Hall's Chronicle 1541

Jan 1541. You have heard before in the beginning of this year, that Doctor Wilson, and Doctor Sampson Bishop of Chichester, were sent unto the Tower who now were pardoned of the King, and set again at their liberty.

17 May 1541. In the beginning of this yere, five priests in Yorkshire began a new rebellion, with the assent of one Leigh a gentleman, and nine temporal men, which were apprehended, and shortly after in diverse places put in execution, in so much that on the seventeenth day of May, the said Leigh and one Tattersall, and Thornton, were drawn through London to Tyburn [Map], and there were executed. And Sir John Neville (age 53) knight was executed for the same at York.

27 May 1541. On the same day was Margaret Countess of Salisbury (age 67), which had been long prisoner in the Tower [Map], beheaded in the Tower, and she was the last of the right line and name, of Plantagenet.

09 Jun 1541. The ninth day of June, were Damport and Chapman, two of the King’s Guard, hanged at Greenwich by the Friars Wall, for robberies in example of all other.

[Before 28 Jul 1541]. During this season, the commissioners that before were sent into Ireland, to inquire of the lord Gray (deceased), certified twenty articles of high treason against him, whereupon he was arraigned and tried by knights, because he was a Lord of name, but no Lord of the Parliament. Howbeit he discharged the jury, and confessed the inditement, and thereupon was judged, and after beheaded at the Tower Hill, where he ended his life very quietly and godly.

[28 Jun 1541] In this season was arraigned and condemned three gentlemen, called Mantell, Roydon, and Frowdes, and were hanged at Saint Thomas of Wateringes [Map]. Likewise was Thomas Fiennes (age 26) Lord Dacres of the South, arraigned before the Lord Audley of Walden (age 53), then Chancellor of England, and that day High Steward of the same at Westminster, and there before the said Lord Chancellor and his Peers, he confessed the inditement, and so had judgement to be hanged.

And so the twenty and nine day of June , being Saint Peter’s day at afternoon, he was led on foot, between the two Sheriffs of London, from the Tower through the city to Tyburn [Map], where he was strangled, as common murderers are, and his body buried in the Church of Saint Sepulchres. The cause of the death of this noble man, and the other gentlemen, was a murder of a simple man and an unlawful assembly made in Sussex. Great moan was made for them all, but most especially for Mantell, who was as witty, and toward a gentleman, as any was in the realm, and a man able to have done good service.

10 Dec 1541. At this tyme the Quene (age 18) late before maried to the kyng called Quene Katheryne, was accused to the Kyng of dissolute livyng, before her mariage, with Fraunces Diram (age 28), and that was not secretely, but many knewe it. And sithe her Mariage, she was vehemently suspected with Thomas Culpeper (age 27), whiche was brought to her Chamber at Lyncolne, in August laste, in the Progresse tyme, by the Lady of Rocheforde (age 36), and were there together alone, from a leven of the Clocke at Nighte, tyll foure of the Clocke in the Mornyng, and to hym she gave a Chayne, and a riche Cap. Upon this the kyng removed to London, and she was sent to Sion [Map], and there kepte close, but yet served as Quene. And for the offence confessed by Culpeper and Diram, thei were put to death at Tiborne [Map], the tenth dale of December.

And the twentie and two daie of the same monethe, were arraigned at Westminster, the lorde Wylliam Hawarde and his wife [Margaret Gamage Baroness Howard], which Lorde Wyllyam was Uncle to the Quene, Katheryne Tilney whiche was of counsaill of her havyng to dooe with Diram, Elizabeth Tilney, Bouliner, Restwould, the Quenes women, and Walgrave, and Wyllyam Asby, and Damport gentle menne, and servauntes to the olde Duches of Norffolke, and Margaret Benet a Butter wyfe, all indited of misprision, for concealyng the evill demeanor of the Quene, to the slaunder of the Kyng, and his succession: all thei confessed it, and had Judgement to perpetuall prison, and to lose their goodes, and the proffite of their landes, duryng their lifes: howbeit shortely after, diverse of theim wer delivered by the kynges Pardon.