On this day in Tudor history, 20th May, the pope made the imprisoned Bishop John Fisher a cardinal; Henry VIII and Jane Seymour became betrothed; and Matthew Hamont was burnt at the stake for heresy in Norwich…

On 22nd June 1535, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was beheaded on Tower Hill.

Fisher, who had served Henry VIII’s grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was executed for treason for refusing to accept Henry VIII as the supreme head of the church.

On this day in Tudor history, 22nd June 1535, in the reign of King Henry VIII, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was executed.

Why was Fisher executed and how did the pope try to save him?

On this day in Tudor history, 20th May 1535, Pope Paul III made John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Cardinal-Priest of San Vitale, and arranged to have his cardinal’s hat sent to him.

The pope hoped that this would save Fisher, who was imprisoned at the time, from further punishment, but it made the king even more determined to behead Bishop Fisher. Oh dear!

Find out more about what happened in today’s talk.

On this day in Tudor history, 22nd December 1534, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who was a prisoner in the Tower of London, wrote to Thomas Cromwell.

In his letter to Cromwell, the poor bishop begged him for a shirt, sheet, food and books, as well as asking him to intercede with King Henry VIII on his behalf.

It is so sad that a man who had served the king so loyally in the past had come to this, and, of course, the king’s mercy would only stretch to commuting his method of execution to beheading.

On this day in Tudor history, 7th May 1535, after a year of imprisonment in awful conditions at the Tower of London, John Fisher, former Bishop of Rochester, was visited at the Tower of London and tricked into saying something that would lead to his brutal end.

I explain what led to Fisher’s imprisonment, what happened on this day in 1535 and what happened next.