“These bloody days have broken my heart”, wrote Tudor poet, Thomas Wyatt, after witnessing the executions of five men, and then Anne Boleyn, from his prison in the Tower of London’s Bell Tower. Those days of May 1536 were indeed “bloody” and the 17th May saw the executions of five men, all former royal favourites, for high treason. The men’s sentences were commuted by the King, in his mercy, from hanging, drawing and quartering at Tyburn to beheading at Tower Hill. It was a small mercy.“These bloody days have broken my heart”, wrote Tudor poet, Thomas Wyatt, after witnessing the executions of five men, and then Anne Boleyn, from his prison in the Tower of London’s Bell Tower. Those days of May 1536 were indeed “bloody” and the 17th May saw the executions of five men, all former royal favourites, for high treason. The men’s sentences were commuted by the King, in his mercy, from hanging, drawing and quartering at Tyburn to beheading at Tower Hill. It was a small mercy.
“These bloody days have broken my heart”, wrote Tudor poet, Thomas Wyatt, after witnessing the executions of five men, and then Anne Boleyn, from his prison in the Tower of London’s Bell Tower. Those days of May 1536 were indeed “bloody” and the 17th May saw the executions of five men, all former royal favourites, for high treason. The men’s sentences were commuted by the King, in his mercy, from hanging, drawing and quartering at Tyburn to beheading at Tower Hill. It was a small mercy.