The New Murrey and Blue blog

Bishop John Fisher, born in Beverley, Yorkshire in October, 1469, was Margaret Beaufort’s confessor, a similarly dour man who liked to stick a skull on the altar at mass to remind you of mortality. He noted, marvelling, Margaret’s habit of weeping and wailing in emotional distress behind closed doors, as well as in public–such as at her grandson’s Coronation. Apparently, those tears were not tears of joy…

After Margaret’s death, which came very shortly after Henry VIII became king, John Fisher gave an eulogy for the late Margaret and proceeded to execute her will.

Little did he know that in the future, Henry, whom he had tutored as a boy, would execute HIM.

Fisher was an aged man when sent to the Tower for treason; whilst there, he complained of a lack of food and of cold and illness. The Pope tried to save his life, by making him a cardinal, but Henry did not care a jot for that –he said if the cardinal’s hat was sent to England, Fisher would have no head to put in it.

Originally, he was to have been hanged, drawn and quartered but this was commuted to beheading. After his death his body remained lying where it had fallen, until the head was removed to be spiked on London Bridge…