- Thomas More
Thomas More Thomas More Thomas More had an education suited to a son of a gentleman, and seemed destined for the legal career mapped out by his father. Although the future held much promise for him, More was unsure of the direction he wanted his life to take. He considered becoming a priest but decided not to enter the Church because of his burning desire to have a family. - Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of the English kings Henry VIII and Edward VI. He is credited with writing and compiling the first two Books of Common Prayer which established the basic structure of Anglican liturgy for over four centuries and influenced the English language through its phrases and quotations. Cranmer was an important figure in the English Reformation which denied papal authority over the English Church. - Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey, formally Jane of England, a grand-niece of Henry VIII of England, reigned as uncrowned Queen regnant of the Kingdom of England for nine days in July 1553. Though Jane's accession, pursuant to the Will of King Edward VI, may have breached the laws of England, many powers of the land proved willing to accept her as Queen of England, even if only as part of a power-struggle to stop Henry's elder daughter, Princess Mary, a Roman Catholic, … - Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard, also called Katherine Howard was the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England (1540-1542), and sometimes known by his reference to her as "the rose without a thorn". Her birth date and place of birth is unknown, (occasionally cited as 1521, probably in London). She was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard, a poor younger son of the 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Catherine married Henry VIII on 28 July 1540, at Oatlands Palace in Surrey, … - Mary Queen of Scots
Mary I (popularly known as Mary, Queen of Scots:); (December 8 1542 - February 8 1587) was Queen of Scots (the monarch of the Kingdom of Scotland) from December 14 1542, to July 24 1567. She was also the Queen Consort of France ("Reine de France") from July 10 1559 to December 5 1560. Because of her tragic life, she is one of the best-known Scottish monarchs. - Hugh Latimer
Hugh Latimer (b. approx. 1485/90, d. October 16, 1555) was a famous Protestant martyr. Latimer was born into a family of farmers in Thurcaston, Leicestershire. From around 14 years of age he started to attend Peterhouse, Cambridge, and was known as a good student. After receiving his academic degrees and being ordained, he developed a reputation as a very zealous Roman Catholic. At first he opposed the Lutheran opinion of his day, … - John Fisher
Saint John Fisher also John Cardinal Fisher (c. 1469-1535), was an English Catholic bishop, cardinal and martyr. He shares his feast day with Saint Thomas More on June 22 on the Catholic calendar of saints and July 6 on the Anglican calendar of saints. - Nicholas Ridley
Nicholas Ridley (died October 16, 1555) was an English clergyman. He came from a prominent family in Tynedale, Northumberland, and was born early in the sixteenth century. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle and the University of Cambridge, where he received his Master's degree in 1525. Soon afterward he was ordained as a priest and went to the Sorbonne, in Paris, for further education. - Edward Seymour 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (c. 1506 - January 22, 1552) was Lord Protector of England in the period between the death of King Henry VIII in 1547 and his own indictment in 1549. He was born in about 1506 to Sir John Seymour and Margaret Wentworth. Edward was the eldest brother of Jane Seymour, who would become King Henry VIII's third Queen consort. Their brother, Thomas, also gained power through their sister's advancement. - John Dudley 1st Duke of Northumberland
John Dudley (1501 - August 22/23, 1553) was a Tudor general, admiral and politician, who became de facto ruler of England, tried to make his daughter-in-law Queen of England and was executed for high treason by Queen Mary I of England. - Edmund Dudley
Edmund Dudley (c. 1462 - August 17, 1510), minister of Henry VII of England, was a grandson of John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley. After studying at Oxford and at Gray's Inn, Dudley came under the notice of Henry VII, and is said to have been made a privy councillor at the early age of twenty-three. In 1492 he helped to negotiate the Peace of Etaples with France and soon became prominent in assisting the king to check the lawlessness of the barons. - Anthony Babington
Anthony Babington (October 24, 1561 - September 20, 1586) was convicted of plotting the assassination of Elizabeth I of England and conspiring with the imprisoned Mary I of Scotland. The "Babington Plot" and Mary's alleged involvement in it were the basis of the treason charges against her which led to her execution. Born into a wealthy Catholic family to Henry Babington and Mary Darcy in Dethick, Derbyshire, England, he was their third son. - Perkin Warbeck
Perkin Warbeck (c. 1474 - November 23, 1499) was a pretender to the English throne during the reign of King Henry VII of England. He was an impostor, pretending to be Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, the younger son of King Edward IV of England, but was in fact a Fleming born in Tournai around 1474. He was the son of John Warbeck and Katherine de Faro. The real Richard of Shrewsbury was almost certainly dead by this time, most likely murdered in the Tower of London. - Edmund Campion
St. Edmund Campion (January 24,1540 - December 1, 1581) was a Catholic priest, Jesuit and martyr. - John Houghton
Saint John Houghton was an English Catholic martyr. Born sometime around 1486, he was (according to one of his fellow Carthusians) educated at Cambridge, but cannot be identified among surviving records. Similarly, no certain records can be found of his ordination. He joined the London Charterhouse in 1515, progressed to be Sacristan in 1523, and procurator in 1526. In 1531, he became abbot of the Charterhouse of Beauvale in Nottinghamshire. - Elizabeth Barton
Sr. Elizabeth Barton (known as The Nun of Kent, The Holy Maid of London, The Holy Maid of Kent and later The Mad Maid of Kent; 1506? - April 20 1534) was executed for prophesying that if King Henry VIII of England married Anne Boleyn against the wishes of the Pope, he would die within six months. Little is known of Barton's early life, although she appears to have come from a poor background, … - Augustine Webster
Saint Augustine Webster was an English Catholic martyr. He was educated at Cambridge University. He became the prior of Our Lady of Melwood, a Carthusian house at Epworth, on the Isle of Axholme, North Lincolnshire, in 1531. He was imprisoned on the orders of Thomas Cromwell when he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy and was hanged, beheaded and quartered at Tyburn on May 4 1534. He was canonised in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales - William Brereton
William Brereton, (May 17,1536), who came from a Cheshire landowning family, was a groom of the privy chamber of Henry VIII. He was caught up in the accusations against Anne Boleyn, tried for treason and executed with the Queen and four others. Historians now think that along with the others he was almost certainly innocent. Willam Brereton was the sixth son of Sir Randle Brereton of Ipstones, Shocklach, & Malpas, Knight Chamberlain of Chester, … - Francis Weston
Sir Francis Weston (1513? - 1536) was a wealthy gentleman-in-waiting to King Henry VIII of England. Francis was born into a very rich and well-connected family and he quickly found a position at the royal court. He was reportedly extremely attractive and he had a reputation as a playboy. He was married, but was frequently unfaithful. Rumours suggested that he was enjoying a secret affair with Margaret Shelton, the one-time mistress of Henry VIII in 1534/1535. - Mark Smeaton
Mark Smeaton (ex. 17 May 1536) was one of four men executed for alleged adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn. Smeaton was a handsome musician and dancer in the queen's household, Smeaton was famed for his talents as a singer. He could play the lute, virginals and the organ. His date of birth is not known, but he was probably in his early twenties when he died. Possibly of Flemish origin, the name Smeaton could be derived from the surnames de Smet or de Smedt. - John Rogers
John Rogers (c. 1500-4 February 1555) was a minister, Bible translator and commentator, and the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England. He was born in the parish of Aston, near Birmingham, and was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge University, where he graduated B.A. in 1526. In 1532, he was rector of Holy Trinity, Queenhithe, London, and in 1534, he went to Antwerp as chaplain to the English merchants of the Company of the Merchant Adventurers. - Rowland Taylor
Rowland Taylor (October 6, 1510 - February 9, 1555) was an English Protestant martyr of the Tudor period. He was born in Northumberland, England, and died at Hadleigh. At the time of his death he was Rector, or Anglican parish priest of a small parish in a (now) small market town called Hadleigh (also spelled Hadley). Taylor provided pastoral leadership for several parishes in the English county of Suffolk. - John Adams
John Adams was a Catholic priest and martyr. He was born at Winterbourne St Martin in Dorset at an unknown date (c. 1543?) and became a Protestant minister. He later entered the Catholic Church and travelled to the English College then at Rheims, arriving on December 7 1579. He was ordained a priest at Soissons on December 17 1580. He set out for the mission in England on March 29 1581. He is known to have worked in Hampshire but details of his later, … - Richard Empson
Sir Richard Empson, minister of Henry VII, king of England, was a son of Peter Empson, an influential inhabitant of Towcester. Educated as a lawyer he soon attained considerable success in his profession, and in 1491 was a Knight of the Shire for Northamptonshire in parliament and speaker of the House of Commons. Early in the reign of Henry VII he became associated with Edmund Dudley in carrying out the king’s rigorous and arbitrary system of taxation, … - Michael An Gof
Michael Joseph (better known as Michael An Gof, where "An Gof" is Cornish for "blacksmith"; died 24 June 1497) and Thomas Flamank (a Bodmin landowner's son and London lawyer) were the leaders of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497. The rebels marched on London to protest at King Henry VII's levying a tax to pay for an invasion of Scotland in retaliation for the Scots' support for the pretender Perkin Warbeck. - Thomas Flamank
Thomas Flamank (executed June 24, 1497) was a lawyer from Cornwall who together with Michael An Gof led the Cornish Rebellion against taxes in 1497. The Cornish believed their distance from Scotland - on whom the war taxes were to be used against - were too far from Cornwall to concern them, so refused to pay. Having stirred up the people of St. Keverne, Cornwall, into open rebellion, … - John Hooper
John Hooper (1495-1500 - February 9, 1555) was an English churchman, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester and a Marian martyr. - William Catesby
Sir William Catesby (1450-1485) was a prominent member of the group that supported Richard III of England during his brief reign. He was a member of the Council that ruled during the reign of Edward V, serving as a spy for the Duke of Gloucester (soon to be Richard III). After Richard was enthroned, Catesby served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and as Speaker of the House of Commons during the Parliament of 1484. He also received a substantial grant of land from the king, … - Henry Grey 1st Duke of Suffolk
Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk (c.1515 - February 23, 1554), known as the Marquess of Dorset between 1530 and 1551, was an English nobleman of the Tudor period and the father of Lady Jane Grey. - Anne Askew
Anne Askew (Ayscough) (1521 - 16 July 1546) was an English poet and member of the Reformed Church who was persecuted as a heretic. She is the only woman on record to have been tortured in the Tower of London, before being burned at the stake. Born at Stallingborough into a notable family of Lincolnshire, she was forced by her father, Sir William Askew (Ayscough), to marry the Catholic Thomas Kyme when she was just 15, as a substitute for her sister who had died. - Robert Devereux 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (10 November 1567 - 25 February 1601), a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, is the best-known of the many holders of the title "Earl of Essex." He was a military hero, but following a poor campaign against Irish rebels during the Nine Years War in 1599, he defied the queen and was executed for treason. - Francis Dereham
Francis Dereham (died 10 December, 1541) was most famous for his affair with Queen Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII of England. This affair lasted until Catherine was made Lady-in-waiting to Henry's fourth wife Anne of Cleves. Dereham was made a secretary at Hampton Court, possibly engineered by Agnes Tilney, dowager Duchess of Norfolk to silence him about their previous indiscretions. - Humphrey Middlemore
Blessed Humphrey Middlemore (died c. 1535) was a Roman Catholic priest and Carthusian monk, from England. He is considered a martyr by the Catholic Church. Though the date of his birth is uncertain, his father was Thomas Middlemore of Edgbaston, Warwickshire, who had acquired his estate at Edgbaston by marriage with the heiress of Sir Henry Edgbaston. Humphrey's mother was Ann Lyttleton, of Pillaton Hall, Staffordshire. - Thomas Culpeper
Thomas Culpeper (executed December 10 1541) was a young courtier in Henry VIII's time. He was distantly related to the Howard clan, who were immensely powerful at the time. They were particularly influential after the fall of Cardinal Wolsey in 1529, and for a brief time under the reign of Anne Boleyn, who was one of their cousins. - Margaret Pole 8th Countess of Salisbury
Margaret Pole (14 August 1473 - 27 May 1541), Countess of Salisbury, was the daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and Isabella Neville. Her father was a brother of both Kings Edward IV and Richard III of England. She was the last member of the Plantagenet dynasty. - Robert Johnson
Blessed Robert Johnson, a Shropshire native, was a Catholic priest and martyr during the reign of Elizabeth I. He joined the German College in Rome on October 1, 1571. He was ordained a priest in Brussels from the English College, Douai. After a pilgrimage to Rome in 1579 he returned to England in 1580, was arrested on July 12, and put in the tower on December 5. Johnson was racked on December 16 and put in a dungeon until his trial on November 14, 1581. - Nicholas Garlick
Blessed Nicholas Garlick ("c."1555-24 July 1588) was an English priest, martyred in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He was born around 1555, near Dinting in Glossop, within the county of Derby. In January 1575, he was matriculated at Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford. Although he was described as "well seen in Poetry, Rhetoric, and Philosophy," he remained at Oxford for only six months, and left without taking a degree, either because, … - Thomas Wyatt The Younger
Thomas Wyatt the younger was a rebel leader during the reign of Queen Mary I of England; his rising is traditionally called Wyatt's rebellion. He was born at Allington Castle, the only son of Sir Thomas Wyatt, a poet, by Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of Thomas Brooke, 3rd Lord Cobham. The Duke of Norfolk was his godfather. At the age of fifteen he became a squire at the court of King Henry VIII, and Joint Constable of Conisborough Castle. - Edward Stafford 3rd Duke of Buckingham
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (February 3 1478 - May 17 1521) was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Catherine Woodville. Born at Brecknock Castle, Brecon, Wales, his father was attainted and executed for rebelling against King Richard III of England when Stafford was five. - Chidiock Tichborne
Chidiock (Charles) Tichborne (1558-September 20, 1586) is remembered as an English conspirator and poet. He was born in Southampton in 1558 to Roman Catholic parents. Given the recent succession of Elizabeth I to the throne over Mary I, he was allowed to freely practice his religion for most of his early life. However in 1570 the Queen was excommunicated by the Pope for her support of the Protestant religion and in retaliation ended her tolerance of the Catholic Church.
|
| |