2 Botched Beheadings of the Tudors

The Tudor monarchs executed many of their nobility, but some of these weren’t straightforward and were in fact botched, taking several attempts to sever head from body. And it wasn’t just men either who suffered under the headman’s axe. This post will briefly cover the stories of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, who was executed on the orders of Henry VIII in 1541, and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who was executed on the orders of Elizabeth I in 1601.

One of the most shocking of the Tudor noble executions was that of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury in 1541. Her father was executed in 1478 by Edward IV, her brother in 1499 by Henry VII, and her son in 1539 by Henry VIII. Margaret was born with royal blood, and she and her family suffered the consequences. Margaret was aged 67 when she was killed, and it was quite unusual for someone to live to that age in the sixteenth century, let alone be executed at that age!

Henry VIII had become paranoid in his fear of a Catholic invasion of England and decided to clear the Tower of London of potential supporters of a foreign invasion and any notable Catholics before his progress to the north in 1541. Margaret Pole was woken early on 27 May 1541 after two years imprisoned in the Tower of London, and was told that she would die that morning at 7am. She walked to the block within the Tower walls on Tower Green, with no scaffold.

Margaret Pole was granted a private execution on Tower Green within the Tower rather than on the public Tower Hill. The French ambassador, de Marillac, wrote to Francis I of France that ‘those here are afraid to put to death publicly those whom they execute in secret’.ⁱ Legend says that Margaret initially refused to put her head on the block because she wasn’t guilty of anything. The usual executioner wasn’t available for the execution, so an unexperienced youth was chosen to carry it out who hacked away at Margaret’s head and shoulders before managing to sever the head.

Margaret’s son, Reginald Pole, is said to have claimed that ‘I am now the son of a martyr whom the King of England hath brought to the scaffold although she was seventy years old and his own near relation, for her perseverance in the Catholic faith’.ⁱⁱ There have been alleged sightings of the ghost of Margaret Pole being chased by a phantom executioner at the Tower of London, and even that a spectral axe has been seen to fall at the scene of her death.ⁱⁱⁱ Ghostly visions seem to be common from the Tudor times, particularly when it comes to people who were executed, and even more popular with executed women!

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

Robert Devereux’s execution was the last major execution of the Tudor age, and he was Elizabeth I’s last favourite, the stepson of her great love, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. He had a chequered career with failed expeditions and a disastrous command in Ireland. The last straw for Elizabeth was when he deserted command in Ireland and entered her bedchamber without permission. He was put under house arrest.

Privy councillors visited Essex’s house in London to question him, and he locked them in while he went on a march through London towards Whitehall to persuade the queen to restore him. However, one of his followers got cold feet and let the privy councillors go, and Essex and his followers ran into trouble. Essex escaped with a bullet hole in his hat, but one of his servants was killed as a result of the small skirmish.

The historian Anne Somerset claimed that Essex ‘took to railing against the queen in a frenzied manner that suggested to some of his acquaintances that he was no longer altogether sane’.^iv Essex was again arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. At 1am on 25 February 1601 the Lieutenant of the Tower, Richard Berkeley, informed Essex that he was to be executed that very morning. The queen granted his request for a private execution on Tower Green within the Tower. It took 3 strokes to sever his head from his body as he recited the 51st psalm.

Essex’s friend and accomplice in his rebellion, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, wrote to his wife after they had been arrested that ‘God’s will must be done and what is allotted to us by destiny cannot be avoided’.^v Southampton would survive, with Essex pleading for his life. During the reign of James I, a ballad was published about Essex’s fate, almost romantic:

Farewell Elizabeth my gracious Queene,

God blesse thee and thy Councell all:

Farewell you Knights of Chivalry,

farewell my Souldiers stout and tall.^vi

With Robert Devereux’s execution, Elizabeth I almost lost her will to survive. She had lost so many friends over the preceding few months and years and Essex’s actions may have contributed to the queen’s death just 2 years later.

These two examples of botched beheadings show that executions weren’t just about death, but no doubt the fear of a slow and painful death.