The Tudor Society
  • December 10 – A tortured priest is executed

    The Little Ease at the Tower of London and an engraving of St Edmund Jennings, the Catholic martyr.

    On this day in Tudor history, 10th December 1591, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Edmund Gennings and Swithin Wells were executed on a scaffold set up outside Wells’ house at Holborn.

    Gennings, a Roman Catholic priest, had been celebrating mass at Wells’ home when the famous Elizabethan priestfinder and torturer, Richard Topcliffe, found them. Topcliffe had Gennings thrown into the Little Ease.

    Find out more about St Edmund Gennings and St Swithin Wells, and their sad ends…

    [Read More...]
  • 10 December – A priest was tortured and executed by a priestfinder, and the execution of Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham

    On this day in Tudor history, 10th December 1591, Roman Catholic priest Edmund Gennings and Catholic Swithin Wells were executed on a scaffold set up outside Wells’ house at Holborn.

    Gennings had been caught celebrating mass at Wells’ home by the famous Elizabethan priestfinder and torturer, Richard Topcliffe, who punished him by throwing him into the Little Ease.

    Find out more about St Edmund Gennings and St Swithin Wells, and their sad ends, in this talk…

    [Read More...]
  • 10 December – A priest caught by a priestfinder and torturer

    On this day in Tudor history, 10th December 1591, Roman Catholic priest Edmund Gennings and Catholic were executed on a scaffold set up outside Wells’ house at Holborn.

    Gennings had been caught celebrating mass at Wells’ home by the famous Elizabethan priestfinder and torturer, Richard Topcliffe, who punished him by throwing him into the Little Ease.

    Find out more about St Edmund Gennings and St Swithin Wells, and their sad ends, in today’s talk.

    [Read More...]