During the reign of Mary I, the Tudor Queen gained a notorious reputation for burning
Protestants at the stake that gave birth to her nickname Bloody Mary.
Mary sought to restore England to catholicism, and to do this she targeted high profile Protestants
who refused to recant back to the old ways.
Across the country, people were burned at the stake which would have been a harrowing
sight to have seen.
One of the most prominent burnings was of Thomas Cranmer, a man who was the Archbishop
of Canterbury during the reign of Henry VIII, Edward VI and also Mary.
But Cranmer’s death was incredibly brutal and savage, and today he’s considered a
martyr who met his death with courage and defiance.
Join us today as we look at, ‘The TWISTED Burning and Execution of Thomas Cranmer’
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Thomas Cranmer rose to prominence during the reign of King Henry VIII, and he was involved
in much of the religious changes at the time.
Little is known about his early life and childhood, but he did go to Jesus College in Cambridge
to study for 8 years.
He married a local lady named Joan who worked in a local inn, and because of his marriage
and the fact Joan was pregnant, he gave up his fellowship briefly.
He then returned to Cambridge following Joan’s death in childbirth, and Cranmer took holy
orders in 1520 and he was named as a preacher who was given a license to preach in cities
across the country.
He was devoted to catholicism and the Pope, and he even went against the Reformation and
the ideas of Martin Luther that were emerging across Europe.
He was a celebrated scholar and was personally involved in helping King Henry VIII to get
his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled, and it was he who stated to other prominent
bishops that the King should get the opinion of scholars and theorists, rather than relying
on Rome and the Pope.
The King liked this idea because it meant he would get the outcome he desired, and Cranmer
was part of the group of men who were consulted on their opinions.
They concluded that the King could do as he pleased within his kingdom of England, and
he could annul his marriage to Catherine without the consent and permission of Rome.
Henry’s power in England was ultimate, and it was decreed also that his marriage to his
brother’s widow was illegal and against religious law, and with this Henry VIII got
what he wanted.
Thomas Cranmer after this became involved in the royal court and politics, and he became
an ambassador to the court of Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor, and here he saw the effects
of the reformation across Europe.
But in Autumn 1532, he was summoned back to England as it was outlined that he was going
to be selected as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, and he went home before being consecrated
on the 30th March 1533.
Henry and Cranmer worked together to finalise the annulment, and also ensure that Henry
married Anne Boleyn quickly as she was now pregnant.
A secret marriage ceremony between the King and his second wife was held in January 1553,
and Cranmer later ruled that the King’s first marriage was against Gods will, and
he declared Henry and Anne Boleyn’s marriage to be the valid one.
Later Anne was crowned King, and Cranmer was also the man who baptised Henry and Anne’s
daughter, Elizabeth the future queen Elizabeth I and Cranmer was her godfather.
More success came for him within the King’s inner circle, but he could not save Anne Boleyn
Henry’s second wife from falling from grace and being executed within the Tower of London.
The King grew annoyed with his Queen as she could not provide him with a male heir, and
Cranmer was instructed to act as a judge to rule over Henry’s petition to divorce Anne
Boleyn.
Cranmer yet again had to help the King out of a marriage, and he needed to reverse his
initially decision.
It was Thomas Cromwell who ultimately set the seeds of treachery against Anne, but Cranmer
did nothing to save her from a brutal execution.
After this, Cranmer continued to work on religious reform and he adopted the English Bible which
had been translated by Coverdale, Rogers and Tyndale.
During Henry’s reign, he was a key advisor and was succeeding being considered a popular
figure, but he would have to cross the King later on.
Cranmer found out about his fifth wife Catherine Howard’s illicit affairs with Thomas Culpepper,
one of the King’s closest friends and advisors.
It was Cranmer who was the one who had to investigate, and he had to inform the King
of his wife’s affair.
He did this by passing the King a letter whilst he was praying inside of the Chapel Royal
at Hampton Court Palace.
Henry took Cranmer’s word and after further investigations, Catherine Howard was beheaded
inside the walls of the Tower of London.
There was a plot to oust Cranmer in 1543 but he had the King’s full support.
He had been arrested but was backed by the King, and his accusers were thrown in prison
and one was executed.
As Henry VIII’s health failed, Cranmer was there for the final moments and was there
by his bedside as the King passed away.
He held his hand, and have the King a reformed statement of faith before giving him the last
rites.
Cranmer grieved his master and close friend and even grew a beard because of it.
He continued to serve as the Archbishop of Canterbury under Edward VI, and he was an
executor of Henry VIII’s will and a member of the Protectorate set up to rule for the
young King.
He continued the reformation and established the book of common prayer.
There was rebellion against this, and this did slightly damage Cranmer’s reputation,
but he continued to reform the church.
Following Edward’s death, Cranmer was in charge of the funeral and at the time many
of the important members of the church left England, as Mary I took the throne from Lady
Jane Grey.
For Cranmer, things were dangerous as Mary was a Catholic and all his recent work was
about making England more Protestant.
He was forced to stand before the Queen’s council and was sent briefly to the Tower
of London being accused of being a heretic, before he made it to the Board Prison in Oxford.
Whilst held here, he was forced to watch the executions and burnings of bishops Latimer
and Ridley.
Cranmer in this was stripped of his church offices, and was brought to trial for heresy
on the 12th September 1555.
Cranmer was forced to wait from Rome to establish his guilty, and he was removed from being
the Archbishop of Canterbury, but he made a number of recantations.
Four times he apologised for his faith and work, and handed himself over to Mary and
her beliefs, but Mary refused to remove his execution order.
It had been said that on the 7th March 1556 he would be killed, but as he returned to
catholicism, his execution was delayed for the 21st March 1556.
It’s interesting to consider that Mary I wished still to have him executed, such was
the damage he had caused to her religion.
On the day of his execution, Cranmer was taken to the University Church in Oxford to recant
in public, but whilst giving a sermon he renounced his recantations, and said he had signed them
in falsity and that the arm he signed these with would be burned first at the stake.
He was angrily taken from the pulpit to the place of his execution where the stake had
been prepared.
His execution should not have gone ahead, as he did recant to the old faith, but by
executing him Mary was establishing her authority over leading Protestants, and the man who
allowed the King to annul the marriage of her father and mother.
Because of this, Mary had been shunned and treated poorly by her father.
She believed she was doing Gods work, ridding the country of a leading heretic.
A large crowd had been gathered in Oxford to watch the death of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.
An eyewitness account exists of the proceedings, and it tells a story of barbarism and brutality.
It was said, ‘‘Coming to the stake with a cheerful countenance and willing mind, he
put off his garments with haste, and stood upright in his shirt.
A Bachelor of divinity laboured to convert him to his former recantation with the two
Spanish friars, and when the friars saw his constancy they said in latin to one another,
‘let us go from him, we ought not to be nigh him, for the devil isn with him.’
But the bachelor of divinity was more earnest with him, unto whom he answered that as concerning
his recantation, he repented it right sore because he knew it was against the truth.
The Bachelor of Divinity then refused to take him by the hand and blamed all the others
that so did, and said he was sorry that ever he came in his company, and yet again he required
him to agree to his former recantation.
And the bishop answered showing his hand, This was the hand that wrote it and therefore
shall it suffer first punishment.
Recantation was still sought from Cranmer, but her refused yet again.
It was then said, ‘‘Fire being now put to him, he stretched out his right hand and
thrust it into the flame and held it there a good space, before the fire came to any
other part of his body, where his hand was seen of every man sensibly burning crying
with a loud voice, ‘This hand hath offended’ as soon s the fire got up, he was very soon
dead, never stirring or crying all the while.’
His patience in the torment, his courage in dying.
His dying words were, ‘Lord Jesus, recieve my spirit, I see the heavens open and Jesus
standing at the right hand of God.’
The brutality of Thomas Cranmer’s burning at the stake shocked those who were there
that day in Oxford to witness the proceedings.
He was one of the most prominent and influential members of Henry VIII’s government, and
in his role over the Church, he was key in reforming and making England more protestant.
But he encountered a rival in Mary I who would not be like her father, and who would punish
those men and women that she deemed were attacking her religion and the church.
Cranmer was seen as one of those men, and because of this he was brutally executed at
the hands of Bloody Mary I.
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