The Tudor Society

  • May 29 – The hanging of John Penry, and a fire-breathing dragon on the Thames

    1 year ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in Tudor history, 29th May 1593, Welsh religious controversialist, and a man regarded by Welsh historians as the pioneer of Welsh nonconformity, John Penry was hanged at St Thomas-a-Watering in Surrey.

    John Penry was linked to the Martin Marprelate tracts and the resulting Marprelate Controversy, not for writing them, but for helping to run the secret press that printed them.

    Find out more about Penry, his life and his work, and his involvement with these tracts, and how appealing to William Cecil didn’t save him from the hangman’s noose…

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  • 29 May – John Penry and his scandalous writings

    3 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in Tudor history, 29th May 1593, Welsh religious controversialist, and a man regarded by Welsh historians as the pioneer of Welsh nonconformity, John Penry was hanged at St Thomas-a-Watering in Surrey.

    John Penry was linked to the Martin Marprelate tracts and the resulting Marprelate Controversy, not for writing them, but for helping to run the secret press that printed them.

    Find out more about Penry, his life and his work, and his involvement with these tracts, and how appealing to William Cecil didn’t save him from the hangman’s noose, in today’s talk.

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  • The Marprelate Controversy

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history, 23rd February 1601, Job Throckmorton, religious pamphleteer and Member of Parliament, was buried at Haseley in Warwickshire.

    It is believed that Throckmorton was one of the men responsible for the “Martin Marprelate tracts”. These religious tracts, which attacked the established church, were written under the pseudonym Martin Marprelate (and his sons) and published in 1588 and 1589 by John Penry and Robert Waldegrave.

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