On this day in Tudor history, 17th May, Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, was executed for treason; five men were executed as traitors for their involvement with Queen Anne Boleyn; and Elizabethan spy Anthony Bacon was buried…
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#OTD in Tudor history – 17 May
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May 17 – Five men are executed for sleeping with a queen
On this day in Tudor history, 17th May 1536, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford; Sir Henry Norris, groom of the stool; courtier Sir Francis Weston; courtier William Brereton, and musician Mark Smeaton were beheaded on Tower Hill for treason.
The five men had all been condemned to death after being found guilty of sleeping with Queen Anne Boleyn and conspiring with her to kill her husband, King Henry VIII.
Poet Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, who'd also been arrested and imprisoned in May 1536 in Anne's fall, witnessed their executions from his prison in the Bell Tower.
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17 May – Around the throne the thunder rolls
On 17th May 1536, poet, courtier and diplomat Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London, witnessed the executions of his fellow courtiers, George Boleyn, Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton and Mark Smeaton.
Hear some of what he wrote about that awful day.
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