E is for… Executions
Content warning: In this blog post, I will be discussing death, violence, and historical executions.
Visitors to London are often intrigued by one of the darkest parts of the city’s past: the many executions that have taken place here through the centuries. For most of its history, Britain had the death penalty for several crimes, including treason and murder (although the last state execution actually happened in August 1964); this means that, over the years, many hundreds if not thousands of people lost their lives in Britain to the hangman’s noose, the headsman’s axe, or, occasionally, more brutal methods such as being burned or boiled alive.
Although removing the death penalty from our statute books in 1998 was a great move forward for democracy and human rights, there is also no denying that some of our historical executions make for great stories: full of drama, hope, despair, and even occasionally some humour – and this is reflected in the many curious visitors to London who want to hear all about some of our most notorious executions.
A Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London demonstrates the Gaoler’s Axe
If there is one place in London that springs to mind when the “E” word is uttered, it has to be the Tower of London. Since its beginnings as a Norman fortress and royal palace in the 11th century, the Tower has been used as a place of imprisonment and execution for those who fell foul of the ruling classes. Almost 150 people lost their lives here, but what many don’t realise is that most of those executed “at the Tower” actually met their end on the hill just outside – within sight of the modern Underground station at Tower Hill. Only 22 people were killed within the Tower walls, and that was because the execution of a criminal was a public event: the authorities wanted it to be seen, to deter future wrongdoing, and the British people – god love our violent souls – enjoyed watching them. Often spectators would bring rotten food to throw at criminals they hated, or come to show support for those they loved. The execution site outside the Tower walls was chosen in part because of a man named Simon of Sudbury.
The execution of Simon Sudbury, from a medieval manuscript
Born in around 1316, Simon Sudbury – the “of” came later, when he began to be venerated – experienced many rises and falls in his life. He studied at Cambridge and in Paris, became a chaplain to Pope Innocent VI, and, as Archbishop of Canterbury, performed the coronation of King Richard II in 1377. However, he also fled England at one point when a warrant for his arrest was issued, and, after his introduction of a nationwide tax to pay for the Hundred Years’ War with France, became one of the most hated men in England. It was this last that caused his final downfall: after the tax was introduced in 1379, people started to revolt against it, and Sudbury was seen as its principal architect. On the 14th of June 1381, he was dragged from his lodgings at the Tower of London by members of the Peasants’ Revolt , hauled up to Tower Hill, and beheaded there in front of a baying crowd. Unfortunately for him, his attackers had more enthusiasm than skill, and it is said to have taken eight frenzied sword blows to take his head from his shoulders. With the final, lethal blow, Simon of Sudbury became the first person to be beheaded at the Tower of London.
Thomas Cromwell, adviser to Henry VIII. Credit: Wikimedia
Once that execution had happened, it opened something of a floodgate, and for the next 400 years, the Tower was the execution site of choice for many high-status prisoners, and those accused of treason against the crown. Among those that met their fate in this way are some notable historic figures, including: John Tiptoft, a lord so infamously barbaric to his enemies that he was beheaded in 1470 on the charge of “extreme cruelty”; Sir Thomas Moore, one-time confidant of Henry VIII who later fell from grace when he refused to confirm Henry as head of the new Church of England in 1535; Thomas Cromwell, another favourite of Henry’s who later lost his trust when he arranged the king’s ill-fated fourth marriage to Anne of Cleves, and is now well-known as the protagonist of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall; and Lord Lovat, supporter of the rebel Jacobite cause to reinstate the Stuart dynasty, who on April 9th 1747 became the last person ever beheaded on Tower Hill.
Agnes Nutter, witch, from the TV show Good Omens
All these died by beheading, but there were also occasional hangings, including Henry Peckham, a Tudor courtier who plotted a daring heist to steal £50,000 from the royal exchequer, and Mary Roberts – a rare female victim of the Tower’s ultimate justice – who took part in the bloody Gordon Riots of June 1780. Roberts and two fellow rioters were the last people executed at the Tower until the 20th century.
In the 1400s, Richard Wyche and John Goose were burned at the stake – a fate reserved for religious crimes – for espousing the then-heretical views of John Wycliffe, the 14th-century religious reformer.
The most extreme form of execution – hanging, drawing, and quartering – was reserved for those who had committed the most heinous crimes against the state, and usually took place elsewhere in the city. One exception was William Collingbourne, a wealthy landowner of the 15th century, who opposed King Richard III by publishing satirical rhymes about him and his supporters. When his heart was pulled out after he had been cut down from the gibbet, Collingbourne is said to have cried out “Oh Lord Jesus, yet more trouble!”.
All those mentioned so far died outside the castle walls on Tower Hill, but a select few of those who lost their lives to the monarch’s justice are honoured with a special memorial on Tower Green, in the heart of the castle, where they ended their lives in relative quiet, away from the crowds of spectators that would gather on Tower Hill. It was usually seen as a mercy, to be allowed to die in privacy within the Tower’s walls.
The executions memorial at the Tower of London
Ten names are engraved on the glass of the memorial: three soldiers, shot for desertion in 1743; poor Margaret Pole, whose headsman took 11 blows to end her life; William Hastings, beheaded in haste for treason against Richard III in 1483; Robert Devereux, another conspirator against the crown, this time in the person of Elizabeth I; Jane Boleyn, sister-in-law of Henry VIII’s second wife Anne; and last but not least, three queens of England.
Anne Boleyn
The first of those queens to die was Anne Boleyn herself – as Henry’s wife, she stayed at the Tower in May 1533, to prepare for her coronation. Exactly two years later, she was back at the Tower under very different circumstances: she had been accused of infidelity to the king, in particular of incest with her own brother, and sentenced to death for treason. It was thought by many who attended her in her final days, that Henry had sentenced her thus simply to scare her into greater obedience, and that he would halt her execution at the last moment, perhaps commuting it to a prison sentence. So prevalent was that belief, that no coffin had been provided, and poor Anne was buried in an arrow box, beneath the chapel of St Peter in Chains on Tower Green. Her death was at least mercifully swift: worried that an English axeman would bodge the job, Henry called for a French swordsman from Calais to do it instead. This news reached Anne before her death, and she apparently expected it to be quick, saying “ I heard say the executioner was very good, and I have a little neck”.
Catherine Howard
The second to die was Henry’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard. She, too, was accused of being unfaithful to the king, which may well have been true, as she was rumoured to have secretly married Francis Dereham, secretary to her grandmother Agnes Howard. Dereham was hanged in December 1541, at London’s other great execution site of Tyburn, on the corner of Hyde Park. In February 1542, Parliament passed a new law that made her possible dalliance with Dereham a treasonous act, and Catherine lost her life on Tower Green on the 13th of February 1542.
The final queen to die at the Tower was Lady Jane Grey, a teenage girl caught up in political machinations to keep Henry VIII’s eldest daughter from taking the throne as Mary I. In February 1553, Henry’s only son, Edward VI, became gravely ill. By right of bloodlines, his successor was to be his half-sister Mary, but his advisors convinced him that, as a staunch Catholic, she should not be allowed to accede to the throne. Instead, they convinced him to draft a will excluding not just Mary, but his other half-sister Elizabeth, and instead bestow the crown on a young woman called Jane, who had just married Lord Guildford Dudley, son of John Dudley, one of the country’s leading politicians. When Edward died on the 6th of July 1533, Jane was duly declared queen – but her reign was short-lived, and Mary wrested control just nine days later. At first, Jane was simply imprisoned in the Tower; however, Mary soon began to live up to her better-known nickname – Bloody Mary – and ordered the executions of Jane, her husband, and her father-in-law. John was executed in August of that year, while Jane and Guildford died on the 12th of February 1554.
Josef Jakobs. Credit: Wikimedia
Between the time of Simon Sudbury’s death in 1381 and those of the Gordon Rioters in 1780, almost half of the Tower’s executions happened during the reigns of the five Tudor monarchs. They are in many ways our most bloodthirsty dynasty, but the Tower was to see one last flurry of executions, far after the main 400-year period ended.
In the 20th century, the Tower was used for the executions of several foreign spies during World Wars I and II, and the last person ever executed at the Tower was one of those men: Josef Jakobs, Nazi spy. Jakobs parachuted into England in January 1941, landing near Cambridge and breaking his ankle in the process. He was apprehended the following day and held for some time under guard in hospital, before being tried in a court martial in August 1941. Found guilty of treason – the last crime to still carry the death penalty in the United Kingdom – he was taken to the Tower of London and executed by firing squad on the rifle range on the 15th of August 1941. He was shot while sitting in a chair, as his ankle was still not healed enough for him to meet his end standing up.
Jack Sheppard, thief and folk hero
To end on a slightly lighter note, there was one famous London criminal who avoided the hangman several times, and became a national celebrity for his daring escapes. Jack Sheppard didn’t have an auspicious start to life: at the age of just six years old, his mother sent him to live in a workhouse –institutions made famous some hundred years later by Charles Dickens in his novel Oliver Twist. From there, he apprenticed to a carpenter, but, aged around 20, he found that he could greatly improve his income by turning to robbery and theft. Between February and September 1724, he was arrested and imprisoned four times, but managed to escape from jail every time. His exploits were reported in the news sheets of the time, and he became the most famous thief in England. His portrait was painted by James Thornhill, better known for the fresco on the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, and he even published an autobiography that many believe was ghost-written by Daniel Defoe. When he was eventually captured for the fifth and final time, he continued to promote this book during his trial and even on the way to his hanging. As many as 200,000 people turned out to watch his final journey from Newgate prison to the gibbet at Tyburn, and he stopped along the way to drink a pint of wine at a tavern on Oxford Street. His supporters had planned a daring rescue from the noose, but unfortunately they were thwarted by the sheer number of people who turned up to watch Jack’s final moments. He died on the 16th of November 1724, aged just 22, a thorn in the side of the justice system but an underdog hero to many.
The White Tower at the Tower of London
If you would like to hear more tales of the great and gruesome history of London, contact me to book a tour. The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, the Clink Prison, and many more sites hold a wealth of entertainingly grizzly stories from London’s long and complex history.
