The Tudor Society

  • December 1 – Priest Alexander Briant is executed

    1 year ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    No comment yet
    Alexander Briant by Matthaus Greuter (Greuther), or by Paul Maupin (Maupain) line engraving, National Portrait Gallery.

    On this day in Tudor history, 1st December 1581, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Alexander Briant was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, along with Ralph Sherwin and Edmund Campion.

    The twenty-five-year-old Roman Catholic priest had been imprisoned, and had suffered being starved, racked and tortured in other awful ways, but claimed that he felt no pain due to God’s help. He also refused to give his interrogators the information they wanted. Briant was tried for treason and suffered a full traitor’s death.

    [Read More...]

  • 1 December – A Catholic priest was tortured then executed and Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were found guilty of high treason

    2 years ago Author: Joel Ridgway
    No comment yet

    On this day in Tudor history, 1st December 1581, twenty-five-year-old Roman Catholic priest Alexander Briant was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, along with Ralph Sherwin and Edmund Campion.

    Briant had been imprisoned, starved, racked and tortured in other awful ways, but he claimed that he felt no pain due to God’s help. He refused to give his interrogators the information he wanted, and he was tried for treason and suffered a full traitor’s death.

    In this talk, I share Alexander Briant’s story, what led to his arrest, his account of what happened when he was tortured and his fellow prisoner’s account of what was done to him.

    [Read More...]

  • 1 December – A Catholic priest is tortured then executed

    3 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    No comment yet

    On this day in Tudor history, 1st December 1581, twenty-five-year-old Roman Catholic priest Alexander Briant was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, along with Ralph Sherwin and Edmund Campion.

    Briant had been imprisoned, starved, racked and tortured in other awful ways, but he claimed that he felt no pain due to God’s help. He refused to give his interrogators the information he wanted, and he was tried for treason and suffered a full traitor’s death.

    In today’s talk, I share Alexander Briant’s story, what led to his arrest, his account of what happened when he was tortured and his fellow prisoner’s account of what was done to him.

    [Read More...]

  • 1 December 1581 – The martyrdom of St Alexander Briant

    4 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    1 Comment

    Today marks the feast day of St Alexander Briant, the Roman Catholic priest who was hanged, drawn and quartered on 1st December 1581 at Tyburn.

    Briant studied at Hart Hall and Balliol College, Oxford, where his tutors included Richard Holtby and Robert Persons, who later became Jesuits. Their influence led to him abandoning his studies and joining the seminary at Douai. On 29th March 1578, he was ordained as a priest and in August 1579, he was sent on a mission to England.

    [Read More...]