Henry VIII’s execution note to go on display at museum
Written by News on 03/05/2018
A notice demanding the grisly death of an abbot by King Henry VIII is to go on display to the public.
The bloodthirsty letter was written in response to the news that Henry VIII’s attempted closure of Norton Abbey had been scuppered.
He ordered the death of the abbot, initially by hanging, drawing and quartering, before putting him on public display.
But the note, thought to have been dictated to a secretary in October 1536, has those brutal directions crossed out and changed to a simple hanging.
The letter will go on display at Cheshire’s Norton Priory Museum from Saturday, along with a silver-gilt monstrance.
Sean Cunningham, Head of Medieval at The National Archives, said: “As a king with a reputation for delegation of the routine business of state, this draft signet warrant shows that Henry VIII did, in fact, take a very close interest in events that threatened his power and undermined his sovereignty.
“We can almost hear his outrage as he decides on the most effective response to the news of events at Norton Abbey.
“Although ministers like Wolsey and Cromwell were famous for doing most of the bureaucratic moving-and-shaking on Henry’s behalf, the king was educated and intelligent enough to know when and how to bend the system to his will when necessary.”
The Dissolution of the Monasteries was started by Henry VIII in 1536 and resulted in the closure of small monasteries across Britain, with the land being returned to the Crown.
In August of that year, Sir Piers Dutton told Oliver Cromwell that he had taken the abbot, and wrote to request a replacement.
Two months later, the abbot and his men had gathered together hundreds of people to support them in threatening to attack the king’s commissioners.
It is at this point that Henry VIII wrote the letter ordering his execution, but historical records show he was not killed after all.
A quelling of the rebellions led to his release the following year.
(c) Sky News 2018: Henry VIII’s execution note to go on display at museum
