On this day in Tudor history, 26th November 1585, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Catholic priest Hugh Taylor and his friend Marmaduke Bowes were hanged at York.

Taylor and Bowes were the first Catholics executed under the new law. Elizabeth I’s 1585 statute made it treason to be a Jesuit or seminary priest in England or to harbour such a priest.

In 1987, Pope John Paul II beatified Taylor and Bowes as two of the 85 Martyrs of England, Scotland and Wales.

Find out more about these men and what this 1585 legislation was all about…