a wild time in story , but Henry VIII may have been especially bloodthirsty , executing tens of thousands during his 36 - class sovereignty . By comparing , the daughter who succeed him on the throne , who came to be called " Bloody Mary , " obliterate fewer than 300 people during her six year as queen .
Perhaps one of the master cause for Henry VIII ’s ill fame is not the sheer intensity of killings but , rather , the controversy palisade them . Henry VIII presided over the English Reformation , a period of great change characterized by England ’s jailbreak from the Catholic Church . The worry started when Henry married his older chum ’s widow , Catherine of Aragon , a member of the Spanishroyalfamily .
After years ofmarriage , Henry want todivorceCatherine . She had suffered through severalstill birthsand a fistful of infant deaths and had n’t borne a son . Henry became obsessed with producing an heir to extend on the Tudor family linage , and he finally convinced himself that his married couple to Catherine had been a sine in the eyes of God . He even believed the union ’s sin was the intellect why his legitimate manlike children kept dying . So he set about obtaining an annulment from the Christian church ground on the edict stating that a man can never conjoin his brother ’s married woman . The trouble was , it was thepopewho had sanctioned the marriage in the first place , on the basis of Catherine ’s oath that her marriage to Henry ’s brother was never consummated .
What ensue was a political and spiritual fiasco . In the goal , Henry cast out the Catholic Church and established himself as the foreland of the Church of England , God ’s representative onEarth . He disunite Catherine and splice his mistress , Anne Boleyn , in the hopes of getting a Logos . In the appendage of attain this unmarried goal , Henry ordered the decapitation of some of the top political psyche of the day , a few cardinal of the Church , at least one nun , a couple of his six wives , and countless fellow member of the royal court who question the purity of his motives .
Of of course , with decade of thousand of head rolling , citizenry were carry through for a blanket variety of crime . In this article , we ’ll look at ten of the most pregnant executions of Henry ’s sovereignty , beginning with the beheading he order forthwith upon securing the throne . As one of his first acts as king , Henry ordered the executions of two of his father ’s top consultant , the notorious Dudley and Empson .
10. Edmund Dudley and Richard Empson
Executed 1510
Henry VIII ’s Father-God , Henry VII , was n’t a very popularking . The main goal of his political science was to collect riches in club to solidify the ultimate power of the monarchy . In achieve this end , his fiscal council fundamentally stole money from subject under the pretence of various taxis and fee . Two of the most powerfulmenon this council were Edmund Dudley and Sir Richard Empson . These two man became symbols of the financial robbery that impregnate the principle of Henry VII .
The citizenry of England despised these humanity who were contain responsible for Henry VII ’s policies . Immediately upon the death of Henry VII and succession of Henry VIII , the new king made a move to secure his popularity and his double as a king of the the great unwashed . He found wonky evidence that Dudley and Empson had been embezzling money , his court found them shamed and Henry had them beheaded . They died in public execution in 1510 .
While Henry VIII began his sovereignty as a pop milkweed butterfly , he was n’t without his muscular political enemies . The next two men on the listing died because they were of royal lineage and could assert reasonable claims to Henry ’s stool .
9. Edmund de la Pole
Executed 1513
King Richard III , Henry VII ’s predecessor , was a member of England ’s York family . Henry Tudor , of importantroyallineage on his female parent ’s side , led a battle against the king in 1485 to take the pot . Richard III died on the field of honor , and Henry Tudor became King Henry VII .
Edmund de la Pole was of York family lineage on his mother ’s side : His female parent was Richard III ’s baby . As King Richard III had die without an heir , the pennant would ’ve landed with the de la Poles if Henry VII had n’t claimed the crapper – Richard had name his nephew Edmund as his successor .
As a lawful threat to the Tudor monarchy , de la Pole would ’ve been in danger even if he had n’t call for the footprint to seek to overthrow Henry VII . He forget England for the Netherlands , where he temporarily gained the support of the emperor moth Maximilian in his seeking to reclaim the thrown . But Henry VII end up making a hand with the emperor , and Maximilian withdraw his support . Upon hark back to England , de la Pole found himself branded a double-crosser .
to pull through his own living , de la Pole twist himself in to Henry VII ’s son , Prince Henry , who promise to merelyimprisonhim . He keep his promise until he succeed his sire on the commode . To protect himself as king , Henry VIII dictate de la Pole beheaded in 1513 .
But that was n’t the end of the Yorks . Henry VIII faced serious opposition from another man , a democratic imposing and powerful politician . Edward Stafford , Duke of Buckingham , sealed his fate when he spoke too much of his title to the English stool .
8. Edward Stafford
Executed 1521
Edward Stafford was ofroyalblood , a descendant of King Edward III . He was powerful in Henry VIII ’s court , he bore the crown at Henry ’s investiture and he was popular with the masses . Stafford also gain a battle against Cornish Rebel in the English countryside in 1497 [ germ : Luminarium ] and was considered to be a great military leader . Henry VIII was not .
However , stirrings at court ended his friendly relationship with Henry when people began to whisper about Stafford ’s claim to the throne . The king put Stafford on the sidelines , and Stafford fought back . He became the cardinal shape around which many marginalise nobles gathered , and he came to be a voice of opposite against the Martin Luther King Jr. .
Stafford may have been just ignored , or imprisoned , had it not been for a rumour that come on in 1521 . hoi polloi said Stafford was speaking about the king ’s death . Some claimed they ’d heard Stafford describe visual sense of Henry ’s dying . Henry ’s top advisor at the time , the powerful Cardinal Wolsey , hated Stafford and boost the king to take the accusations seriously .
After oppugn witnesses himself , Henry must have been convert by the accusations because he had Stafford decapitate for perfidy that year . Henry VIII never confront another serious claim to his throne .
menace to his policy , though , stay throughout his reign . They became vernacular drill once he commence his quest to annul hismarriageto Catherine of Aragon . One rootage of significant protest came from an unlikely root , a untested servant who take to have supernatural insight . Henry did n’t care for her mysterious visions .
7. Elizabeth Barton
Executed 1534
Elizabeth Barton was a young , lowly servant when she first made a name for herself as a religious mystic . At the years of nineteen , she got sick , and in her unwellness , she get to have visions . In 1525 , with Henry VIII ’s pursuit to reach permit from the Vicar of Christ to marry Anne Boleyn in full lilt , Barton ’s imagination became supernatural grounds of God ’s will : Henry was not to marry Anne .
Some people thought she was simply disturbed , others believe her visions were a result of her malady , and still others trust she was a conduit for God . Her passkey , the Archbishop of Canterbury , fell into the latter chemical group . He got Barton into a convent , where she became a nun and so reach a degree of authenticity . Over the course of the next 10 years , her sight became bolder and increasingly threatening to Henry ’s affirmation that his desire todivorceCatherine was based on logical spiritual corpus .
Barton ’s vision about the consequences of the king ’s pursuance eventually became so ominous that they were consider unfaithful . She was get , and under vivid query , she profess to having forge everything . She was behead in 1534 . No consensus was ever touch on whether her imagination were divinely inspired or the resultant role of a troubled idea . To this day , the Catholic Church gives some acceptance to Barton ’s apparent mysticism [ root : Catholic Encyclopedia ] .
Barton is just one of the many repetitive Catholics who lost their heads to Henry VIII ’s pursuit of a divorce . Cardinal John Fisher became a martyr and asaintwhen he refused to support the Supremacy Act that made Henry VIII the head of the church and the Act of Succession that made Anne Boleyn the licit queen of England .
6. John Fisher
Executed 1535
Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey went to John Fisher when they first come up with the idea of annulling the king’smarriage . Fisher was a priest , a cardinal and confessor to Henry VII ’s mother before her destruction . He establish St. John ’s College at Cambridge . He was widely respected in Europe as a theologiser after publishing works excoriate Luther ’s front to rectify the Catholic Church . When Henry and Wolsey come near him for advice , he was clear : An annulment would go against the will of God .
They proceeded anyway , and Fisher never relented in his opposition . He openly defended Catherine , making big trouble for Henry . When the Supremacy Act passed in 1534 , Fisher , with Sir Thomas More ( keep reading ) at his side , refused to take the compulsory oath because it was a repudiation of pontifical self-confidence . They were sent to the Tower of London , the city’sprison , where they hold off to find out what Henry would do with them . It was after this that thepopemade Fisher a cardinal . Henry direct this as a slap in the face , and Fisher ’s fate was seal off .
Fisher was sweep up in front of the king ’s council many times during his imprisonment , and he always pass up to speak about the Supremacy Act . Finally , under the guise of question Fisher about the human action off the phonograph record , Henry ’s lead council got Fisher to say that Henry could never be supreme ruler of the church service . The latterly passed Supremacy and Treason Act made deny the Martin Luther King Jr. ’s supremacy an act of treason . Cardinal John Fisher was decollate in 1535 . The Catholic Church made him a saint 400 geezerhood later .
The Supremacy Act that annul Henry ’s matrimony opened the threshold for him to indulge his every marital desire . He married five more women after Catherine . He had his 2d and 5th married woman beheaded . Catherine Howard was wife bit five , and her criminal offence was far less political than Fisher ’s .
5. Catherine Howard
Executed 1542
Henry VIII marry Catherine Howard after he lift his fourthmarriageto Anne of Cleves . Henry never liked Anne of Cleves – it was a politically motivated spousal relationship arranged by Thomas Cromwell , and she was apparently homely . Cromwell paid for his short judgment with his career . Henry hook up with Catherine about two calendar week after Anne was out of the picture . The Howards were a powerful household in Henry ’s court , with influence and mellow standing . Catherine seemed a undecomposed fit , and it contain two years for Catherine ’s sordid past to catch up with her .
As thing so often happened at court , it start out with a hearsay . This one , though , was true . It seemed Catherine Howard had had lovers before Henry . The B. B. King did n’t know this when he get married her , and he was humiliate when the truth came out . To make matter worse , the queen mole rat had appointed one of her pre - married lovers to be her secretary . Rumor had it the function continued after her marriage to the Martin Luther King .
The adultery aspect of the charge was never proven , but it did n’t weigh . Upon larn that he had married a nonvirgin , Henry had Parliament pass an act declaring it faithless for an unchaste woman to wed the king . Catherine Howard was promptly decapitate for treason .
Henry also had Catherine ’s uncle beheaded , but for only unlike reasons . Henry Howard was the dupe of courtly lie , the final result of a superpower struggle between two of the court ’s most powerful families , the Howards and the Seymours .
4. Henry Howard
Executed 1547
Henry ’s court was a stead of constant emplacement for the power ’s favor . Henry ’s hanger - on were always vying for power , and Henry Howard , Earl of Surrey , lose his life when the Seymours felt imperil .
Jane Seymour was Henry ’s third wife . She died soon after they marry , but delivering Henry a legitimate male heir facilitate maintain the Seymours ' power . But the Howards , too , had the king ’s ear . Henry Howard ’s founder had been entrusted with the upbringing of Henrys VIII ’s illegitimate son by Elizabeth Blount . One sign of favor at court was an allegiance byroyalmarriage , and there was talking of two possible wooer for Henry ’s unseasoned daughter , princess Mary . One was a Seymour , Jane ’s comrade ; the other was Henry Howard . This set the stage for a battle .
The Seymours told the big businessman that Howard had quietly plump for the Catholics in a rebellion against the Supremacy Act in 1536 . Howard had in reality fight against the insurgent , but the accusation still landed him inprisonfor two years . After he got out , he start out draw hassle for the Seymours , trying to block a man and wife between his sis and one of the Seymours and defecate various accusation questioning the Seymours ' loyalty to the king .
The Seymours strickle their final blow : They again accused Howard of supporting the Catholics , but this time , they made his sister testify against him . She take on the stand that her brother was , in fact , a devoted Catholic . This was seen as a rejection of the king ’s mastery . The Seymours combined this testimony with the fact that Henry Howard ’s beginner had had a claim to the throne before Henry VIII became king ( though he never fought for it ) , and they convinced the king , who was by that time very ill , that the Howards intended to usurp the pot .
Henry Howard , Earl of Surrey , was beheaded in 1547 , the same yr the king break . It was Henry VIII ’s last execution . Howard had drop a line volumes of poetry while immure , and finish up creating the form that eventually came to be call the Shakespearean sonnet [ seed : Britannica ] .
The Howards and the Seymours were powerful , but they were nothing equate to Thomas Cromwell , the business leader ’s master consultant during the successful prison-breaking from the Catholic Church . Cromwell had the king ’s auricle for eight yr – a long meter in the world of Henry VIII . He turn a loss his head only after he succeeded where all others had failed .
3. Thomas Cromwell
Executed 1540
Thomas Cromwell serve as the queen ’s independent advisor from 1532 to 1540 . He was the one who ultimately succeeded in mother the king hisdivorce . It ’s potential that Cromwell was the mastermind behind the whole English Reformation [ source : Britannica ] .
With Cromwell ’s adept maneuvering , the king was able to get out Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn . Had the marriage not imploded , Cromwell may have kept his position . But as it turned out , he made a big mistake : After the death of Henry ’s third married woman Jane Seymour , Cromwell convinced Henry to marry Anne of Cleves , of German royal lineage , for political reasons . Henry could n’t stand Anne , and he had the wedding annulled almost like a shot . That was the beginning of Crowell ’s conclusion .
The high-risk wedding part Cromwell from the power , and Cromwell ’s foe ( he was a politician so he had many ) ready to function . While work to slay the influence of Roman Catholicism from England , Cromwell had now and again align himself with the Lutherans , who were cry for reform in the Catholic Church . The Lutherans were considered heretics , and Henry had published papers denouncing them . Even after the break from the Church , Lutheranism was against English jurisprudence . After Cromwell lost the magnate ’s support , his enemy used this connecter to the Lutherans to convince the king that Cromwell was a heretic .
Thomas Cromwell was beheaded for heresy in 1540 . He never received a trial .
Cromwell was a hefty man during the sovereignty of Henry VIII . But the next execution on the list did forth with one of the most noted individuals in all of English account : Thomas More .
2. Sir Thomas More
Thomas More was a mark humanitarian , lawyer , theologian , historian , philosopher , solon and devout Catholic . He wrote " Utopia , " a famous work of humane principles that was read by every learned extremity of English society , and is still part of the cannon in university . Shakespeare found his play " Richard III " on More ’s book " History of King Richard III . " This accomplished and respected valet de chambre became one of Henry VIII ’s advisors in 1518 .
conduce up to the Supremacy Act of 1534 , More tried to support the king as much as he could without betraying his religious feeling . On at least one occasion , he was the top executive ’s spokesman in Parliament regarding the gaolbreak from the Church . He did not , ultimately , stand in Henry ’s elbow room , but he quell true to his convictions . He did n’t attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn , and he refused to swear to the Acts of Supremacy and Succession . The former law-breaking angered the baron , but the latter was an act of traitorousness .
More ’s fall was swift . He was consign with conspiring with Elizabeth Barton , the nun whose vision so incensed the king . But a alphabetic character turned up that absolve him : He had indite to Barton telling her to remain out of the tycoon ’s business . When called on to swear to the Supremacy Act , More allowed that Henry was the sovereign drawing card of the church but sound out he could n’t take the actual swearing because it included a affirmation against the Vicar of Christ . More was taken to the Tower of London . He did n’t much bear in mind it , theprisonlife suiting his asceticism [ source : Britannica ] . In 1535 , he was beheaded for high treason . His head sat on video display on London Bridge for a calendar month after his death [ seed : Catholic Encyclopedia ] .
While imprisoned , More wrote the book " A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation , " consider as a masterpiece of spiritual lit [ source : Britannica ] . More was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1935 , the same year as John Fisher .
Finally , we get to one of the most ironic execution of instrument of Henry ’s reign . Anne Boleyn died by the same law that appropriate her to become queen .
1. Anne Boleyn
Executed 1536
Anne Boleyn was a youthful peeress - in - waiting to the queen when Henry first discover her . He was married to Catherine of Aragon at the metre , and displeased with his want of a virile heir . The Boleyn family pushed Anne to work his attention . The repose is history .
Anne most probably would ’ve been a simple mistress were it not for the legitimate heir divisor and her own ambitions : She was determined to be queen . That , and Henry VIII actually fall inlovewith her . Hisdivorcefrom Catherine slowly became more about wed Anne than about having a boy . In 1527 , Henry started speaking quietly about getting rid of Catherine . In 1534 , he granted himself the revocation , but he had actually married Anne the class before .
Anne was not well like in Henry ’s royal court , specially after she became queen and she soon drop off the top executive ’s love . She did n’t give him a Logos in their first few twelvemonth ofmarriage(although she did raise a daughter ) , and another young lady - in - waiting soon caught Henry ’s care . He desire to get married Jane Seymour . In his quest to marry Anne , and in satisfying her desire to be queen , Henry had already succeeded in making himself the sole decision maker in matter of marriage and divorce . There was nothing to stand in the fashion when he fell out of love with Anne .
Of course , he need a undecomposed reason for the divorce so he would n’t recede the supporting of the mass ( any more than he already had ) . Thomas Cromwell produced one : Anne had committed fornication with several men , include her brother . The cathexis was almost surely sham . There was no grounds to sustain it . But Cromwell was in charge of the court of justice , and she was plant shamefaced . Anne Boleyn was decollate in 1536 , two years after the king bump off thepope ’s influence from England so their spousal relationship would be legitimate . Her daughter became Queen Elizabeth I.
While Henry VIII held the crapper , England went through changes that would finally lead to the institution of mod sovereignty – a nation not beholden to the Christian church – though Henry never intend it . He was a walking contradiction , a devoted Catholic who turn away the Pope and establish his own religion ; a world-beater of the people and an educated humanitarian who action tens of K of subject . In the remnant , Henry VIII grow one male person heir , Prince Edward , his son by Jane Seymour . Edward take the throne when his begetter died ; he was 10 years old . He died of illness five years later , passing the crown to Henry ’s girl by Catherine of Aragon , Princess Mary . Queen Mary ’s primary objective became reinstating Catholicism in England . She break down in her quest , though she burned hundreds of multitude at the interest in the process . Elizabeth I win her older sister and reigned for 45 yr .
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