On this day in Tudor history, 11th August 1534, or shortly before, the friars observant were expelled from their religious houses due to their support of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife, and their refusal to accept the king as supreme head of the Church in England.
These men were treated abominably by Henry VIII and his government and you can find out about their treatment and their fates in today's talk.
Here are the other videos mentioned:
ttps://youtu.be/kFeYN34OA9M
Also on this day in history:
- 1556 – Death of Sir John Kingsmill, politician and a man who had been close to Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Wriothesley. He served as Sheriff in the reign of Henry VIII and as a Commissioner for the Dissolution of Chantries in 1548 to Edward VI.
- 1575 – Death of Alexander Home, 5th Lord Home, in Friar Wynd, Scotland. Home was imprisoned after the 1573 fall of Edinburgh Castle and the garrison loyal to Mary, Queen of Scots.
- 1581 – Death of Sir Maurice Berkeley, Gentleman Usher of Henry VIII's Privy Chamber. Berkeley served Edward VI as a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, and was the man who arrested the rebel Thomas Wyatt the Younger in Mary I's reign.
Abominable treatment of such holy men and the Friars at Greenwich had married Henry and Katherine had they not? Wasn’t it in their chapel the King and Queen had been married? Blessed John Forrest was very nasty! Our local Catholic Church is cared for by the Observant Friars of Saint Francis of Assisi, the English Greyfriars. Ironically Richard iii was buried in the Greyfriars Priory in Leicester. It is also ironic that both Katherine and Henry had a great devotion to these same Observant Friars which explains her dying wish to be buried there. That makes it even more horrible that Henry treated this group of holy men in such a cruel and atrocious manner. Starvation, hanging in chains, prison, torture, death, a full traitors death, all ordered by Thomas Cromwell in order to pacify Henry Viii as Supreme Head of the Church.
That should say the treatment and execution of Blessed John Forrest was particularly nasty, not that Blessed John Forrest was particularly nasty. This was a very painful execution and again an ironic that Hugh Latimer made the sermon on this man’s execution, when he was later martyred as well under Mary.