During the reign of Mary I, who was also known as ‘Bloody Mary,’ the Queen punished many
people across her kingdom who did not conform to her Catholic religious beliefs.
Many people were burned across the stake in horrific scenes which terrified the population
and these executions tried to get the population to conform to Mary’s religious rules and
laws.
But despite the burnings, there were many more executions carried out also for crimes
such as treason.
There were a number of rebellions that Mary managed to see off, including ones when she
seized the throne and this resulted in the execution of Lady Jane Grey the 9 Day Queen.
But there was one man who was the son of an English Poet and a well thought of member
of Henry VIII’s court, who was involved in a rebellion that carried his name.
Join us today as we look at the horrific execution of Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger, and remember
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Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger was the son of the poet Sir Thomas Wyatt, who some historian’s
believed may have had a relationship with Henry VIII’s second wife Anne Boleyn, and
Elizabeth Brooke.
He was born to very high standing parents, and was the oldest of four brothers.
He was raised as a Catholic, and his godfather was Thomas Howard the 3rd Duke of Norfolk,
one of the most influential man across Henry VIII’s court.
He had input as to how Wyatt was brought up, and he went with his father to Spain as part
of a delegation when the Spanish Inquisition began.
But at the age of 16, he married Jane Haute.
Following his father’s death in 1542, Thomas Wyatt inherited Allington Castle and Boxley
Abbey, but these estates were hugely in debt and financial ruin, and with this he was forced
to take on the debt and to try and deal with it.
He had further financial issues, and was believed to have been a man who had a short temper
and was wild and impulsive with his behaviours.
For example during one incident in London, he was accused in 1543 along with other noblemen
including Henry Howard the Earl of Surrey of making a serious public disturbance in
London.
In the autumn of the same year, the pair joined a group of volunteers who left England to
take part in the siege of a French town, but during this military campaign Wyatt received
lots of accolades for his skill on the battlefield.
He took part in more sieges and was then given more power and command, and in 1547 when he
came to England he became a member of Parliament for Kent.
In 1550, he was then given the title of the Commissioner to delimit the English frontier
in France, but he suffered from illness and could not do this.
Following the death of Edward VI, it’s believed he also helped Queen Mary I, in her revolt
against the Duke of Northumberland and Lady Jane Grey the 9 Day Queen.
Mary believed she was the rightful heir to the throne, and challenged Jane, and eventually
the Privy Council switched their support to Jane and Mary I had the 9 Day Queen imprisoned
inside the Tower of London and then later executed on Tower Green.
However Thomas Wyatt the Younger would later turn against Mary I. When he travelled to
Spain and witnessed the brutality of the Spanish Inquisition who carried out terrifying public
punishment and executions, he began to oppose the Spanish government and their ideas.
However Mary I had decided to marry Phillip of Spain, the prince of Spain who later became
the King.
With this Thomas Wyatt viewed this marriage as a betrayal of England, and he never planned
to protect against the Queen until he was approached by other noblemen and courtiers
who wanted to stop the marriage.
The official marriage announcement occurred on the 15th January 1554, and Wyatt and his
rebel friends got together at Allington Castle to talk about how to stop the marriage.
Many of his friends were arrested, and Wyatt became the leader of the rebellion.
He published a proclamation at Maidstone that his plan to rebel had been approved by people
in the shire, and he tried to raise an army against ‘the Queen’s determinate pleasure
to marry with a stranger.’
Thomas Wyatt was a good leader, and the French ambassador backed him and he managed to get
1500 men who gathered at his headquarters in Rochester within around 10 days of the
rebellion beginning.
However Mary I was informed of the rebel plans, and she offered a pardon to those who followed
Wyatt if they went home within 24 hours, but Wyatt asked his followers to stay and said
that support from France would arrive, as well as other uprisings would back up his
initial rebellion.
France were not willing to invade and back him up, but the Duke of Norfolk was sent to
confront Wyatt and his men.
When Norfolk’s men saw the rebellion, many of them joined and the Duke was forced to
flee.
After this, Wyatt and the 4000 men he had gathered marched through Gravesend, Dartford
and Blackheath.
The government were concerned, and they offered him an opportunity for Wyatt to tell the Queen
what he wanted.
But Wyatt was seen as a disloyal enemy of the Queen, and on the 2nd February 1554, 20,000
soldiers volunteered to help the Queen to defend against Wyatt and his men.
The royal court and the Tower of London were guarded heavily, and reward was offered for
people for Wyatt’s capture.
But during negotiations, Wyatt wanted the Tower of London to be given to him, and the
Queen to be handed over to him.
But these demands were considered too shocking, and as he marched into Southwark, Wyatt found
that London Bridge had been also fortified against him.
With this, he could not get across the River Thames, and other plans were made to capture
the Queen’s residence of St James Palace.
When the Queen and her government found out about this, they managed to corner him with
their defenders, and many skirmishes broke out.
Eventually Wyatt was defeated, and he was then arrested and was taken and imprisoned
at the Tower of London.
On the 15th March he was placed on trial for treason, but little evidence needed to be
brought forward about this as it was clear he was guilty of high treason in raising a
rebellion.
There were hopes that Princess Elizabeth, the future Elizabeth I was involved in the
plot as Mary I could than have sentenced her to death for treason, but this was never proven.
But on the 11th April 1554, Thomas Wyatt was taken out of the Tower of London to await
his execution.
He was taken out of his cell at the tower, and was taken under guard along the short
walk north of the Tower to Tower Hill.
This was the place where many people during the Tudor times such as John Fisher, Sir Thomas
More and Thomas Cromwell lost their heads, and on the day another prominent courtier
would lose his life there.
Whilst in the Tower he had tried to appease his death sentence, by speaking with Edward
Courtenay the Earl of Devon, as Wyatt believed that he was the original one behind the rebellion
and uprising, and he tried to save himself.
But as he was led towards the scaffold, there was a huge crowd gathered, and when on the
scaffold he confessed that it was his fault, and that the rebellion was of his planning.
He did this to allow Princess Elizabeth and the Earl of Devon to be free from any further
action or charges.
But he had been sentenced to being beheaded and then quartered.
It’s not believed he was hanged or drawn, but Wyatt lost his head after an axeman took
his head off clean with his axe.
Following this, his body was then cut up into four pieces and his head was then hung from
a gallows that stood nearby.
His limbs were sent to different towns to act as a brutal reminder not to mess with
Mary I, and they were displayed in prominent places.
However on the 17th April 6 days after his execution, Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger’s
head was stolen from the gallows.
Sir Thomas Wyatt was a rebel who decided to rise up against Queen Mary I. He was a man
who was seen as a competent military leader, and his uprising served as one of the biggest
threats that Mary had to face during her reign on the throne.
He was brutally executed on Tower Hill in front of a large crowd.
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