Henry VIII, by Hans Holbein the younger, c. 1537
Pilgrimage of Grace (Uprising in Northern England: Late 1536 and 1537)
After the pilgrimage of grace and the rising of Lincolnshire many, probably several hundred, were executed, of whom no record remains. The following names, which do survive, are grouped under their respective abbeys or priories.
- Barlings: Matthew Mackerel [1537], abbot and Bishop of Chalcedon, Ord. Præm.
- Bardney: John Tenant [1537], William Cole [1537], John Francis [1537], William Cowper [1537], Richard Laynton [1537], Hugh Londale [1537], monks.
- Bridlington: William Wood, Prior.
- Fountains: William Thyrsk, O. Cist. [1537]
- Guisborough: James Cockerel [1537], Prior.
- Jervaulx: Adam Sedbar [1537], Abbot; George Asleby, monk [1537].
- Kirkstead: Richard Harrison [1537], Abbot; Richard Wade [1537], William Swale [1537], Henry Jenkinson [1537], monks.
- Lenten: Nicholas Heath [1537], Prior; William Gylham [1537], monk.
- Sawlet: William Trafford [1537], Abbot; Richard Eastgate [1537], monk.
- Whalley: John Paslew [1537], Abbot; John Eastgate [1537], William Haydock [1537], monks.
- Woburn: Robert Hobbes [1537], Abbot; Ralph Barnes [1537], sub-prior; Laurence Blonham [1537], monk.
- York: John Pickering, O.S.B. [1537], Prior.
- Place unknown: George ab Alba Rose, O.S.A.
- Priests: William Burraby [1537], Thomas Kendal[e] [1537], John Henmarsh [1537], James Mallet [1537], John Pickering [1537], Thomas Redforth [1537].
- Lords: Thomas Darcy [1537] and John Hussey [1537].
- Knights: Sir Francis Bigod [1537], Sir Stephen Hammerton [1537], Sir Thomas Percy [1537].
- Laymen (11): Robert Aske [hanged by chains in June 1537 in York], Robert Constable [1537], Bernard Fletcher [1537], George Hudswell [1537], Robert Leeche [1537], Roger Neeve [1537], George Lomley [1537], Thomas Moyne, Robert Sotheby [1537], Nicholas Tempest [1537], Philip Trotter [1537].
Blessed John Rochester
Born c. 1498. Carthusian priest and monk. He resolutely rejected the affirmation of the royal supremacy in matters ecclesiastical. Condemned to death on trumped up treason charges, he was hanged in chains from the city battlements in York until dead (beginning on May 11, 1537: this method of execution could take five or six days).
Blessed James Walworth
Carthusian priest and monk. Hanged in chains from the city battlements in York until dead (beginning on May 11, 1537).
Nine Carthusian Martyrs
On May 18, 1537, the twenty choir monks and eighteen laybrothers remaining in the London Charterhouse were required to take the Oath of Supremacy. Ten [26%] refused. Those refusing the oath were all sent on May 29 to Newgate Prison, and treated as had been their fellow Carthusians in June 1535. They were chained standing and with their hands tied behind them to posts in the prison. This time, however, no further proceeding was foreseen and they were simply left to die of starvation. Margaret Clement (nee Giggs), who had been brought up in the household of St Thomas More, bribed the gaoler to let her have access to the prisoners, and disguised as a milkmaid carried in a milk-can full of meat which she fed to them. She also relieved them as best she could of the filth. However, the King Henry became suspicious and began to ask whether they were already dead. It seems likely that at this point [mid-June] the King and his Council decided upon a change of plan which entailed bringing the survivors to execution and that Cromwell gave orders that those still living were to be given food so as to keep them alive. The nine died of starvation on the following dates:
Blessed William Greenwood, laybrother: June 6, 1537.
Blessed John Davy, deacon: June 8, 1537.
Blessed Robert Salt, laybrother: June 9, 1537.
Blessed Walter Pierson, laybrother, June 10, 1537.
Blessed Thomas Green, choir monk, June 10, 1537.
Blessed Thomas Scryven, laybrother: June 15, 1537.
Blessed Thomas Reding, laybrother: June 16, 1537.
Blessed Richard Bere, choir monk: August 9, 1537.
Blessed Thomas Johnson, choir monk: September 20, 1537.
Venerable Anthony Brookby
Franciscan Friar Minor. Brookby was lecturer in divinity in Magdalen College, Oxford, and enjoyed the reputation of being an eloquent preacher. At the command of King Henry VIII who took offense at a sermon of Brookby's in which he attacked the king's actions and mode of living, he was apprehended, put to the rack, and tortured in the most cruel manner in order to make him retract what he had said, but all to no purpose. Having been rendered well nigh helpless as a result of his tortures, Brookby was charitably cared for by a pious woman for a fortnight until, by the command of the king, an executioner strangled him to death on 19 July 1537 with the Franciscan cord which he wore around his waist.
Venerable Thomas Cort
Franciscan. Denied the spiritual supremacy of the king and died of starvation in Newgate prison on 27 July 1537.
Venerable Thomas Belchiam
Franciscan. He boldly opposed the king's first divorces and denounced the tyrant as a heretic. He wrote a book addressed to his brethren, beginning with the text: "They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses," in which he rebuked the faithless bishops, who were afraid to tell the king the truth. Belchiam and some thirty of the Observant Franciscans were thrown into prison where they perished of hunger. He died in Newgate prison on 3 August 1537.
32 "Unknown" Observant Franciscan Friar Martyrs of Greenwich
When his attempts to bring the Carthusians into the Royal fold encountered extreme difficulties, Cromwell decided on a different tactic. He would get the two key Observant friaries of Greenwich and Richmond to each depute a small group of friars to consider the matter of submitting to the Royal will — a small deputation was more easily intimidated, more easily swayed. The friars of Richmond consented to this device but those of Greenwich refused. Cromwell was forced to have each friar interviewed and indeed interrogated separately, and to a man they persevered in their obstinacy. A good number of the Observants appear to have died in prison. Records reveal up to 220 languishing in prison — we know one record of 134, principally in London cells, of whom 32 certainly died. However, the deaths are by and large recorded for the year 1537. It seems that at first the prison regime suffered by the Franciscans was gentler than it was to become. It is interesting to note that most of the Observants who died in prison died at the same time as the imprisoned Carthusian martyrs — the summer of 1537 was evidently the time of silent and hidden death, when the decision was taken to extinguish behind closed doors and by covert means those who still opposed the king. We know nothing of the conditions in which the Observants were kept, but it would not be unreasonable to infer that at least some — perhaps the worst offenders, those friars from Greenwich — were in the end starved and left to rot in their own filth like the Carthusians, only a few miles away. Between 30 and 50 friars died in London cells. What exactly happened further north to those abandoned in monastic cells is simply not known. Possibly many there were likewise starved to death, and are hidden and unknown martyrs, like most of those who died in London. No chronicler remembered them — they died in darkness, a darkness that has all but occluded any knowledge of their glory.
Blessed John Forrest
Born 1471. Franciscan Friar Minor of the Regular Observance (1491). From 1531 the Friars Minor had gained the enmity of the King by opposing his divorce and his movements toward Protestantism. On 8 April 1538, Forrest was brought before Henry's Archbishop Thomas Cranmer to renounce his rejection of King Henry's assumed title of head of the Church of England. Refusing to accept the King as head of the church, Forrest was condemned to death by burning: carried out on 22 May 1538 at Smithfield, London. Hugh Latimer officiated at the execution.
Sir Edward Neville
Son of Baron Bergavenny, a courtier of Henry VIII, took part in the war in France, and was made the king's standard bearer, 1531. He married Eleanor, daughter of Lord, Windsor. Arrested 3 November, 1538, on the charge of conspiracy with the brother of Cardinal Pole, he was sent to the Tower, tried at Westminster, and beheaded for the faith, 8 December [1538].
John Allen
John Collins
George Croft
John Harrison
Priests. Executed in 1538.
Hugh Holland
Layman. Executed in 1538.
Henry Pole, Baron Montague
Born 1492. Son of Sir Richard Pole and Blessed Margaret Pole. Knighted in 1513 by Henry VIII as Baron Montague. In November, 1538, he was arrested on a charge of treason, though Thomas Cromwell had previously written that he had "little offended save that he [the Cardinal] is of their kin", and committed to the Tower. Executed (probably by beheading) on 9 January 1539.
Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter
Born c. 1496. Courtenay was found maintaining correspondence with the self-exiled Reginald Cardinal Pole. Sir Geoffrey Pole, younger brother of the Cardinal, came to London with the information that a Roman Catholic conspiracy was preparing a new uprising. Both Poles were accused as heading this conspiracy and Cromwell convinced Henry VIII that Exeter was part of it. In early November, 1538, Exeter, his wife and their son Edward Courtenay were all arrested and incarcerated at the Tower of London. On December 3, 1538, Exeter was put on trial in Westminster Hall. There was little evidence for his ever preparing the so-called Exeter Conspiracy. But his correspondence with Cardinal Pole ensured his conviction for treason. He was executed by decapitation on January 9, 1539.
Sir Nicholas Carew (see painting by Hans Holbein)
Born c. 1496. Nicholas was placed in Henry's household when he was six, and shared the King's education. In the early years of Henry's reign, he came to prominence at court through his skill at jousting, and was renowned for his fearlessness. By 1515, Carew's fame in the lists was such that the King provided him with his own tiltyard at Greenwich. He was knighted some time before 1517. Carew was popular with the King, who sought his company. In late 1538, Carew was already out of favour at court, having responded angrily to an insult made by the King. When Cromwell presented apparently treasonous letters written by him, Henry was persuaded that Carew had been involved in the Exeter Conspiracy, a supposed plot to depose him. Sir Nicholas was arrested, and executed on 3 March 1539.
Venerable John Griffith Clarke
Priest, for supporting Cardinal Pole. Hanged, drawn, and quartered at St. Thomas Waterings in Camberwell (a brook at the second milestone on the Old Kent Road), 8 July, 1539.
Venerable Nicholas Waire
Friar. Hanged, drawn, and quartered at St. Thomas Waterings in Camberwell (a brook at the second milestone on the Old Kent Road), 8 July, 1539.
Venerable Sir Thomas Dingley
Prior of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, found guilty of high treason 28 April, 1539, and beheaded on Tower Hill, 9 July [1539]. He had no trial, and no proof of treasonable practices was ever brought against him.
Blessed Adrian Fortescue
Born c. 1476. A true country gentleman of the period, occasionally following the King in the wars with France (1513 and 1522), not unfrequently attending the court, and at other times acting as justice of the peace or commissioner for subsidies. He was knighted in 1503. All of a sudden this quiet, worthy gentleman was overwhelmed by some unexplained whim of the Tudor tyrant. On 29 August, 1534, he was put under arrest, no one knows why, but released after some months. On 3 February, 1539, he was arrested a second time and sent to the Tower. In April he was condemned untried by an act of attainder; on 9 July 1539 he was beheaded. No specific act of treason was alleged against him, but only in general "sedition and refusing allegiance". The attainder, however, went on to decree death against Cardinal Pole and several others because they "adhered themselves to the Bishop of Rome".
John Harris
Priest. Executed on 30 July 1539.
Venerable John Travers
Irish Augustinian, who had written against the supremacy; before execution his hand was cut off and burnt, but the writing fingers (he had written a book defending the papacy) were not consumed (as he had predicted). Executed on 30 July 1539.Last edited on Mon Feb 11th, 2008 06:54 pm by Dave Armstrong
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