On this day in Tudor history, 17th May, Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, was executed for treason; five men were executed as traitors for their involvement with Queen Anne Boleyn; and Elizabethan spy Anthony Bacon was buried...
- 1521 – Execution of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, for treason. Stafford was the great-grandson of Thomas of Woodstock, Edward III's youngest son, and his Plantagenet blood made him a threat to Henry VIII. See video below.
- 1536 - Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, in the presence of Sir Thomas Audley, the Duke of Suffolk, the Earl of Oxford and others, declared that the marriage between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn was null and void.
- 1536 - Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, Mark Smeaton, William Brereton and George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, were executed on Tower Hill. See video below.
- 1575 – Death of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth Palace. Parker had also served Queen Anne Boleyn as chaplain, and was known for his patronage of scholars.
- 1581 – Death of Sir William Cordell, lawyer and Speaker of the House of Commons, at The Rolls in Chancery Lane. He was buried in Long Melford church.
- 1601 – Burial of Anthony Bacon in St Olave's, London. Bacon was a spy, providing intelligence for William Cecil, Sir Francis Walsingham and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.
- 1610 – Death of Gervase Babington, theologian and Bishop of Worcester. He was buried in Worcester Cathedral.