English History

  • Poets
    • Byron
      • Letters
      • Poems
      • General
    • Keats
      • Letters
      • Poetry
    • Shakespeare
      • Plays
    • Tennyson
  • Vikings
  • Middle Ages
  • Stuarts
    • English Civil War
  • Tudor
    • Monarchs
    • Citizens
    • Relatives
    • Letters
    • Quizzes
  • Vikings
  • About
    • Start a History Blog
    • Cookie Policy
    • Contact
    • The Right to Display Public Domain Images
    • Author & Reference Information For Students

The execution of the duke of Somerset, 1552

This account of Somerset’s execution was made by Henry Machyn, a London undertaker.
Somerset was the brother of Henry VIII’s third wife Jane Seymour and thus uncle to King Edward VI. He was a popular leader amongst the common people. He attempted to reform agricultural policies and led a successful army against the Scots. But the treachery of his younger brother (whom he was forced to execute) and the ambitions of other noblemen (most notably the earl of Warwick) doomed him.

On 22 January, soon after 8 o’clock in the morning, the duke of Somerset was beheaded on Tower Hill. There was as great a company as has been seen… the king’s guard being there with their halberds and a thousand more with halberds of the privilege of the Tower, Ratcliffe, Limehouse, Whitechapel, St Katherine’s and Stratford Bow, as well as Hoxton and Shoreditch; and the two sheriffs being present there, seeing the execution of my lord, and his head being cut off, and shortly after his body was put into a coffin and carried into the Tower, and there buried in the church, on the northside of the choir of St Peter’s, and I beseech God to have mercy on his soul, amen! And there was a sudden rumbling a little before he died, as if it had been guns shooting and great horses coming, so that a thousand fell to the ground for fear, for they who were at one side thought no other but that one was killing another, so that they fell down to the ground, one upon another with their halberds, some fell into the ditch of the Tower and other places, and a hundred into the Tower ditch, and some ran away for fear.

Read More English History Topics

Link/cite this page

If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.

Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. "The execution of the duke of Somerset, 1552" https://englishhistory.net/tudor/the-execution-of-the-duke-of-somerset/, March 1, 2015

Search English History

Popular Posts

Tudor England Primary Sources
John Keats Images & Pictures
Queen Elizabeth I: Biography & Facts Continued Part 3
Jane Seymour’s Pregnancy, 1536
Fare Thee Well – Poem By Lord Byron

Related Posts

The 39 Articles of Religion

The 1534 Act of Supremacy

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Death Of Prince Arthur 1502

Jane Seymour’s Pregnancy, 1536

The Tudors

Lord Byron

John Keats

shakespeare

Copyright © 1999-2021 All Rights Reserved.
English History
Other Sites: Learn Web Development

This site uses cookies More info