Tyburn: London's Fatal Tree by Alan Brooke, David Brandon
Authors: Alan Brooke, David Brandon
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Haydock, the youngest and the weakest in health. An eye-witness described him as ‘a man of complexion fayre, of countenance milde and in professing of his faith passing stoute’. He recited prayers all the way to Tyburn and acknowledged Elizabeth as his rightful queen but confessed that he had called her a heretic and then expressed the wish that all Catholics would pray for him and his country. To this, one bystander retorted by crying, ‘Here be noe Catholicks’. The cart was then driven away and the attendant is said to have pulled the rope several times before Haydock fell. He was then disembowelled while alive. A similar fate awaited the others. Insult was added to injury in the case of Fenn who was stripped of all his clothes except his shirt. After the cart was driven away even his shirt was pulled off his back, so that he hung stark naked, ‘whereat the people muttered greatly’, as well they might.
Between 1581 and 1603, no fewer than 180 Catholics were executed for treason, the vast majority of them at Tyburn. In 1604 Thomas Alfield would have had every reason to feel aggrieved. He was executed at Tyburn after receiving a reprieve which for some unknown reason arrived too late to save him. On occasion, punishment on the scaffold might be modified. For example, Polydore Plasden, also known as Oliver Palmer, at his execution stoutly declared that Elizabeth was his lawful queen whom he would defend to the best of his power against all her enemies and continued by saying that he would pray for her and her whole realm. On the orders of Sir Walter Raleigh, he was allowed the privilege of hanging until he was dead, rather than being cut down and disembowelled while still alive. However, Eustace White who went to the scaffold at the same time as Plasden was not so fortunate. He was cut down alive and managed to rise to his feet only to be tripped up, whereupon two men stood on his arms while the executioner butchered him.
The authorities responded to the displays of Catholic martyrdom from the 1580s by executing priests along with other felons in order to blur the religious significance of martyrdom by associating those who died for their beliefs with others who were hanged for serious criminal activity. This action tended to rebound somewhat because Catholics then likened their deaths to that of Christ, who was flanked on the cross by common thieves. Another similarity with Christ was the attempt made by several priests to convert condemned felons during imprisonment or on the way to execution. The night before he was executed, the priest William Pattenson converted six out of seven of his fellow occupants of the condemned cell. Not all those indicted for treason were Catholic priests, however. For writing seditious books, Henry Barrow, John Greenwood and Robert Bowley were executed at Tyburn in March 1593.
On 7 June 1594 Roderigo Lopez was hanged and quartered at Tyburn. He was a Spanish Jew who had settled in England in 1559 and become a house physician at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He attended Sir Francis Walsingham and the Earl of Essex and in 1586 Elizabeth had appointed him as her chief physician. Because of his knowledge Lopez proved to be useful to both the English Crown and to Spain. Lord Burghley, Elizabeth’s chief minister, used Lopez as an interpreter but also as a source of intelligence about Spain and Portugal. His fall from favour began when a group of Spaniards tried to use him in a plot to poison Elizabeth. Lopez was offered a gold ring and a substantial financial bribe to carry the assassination out. However, the conspirators’ correspondence, which was written in code, was seized by Walsingham’s spies and Lopez and some of the conspirators were arrested and charged with treason. Under torture Lopez was confirmed as being involved. He confessed but then recanted. It did him no good. He was carried in the customary fashion on a hurdle from Westminster to Tyburn. While on the gallows, Lopez,
Between 1581 and 1603, no fewer than 180 Catholics were executed for treason, the vast majority of them at Tyburn. In 1604 Thomas Alfield would have had every reason to feel aggrieved. He was executed at Tyburn after receiving a reprieve which for some unknown reason arrived too late to save him. On occasion, punishment on the scaffold might be modified. For example, Polydore Plasden, also known as Oliver Palmer, at his execution stoutly declared that Elizabeth was his lawful queen whom he would defend to the best of his power against all her enemies and continued by saying that he would pray for her and her whole realm. On the orders of Sir Walter Raleigh, he was allowed the privilege of hanging until he was dead, rather than being cut down and disembowelled while still alive. However, Eustace White who went to the scaffold at the same time as Plasden was not so fortunate. He was cut down alive and managed to rise to his feet only to be tripped up, whereupon two men stood on his arms while the executioner butchered him.
The authorities responded to the displays of Catholic martyrdom from the 1580s by executing priests along with other felons in order to blur the religious significance of martyrdom by associating those who died for their beliefs with others who were hanged for serious criminal activity. This action tended to rebound somewhat because Catholics then likened their deaths to that of Christ, who was flanked on the cross by common thieves. Another similarity with Christ was the attempt made by several priests to convert condemned felons during imprisonment or on the way to execution. The night before he was executed, the priest William Pattenson converted six out of seven of his fellow occupants of the condemned cell. Not all those indicted for treason were Catholic priests, however. For writing seditious books, Henry Barrow, John Greenwood and Robert Bowley were executed at Tyburn in March 1593.
On 7 June 1594 Roderigo Lopez was hanged and quartered at Tyburn. He was a Spanish Jew who had settled in England in 1559 and become a house physician at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He attended Sir Francis Walsingham and the Earl of Essex and in 1586 Elizabeth had appointed him as her chief physician. Because of his knowledge Lopez proved to be useful to both the English Crown and to Spain. Lord Burghley, Elizabeth’s chief minister, used Lopez as an interpreter but also as a source of intelligence about Spain and Portugal. His fall from favour began when a group of Spaniards tried to use him in a plot to poison Elizabeth. Lopez was offered a gold ring and a substantial financial bribe to carry the assassination out. However, the conspirators’ correspondence, which was written in code, was seized by Walsingham’s spies and Lopez and some of the conspirators were arrested and charged with treason. Under torture Lopez was confirmed as being involved. He confessed but then recanted. It did him no good. He was carried in the customary fashion on a hurdle from Westminster to Tyburn. While on the gallows, Lopez,
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