Painted Chamber, Westminster

Well, while researching the Painted Chamber of Westminster Palace, with particular reference to the “Good Parliament” of 1376, I couldn’t help imagining today’s House of Commons faced, not with someone like John Bercow (whose birthday it is today and is quite short with a head), but Edward the First! Can you just imagine old Longshanks putting up with all the parliamentary shenanigans we’re witnessing today? He’d see there were so many heads displayed on London Bridge there wouldn’t be any room left!

Patrick McGoohan as Edward I
I don’t know about you, but I found his portrayal of Longshanks really chilling!

Which leads me to combine the subjects of Speakers and beheadings. How many of them actually met with this fate? If you go to this list you’ll be able to see all the Speakers until 1707. There is a link to subsequent Speakers. The man to be accepted (now) as the first true Speaker was Sir Peter de la Mare, although the title Speaker was not yet established.

It would seem that the following unfortunates were executed: Sir John Bussy (died 1399), Sir Thomas Tresham (died 1471),William Catesby (died 1485), Sir Richard Empson (died 1510), Edmund Dudley (died 1510), and Sir Thomas More (died 1536). Sir William Tresham, father of Thomas, was murdered/lynched in 1450. Back then it didn’t do to enter politics if your name was Tresham!

Maybe there were others who met a sticky end, if so, no doubt you will tell me!


Subscribe to my newsletter

  1. Viscountessw,

    Certainly the Treshams’ – father and son – met a bit of tough going, but could any name be more prone to execution, death in battle (or misadventure) than the earls of Northumberland, the Percys (and not just the earls, their family in general! I’m looking past the WoTR to include the Percys’ who were caught up in the Pilgrimage of Grace – but I suppose H8 considered that uprising more political than religious? Still, a very unlucky name!)

    And I agree, McGoohan, I think, stole the movie Braveheart (I can’t talk about the historical errors, they make me queasy) but he played Edward1 as if the film was about him, that’s chutzpah!

    In respect to linkages, which I also find fascinating, consider this – I don’t know but I would have to think a king considers the date of their actual coronation to be significant, the public nature of the event, the anointing, the location, the crown and regalia, etc, and for Richard that date was 6 July 1483. Move ahead 52 years and the writer/ authority /source cited for far too many of what I would describe as intentional misstatements about Richard (ok, lies) was executed on 6 July 1535 by Henry VIII, a man named Thomas More. Move ahead 18 years from More’s execution and exactly 70 years after Richard’s coronation and Edward VI died, terminating the male Tudor line on 6 July 1553. I like to think that link is ‘karma.’

    Every so often friends ask what I think I am accomplishing with all my books and ‘research’ on the WoTR and Richard specifically I’ve developed a quick response because most people know the Tudor material (thank you BBC et al), it’s easier to just say Bosworth was ONE day and I’m done with Tudor apologists having their way for 500+ years, it’s Richard’s turn now and I am part of the corrective! If they want to rad something I suggest Matt Lewis, to start!

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Agreed wholeheartedly!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. sorry, I got on an emotional rant, and I should have said ‘we’ are part of the corrective.

      Like

  3. Glenis Brindley Avatar
    Glenis Brindley

    Great article, not something I’ve thought about much, but interesting.
    As an aside, I just get a bit annoyed with people seeming to think there was no history before the Tudors, when in fact the best of history was before them!

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Glenis Brindley Avatar
    Glenis Brindley

    Great article, not something I’d thought of much, but interesting.
    I agree, Patrick McGoohan was the best thing to come out of Braveheart, nothing else was much good!
    As an aside, I get annoyed by people who seem to think that history only started with the Tudors, when in fact the very best of our history was before them.

    Liked by 3 people

  5. Glenis Brindley Avatar
    Glenis Brindley

    Sorry I didn’t think my first response had posted, so I expanded on it and re-posted!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Three times lucky, Glenis!

      Liked by 1 person

  6. […] Wiltshire, Bussy had given many years of service to John of Gaunt in various capacities. (For example he was Chief […]

    Like

  7. […] East Midland buildings – from Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and Kenilworth, the recusant Sir Thomas Tresham and Rushton Triangular Lodge, Christopher Hatton, the Lord Chancellor who helped to judge Mary […]

    Like

  8. […] no doubt can be seen from the title of this post I have really not made my mind up about Catesby and the true essence of the man he was.  The best and fullest account of his life is that written […]

    Like

  9. […] had no problem securing another husband. No less a person than Sir John Bussey (sometimes rendered Bushey.) Bussey was to go on to have a long and successful career in the […]

    Like

  10. […] 6ft long by 12ft high and was made of walnut with gilt inlay. Very impressive, it was kept in the Speaker’s House, where it remained until the 1940s….when it disappeared. It is of interest that the […]

    Like

  11. […] Thomas Tresham was born in about 1420. He was the son of William Tresham and Isabel Vaux. (Isabel Vaux was the great-aunt of that Sir William Vaux who was executed at Tewkesbury.) […]

    Like

  12. […] and York now moved to Bristol and rapidly took both town and castle. The Earl of Wiltshire, Sir John Bussy, Sir Henry Green and Sir John Russell, all members of Richard’s Council had gone ahead to […]

    Like

Leave a reply to June, July, August 1399. How England fell. – murreyandblue Cancel reply