On This Day In History: 13th February 1542

Picture source http://tudorhistory.org/howard/gallery.html

I have written extensively on Katherine Howard in my "Inspirations from History" series, so please do feel free to check that out.

On this day in history, 13th February 1542, the young Katherine Howard and Lady Jane Rochford were beheaded upon Tower Green where 6 years earlier Katherine's Cousin and Jane's sister in law had lost her head. But why were these two executed, the young Katherine who was once Henry VIII's "Rose Without A Thorn" and a woman who had been part of the Boleyn circle?

We all know the story of course, young Katherine Howard and her affair with Thomas Culpeper; with their rendezvous being helped along by the apparently scheming Lady Rochford - and an incriminating letter from Thomas Cranmer being found by Henry VIII in his chapel pew. Because of this letter Katherine's pre-marital activities came to light resulting in the arrest of Dereham and Mannox and of course Thomas Culpeper. All three were executed for their part in the affair and it is said that on her way to the Tower she passed beneath the heads of these men which were on display on Tower Bridge. Did she see them? Was it like in Showtime's The Tudors when Katherine saw the severed head of Culpeper and broke down? Probably not.

The night before her execution, Katherine asked that the block be brought to her prison room in the Tower so she could practice how to place herself properly. It seemed she wanted to make sure that in her last moments, she knew exactly what to do and act composed.

The next morning, on Monday 13th February 1542 Katherine made her last walk to the scaffold where she made her final speech. Folklore states that she spoke the following "I die a Queen, but I would rather die the wife of Culpeper". This is completely apocryphal and was not spoken at all. Execution speeches had to follow a set script as it were, and this sort of thing would not have been done. Following her speech, she laid her head on the block and it was removed in one swift stroke. She was followed out by Lady Rochford, the woman who had helped her in her trysts with Culpeper. She had gone mad whilst imprisoned and Henry had to pass a special law allowing the insane to be executed for treason. Yet as she faced the crowd, the axe and the remains of the former Queen being wrapped ready for burial she seemed composed and was able to give a final speech before she too, lost her head.

Both women were buried in the nearby Chapel of St Peter Ad Vicula, where today their resting places are marked with simple tiles. Previously those buried there lay forgotten, including Katherine's cousin Anne Boleyn, until Mary I had Katherine's act of attainder reversed as it never bore the signature of the King. Now visitors can see the final resting place of the young Queen. When I visited last year I found the little chapel to be very moving, knowing especially that this young woman was buried there, this woman who was vilified for so long as a whore, an adulteress. Personally I see her as a naive girl, pushed into marriage with an aging obese king, and I think she did what she did because she needed to feel loved. You can of course read more on this in my previous post on Katherine which goes into much more detail (and is much much longer!)

On This Day In History: 12th February 1554

On this day in history, Lady Jane Grey was executed on Tower Green following the execution of her husband Guildford Dudley.

Lady Jane Grey, who personally I believe should be known as Queen Jane I, is famously known as the Nine Days Queen however Eric Ives in his wonderful book "Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery" states that the correct figure for her reign is more like 13 days (Ives 2009, 2). Jane's story is one of the saddest in Tudor history, she was written into the succession by Edward VI in his "advice for the succession" and came to the throne upon his death, something which she did not want. The story goes that when she was told she was now Queen of England, she collapsed in tears, and that she refused to wear the crown. Shortly after she and her council received news that Mary had been proclaimed Queen in Norfolk and was on her way to London to take her throne. And it didn't take long for her council to desert her completely and go over to Mary. Support for Mary was widespread, and Jane found herself imprisoned in the Tower along with her husband Guildford.

After being proclaimed Queen, Mary deliberated over having her young Cousin executed but found herself increasingly under pressure. But it was Wyatt's rebellion in 1554 that sealed Jane's fate, when her father took part in the attempt to remove Mary from the throne. Following the rebellion, Mary had the death warrants of Lady Jane and Guildford signed, realising that she could not risk any more threats to her throne, and people rallying to Jane's course especially since her father had been involved in the failed rebellion.

And so, on 12th February 1554, Lady Jane Grey walked to the scaffold on Tower Green. There she gave her prayer book to the Lieutenant of the Tower, having written a note inside it for him:

Forasmuch as you have desired so simple a woman to write in so worthy a book, good Master Lieutenant, therefore I shall as a friend desire you, and as a Christian require you, to call upon God to incline your heart to his laws, to quicken you in his way, and not to take the word of truth utterly out of your mouth. Live still to die, that by death you may purchase eternal life, and remember how the end of Methuselah, who, as we read in the scriptures, was the longest liver that was of a man died at the last: for as the Preacher says, there is a time to be born and a time to die; and the day of death is better than the day of our birth. Yours, as the Lord knows, as a friend, Jane Dudley (Ives 2009, 275-276)

According to Ives, Jane was highly composed as she gave her final speech to the crowd whereas her ladies were weeping. Her nerves began to show as she turned to the executioner and asked, "Will you take it off before I lay me down?" and the executioner answered simply, "No Madam". Then as she knelt, blindfolded she reached out panic stricken and unable to find the block and cried out "What shall I do? Where is it?". A bystander lead her gently to the block and it was over. Lady Jane Grey, Queen Jane I, was no more and England was ruled by Mary. Hours later, Jane's headless body still lay on the scaffold, and according to Ives the Tower was "drained...of all resolution". She was eventually buried in the Chapel of St Peter Ad Vicula, where today her grave can be seen marked by the altar.

Jane Grey is one of my favourite Tudor women, and I see her as a pawn in a bigger political game. To me, and to many others I am sure, she was an innocent and her death was a terrible tragedy, she was a victim. There are certainly others who see her as more of a warrior, a woman who called an army to her to try and stop the onslaught of Mary, that Jane had a hand in everything that happened - for example De Lisle notes that when she noticed her councillors becoming discontent she continued sending out letters to Sheriff's and Justices Of The Peace demanding their allegiance, as well as ordering further guards around the Tower and the gate keys be brought to her at 7pm each evening (De Lisle 2008, 120-122). But whatever your view of the young Queen, her end was certainly a tragedy, and this poor girl deserves to be remembered not only for her short reign and terrible end, but for her brilliant mind. I will be working on a post about her life at some point, as part of my "Inspiration" series so please do keep an eye out for that. Until then I really recommend checking out Eric Ives "Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery" as it is an absolutely fantastic book and meticulously researched. Another good one, although written with a much more different viewpoint is "The Sisters Who Would Be Queen" by Leanda De Lisle, whilst I did not enjoy this one quite so much it is still a pretty good read if you are looking for an overview of Jane's life as well as that of her sisters.

Sources:

Ives, E, 2009, Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery, Wiley-Blackwell, Sussex

The Anne Boleyn Files, http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/8409/lady-jane-greys-execution/ accessed 12th February 2012

De Lisle, L, 2008, The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine & Lady Jane Grey, Harper Press, Oxfordshire.

Photo credit: The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche from http://www.kingsacademy.com/mhodges/11_Western-Art/20_Early-19th-Century-Romanticism/Delaroche/Delaroche.htm, accessed 12th February 2012.

On This Day In History: 30th January 1649

On 30th January 1649, Charles I, King of England was beheaded on a scaffold outside The Banqueting House at Whitehall. He had been condemned to death by Act of Attainder, and his death warrant was signed by 59 individuals. It is said that he went to his death wearing extra clothing so he would not shiver in front of the public, and he did not want them to think he was shaking from fear. But why was he condemned? It is well known that the Royalists lost the English Civil War and the country was taken over by Oliver Cromwell; and his trial found him guilty of inciting war, murder, rape, burnings and a number of other offences. Although Charles refused to admit his guilt, being under the impression that the King could do no wrong (he was a staunch believer in the Divine Right Of Kings), his silence was taken as his admission of guilt.

Charles I was executed with one clean stroke, his head held before the public though no words were spoken to the crowd.

After his execution, Oliver Cromwell allowed Charles' head to be sewn back on and his body returned to his family. King Charles was buried on the 7th February in a private ceremony in St George's Chapel, Windsor inside the same vault that Henry VIII was buried in.

Charles I is one of my heroes and I have always been staunchly royalist. For my sins I was even a member of the Sealed Knot at one point, and had joined a Royalist regiment (Henry Tillier's in case any one cares!). My love of the English Civil War knows no bounds and I have a huge respect for Charles I, for what he fought for, for what he died for. In my eyes the man is a hero, and certainly did not deserve the death that he got.

photo credit for Charles I grave

We Will Remember Them

On this day in history, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the first world war ended. At that moment, the armistice was signed between the allies and Germany in a train carriage in the forest of Compiegne.

As I sit here writing this, we have just had the traditional two minutes silence which symbolises that moment when the guns fell silent. I may not be at work today, but it did not stop me from setting aside two minutes as BBC 1 had their own ceremony as the country fell into silence. And as I sat there I remembered not only those who have lost their lives in the First World War but those who lost their lives in more recent conflicts as well as conflicts dotted throughout history.

The poem quoted below is one that we all know, written by Laurence Binyon in 1914 as he was serving with the army in France, and the fourth stanza (highlighted in bold) is the one that is frequently read at services of remembrance:

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

On This Day In History: 23rd October 1642

On this day in history, 23rd October 1642, the first major battle of the English Civil War was fought in Warwickshire between the armies of the Earl of Essex for Parliament and the Royalist army. This battle is often seen as indecisive, but in fact the King gained a huge advantage during this battle. As Essex could not break through he had to retreat northward to the security of Warwick. This meant that the Royalists had command of the all important road to London - and control of London was the key to the war.

As the majority of the battle site now lies within Ministry of Defence land, much of the site is inaccessible including the monument to the site within Graveyard Coppice.

Photo course: The Battlefields Trust

Sources:

The Battlefields Trust http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/civil-war/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=3 (accessed 23rd October 2011)

Map Of Edgehill http://www.emersonkent.com/images/battle_of_edgehill.jpg (accessed 23rd October 2011)