import/englishhistory.net/tudor/somerset.html url indexed_doc HTMLPlugin 3357 englishhistory.net/tudor somerset.html somerset.html en windows_1252 Primary Sources: The execution of the duke of Somerset, 1552 HTML http://englishhistory.net/tudor/somerset.html http://englishhistory.net/tudor/somerset.html HASH0144a552cf4079e32cc6d23d 1781502979 20260615 1781502987 20260615 HASH0144.dir somerset.gif:image/gif: <div align="center"> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="4" width="94%"> <tr> <td valign="bottom" colspan="3"> <p align="center"> <br> <p align="center"> <img border="0" src="_httpdocimg_/somerset.gif" width="537" height="80"><p align="center"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="48%" bgcolor="#FFFFE8"><font size=-1>This account of Somerset's execution was made by Henry Machyn, a London undertaker.</font><p> <font size="-1">Somerset was the brother of Henry VIII's third wife Jane Seymour and thus uncle to King Edward VI.  He was a popular leader amongst the common people.  He attempted to reform agricultural policies and led a successful army against the Scots.  But the treachery of his younger brother (whom he was forced to execute) and the ambitions of other noblemen (most notably the earl of Warwick) doomed him.</font><br> <br> </td> <td width="4%"></td> <td valign="top" width="48%"> <p align="left">On 22 January, soon after 8 o'clock in the morning, the duke of Somerset was beheaded on Tower Hill.  There was as great a company as has been seen... the king's guard being there with their halberds and a thousand more with halberds of the privilege of the Tower, Ratcliffe, Limehouse, Whitechapel, St Katherine's and Stratford Bow, as well as Hoxton and Shoreditch; and the two sheriffs being present there, seeing the execution of my lord, and his head being cut off, and shortly after his body was put into a coffin and carried into the Tower, and there buried in the church, on the northside of the choir of St Peter's, and I beseech God to have mercy on his soul, amen!  And there was a sudden rumbling a little before he died, as if it had been guns shooting and great horses coming, so that a thousand fell to the ground for fear, for they who were at one side thought no other but that one was killing another, so that they fell down to the ground, one upon another with their halberds, some fell into the ditch of the Tower and other places, and a hundred into the Tower ditch, and some ran away for fear. <br> <p align="center"><a href="_httpextlink_&rl=1&href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fprimary.html"> <font size="2">to Primary Sources</font></a></td> </tr> </table> </center> </div> <script language="JavaScript" src="_httpextlink_&rl=0&href=http:%2f%2fhostingprod.com%2fjs%5fsource%2fgeov2.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="_httpextlink_&rl=0&el=direct&href=http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1108082604" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript> <IMG SRC="_httpextlink_&rl=0&el=direct&href=http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=76001524&t=1108082604" ALT=1 WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1>