28 July – A botched execution for Thomas Cromwell

On this day in Tudor history, 28th July 1540, the same day that Henry VIII married Catherine Howard, Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, the king’s former chief advisor, was beheaded on Tower Hill having been found guilty of corruption, heresy and treason.

Find out about Cromwell's botched execution and his execution speech in today's talk.

Also on this day in Tudor history, 28th July 1540, the very same day, Henry VIII married for a fifth time, marrying Catherine Howard. You can find out more about that in last year’s video:

Also on this day in history:

• 1488 – Death of Sir Edward Woodville, courtier and soldier, at the Battle of St Aubin du Cormier. Woodville was the brother of Elizabeth Woodville, consort of Edward IV.
• 1508 – Death of Robert Blackadder, Archbishop of Glasgow and administrator in the governments of James III and James IV. He died at sea, between Venice and Jaffa, while travelling on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
• 1543 – Burnings of the Windsor Martyrs - Robert Testwood, Anthony Pearson and Henry Filmer – for heresy in Windsor, on waste-ground just north of the castle.
• 1563 – Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, surrendered Le Havre to the French after a siege which had lasted since 22nd May.
• 1585 – Death of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, Privy Councillor and diplomat, at his home in Russell Street, the Strand. He was buried at the chapel of Chenies, his seat in Buckinghamshire.
• 1588 – Hell-burners were ordered to be sent amongst the galleons of the Spanish Armada at Calais. The high winds at Calais caused an inferno which resulted in complete chaos, and the Armada’s crescent formation was wrecked as galleons scattered in panic.
• 1591 – Execution of William Hacket, puritan and alleged prophet, at Cheapside Cross for treason after he had pierced a portrait of Elizabeth I “in the very place, representing her royall heart”, and defaced her coat of arms.

Transcript:

On this day in Tudor history, 28th July 1540, the same day that Henry VIII married Catherine Howard, the king’s former chief advisor, Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, the man who had negotiated Henry’s previous marriage to Anne of Cleves, was executed on Tower Hill having been found guilty by a bill of attainder of the crimes of corruption, heresy and treason.

Chronicler Edward Hall recounts his execution:

“And the. xxviii. daie of luly was brought to the skaffold on the tower hill, where he saied these wordes folowyng.
I am come hether to dye, and not to purge my self, as maie happen, some thynke that I will, for if I should so do, I wer a very wretche and miser: I am by the Lawe condempned to die, and thanke my lorde God that hath appoynted me this deathe, for myne offence: For sithence the tyme that I haue had yeres of discrecion, I haue liued a synner, and offended my Lorde God, for the whiche I aske hym hartely forgeuenes. And it is not vnknowne to many of you, that I haue been a great traueler in this worlde, and beyng but of a base degree, was called to high estate, and sithes the tyme I came therunto, I haue offended my prince, for the whiche I aske hym hartely forgeuenes, and beseche you all to praie to God with me, that he will forgeue me. O father forgeue me. O sonne forgeue me, O holy Ghost forgeue me: O thre persons in one God forgeue me.

And now I praie you that be here, to beare me record, I die in the Catholicke faithe, not doubtyng in any article of my faith, no nor doubtyng in any Sacrament of the Churche. Many hath selaundered me, and reported that I haue been a bearer, of suche as hath mainteigned euill opinions, whiche is vntrue, but I confesse that like as God by his holy spirite, doth instruct vs in the truthe, so the deuill is redy to seduce vs, and I haue been seduced: but beare me witness that I dye in the Catholicke faithe of the holy Churche. And I hartely desire you to praie for the Kynges grace, that he maie long liue with you, in healthe and prosperitie. And after him that his sone prince Edward, that goodly ympe, maie log reigne ouer you. And once again I desire you to pray for me, that so long as life remaigneth in this fleshe, I wauer nothyng in my faithe. And then made he his praier, whiche was long, but not so. long, as bothe Godly and learned, and after committed his soule, into the handes of God, and so paciently suffered the stroke of the axe, by a ragged and Boocherly miser, whiche very vngoodly perfourmed the Office.”

This Tudor statesman, who had served King Henry VIII faithfully for many years, had an awful end, his execution being botched by a “butcherly” executioner who took a few strokes to finish him off.

Thomas Cromwell had been arrested at a Privy Council meeting at Westminster on 10th June 1540, accused of being a traitor. He wrote to his master, King Henry VIII, from his prison in the Tower of London pleading his innocence and begging for mercy, but his pleas were ignored. According to Charles de Marillac, the French ambassador, writing to the Duke of Montmorency in March 1541, Henry VIII later regretted Cromwell’s execution, blaming it all on his Privy Council, saying that “on the pretext of several trivial faults he [Cromwell] had committed, they had made several false accusations which had resulted in him killing the most faithful servant he had ever had.”

Cromwell was not the only man executed that day on Tower Hill, he was followed on to the scaffold by his client, Walter, Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury, who has gone down in history as the only man to be executed for the crime of “treason of boggery” (buggery) in the Tudor period. He was also charged with treason and using magic. Both men’s heads were displayed on London Bridge.