historicall.y

Aged only seventeen, Lady Jane Grey meet her end at the executioner's axe with courage and dignity. The young girl had been placed on the throne by manipulative relatives and powerful men, who's soul desire was to ensure that the rightful heir to the throne of England- the eldest daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon: Mary Tudor (aka ' Bloody Mary '). After reigning for just thirteen days, Mary's army stormed London and many of Lady Jane's supporters switched sides. Next Mary had herself crowned and arrested her cousin Jane, Jane's husband Guildford Dudley, Guildford's father the Duke of Northumberland and many more people. They were tried for treason and many, if not all, of them were found guilty and sentenced to death. Guildford and Jane were sentenced to be beheaded by the axe whereas Northumberland was executed by hanging- drawing- and- quartering. They were imprisoned in the Tower of London. Because Jane was a Prot...

Thomas Moore was a close friend of Henry VIII and later one of the men he had executed for treason during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It is likely that the king was under the influence of his wife Protestant Anne Boleyn, because she apparently despised the Catholic thinker.   On 1st July 1535, on Tower Hill, Tower of London, Thomas Moore, Tudor scholar, was beheaded because he refused to turn to the new faith that the king had introduced to England. On that day he was martyred. A martyr is a man or woman who dies for their belief (e.g: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Thomas A' Becket, who has been proved to be an ancestor of Anne Boleyn!). The king ordered that the man's severed head was to be displayed as a warning on the bridge. Here is were the legend begins, this is the basic although because it is a legend, there are many version. When the executioner was sent to take down the displayed heads and dispose of them by throwing them into the Thames, Moore's daugh...

Josef Jakobs was the final person to be executed in the Tower of London. He was a German spy found guilty of spying on the British in 1941 and was shot by a firing squad in August of that same year. Jakobs was a German citizen born in Luxembourg on 30th June 1898 to Kasper Jakobs and Emma Lück. He had two sisters called Maria and Therese. In 1905 the Jakobs moved to Berlin. When the First World War began, Jakobs enlisted but, due to health issues, was discharged. However he rejoined in 1916 and was wounded in France in 1918. After the war he studied dentistry in Berlin. In 1924 he opened a practise. Josef Jakobs married a fellow dentist- Margarete Knöffler-  in May, 1924. They had four children; the first was sadly a stillborn, the second was a son called Norbert who passed away in 1963, they had a daughter named Regine who died in 1946 aged just 15 years old and finally a son called Raymond who is currently still alive. Margarete died in 1971. Jakobs and his wife were forced to...

Throughout history, an execution has been seen as an excellent day out for all the family! Now the death penalty has been abolished but if it hadn't and you took your family to see a murderer being hung or beheaded then society would be slightly concerned... This post will tell you exactly what happened at executions and how you could be executed if you committed a serious crime. Please remember that these are mainly the common and most well known methods. Beheading When people think of the Tudors, they usually think of beheadings. Beheading was considered the best way to be executed because it was the quickest way to die if you had a decent executioner. This way of execution meant that you were decapitated. It was usually reserved for the upper classes who have been found guilty usually of treason. and several queens have been executed this way- Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey and Mary Queen of Scots.   Hanging Hanging was the common way to die. A rope...

Joan of Arc is France's favourite saint who was burnt at the stake charged with heresy by the English. She believed that she was called by God to deliver France from their enemies. But she was caught and sold to the English who accused her of heresy and witchcraft and burnt her to death in 1431. Joan was led to her death in Rouen, France on 30th May 1431, aged only 19 years old. After making a speech, which lasted about 30 minutes, asking people to pray for her and forgiving them, which apparently nearly moved some of the English knights to tears, she was tied to the stake. As her last request, she asked for a cross. She was handed a simple wooden crucifix which she tucked inside her clothes. She spent her final moments uttering prayers and forgiving her executioners. Overcome by the smoke, she became unconscious and her head slumped to her chest. The Maid of Orleans breathed her last. Her body was paraded around the square, naked so that everyone could see that she was a wo...

Elizabeth Woodville Elizabeth Woodville In 1464, in the heat of one of the bloodiest wars in the history of England- The Wars of the Roses (aka: The Cousin's Wars), a Lancastrian noble woman married a Yorkist king. Elizabeth Woodville was the daughter of Jacquetta of Luxembourg and Richard Woodville, 1st earl of Rivers. Elizabeth was born in 1436 on the 3rd January in Grafton Regis, one of thirteen siblings! At the time of Elizabeth's birth, the Rivers were a mid- ranking noble family; her marriage to King Edward IV caused such a scandal because the king was expected to marry for politics rather than love and Elizabeth was not high- ranking.  The Wars of the Roses was an extremely brutal war. The first battle was fought on 22nd May 1455. The leader of the Yorks was Richard, Duke of York (father of Edward IV, George Duke of Clarence and Richard Duke of Gloucester) and the leader of the Lancastrians was Henry VI. Both the Yorks and the Lancastrians were descendants ...