Browse Exhibits (9 total)

Katherine Howard

11 Dec. 1442. About Katharine Howard.
R. O. “The saying of Anne Fox,” 11 Dec., at Ridinge, being at supper with Mr. Penison's chaplain and other servants, named, that she “did know for a year past that the Queen was of ill disposition.” She knew it “by a Observant and another that was wont to call her sister,” who were “not within a hundred miles.”
P. 1.

Fisher and More

The xxij. day of June was doctor Fyshar, byshope of Rochestar, behedyd at ye Towre hyll, [his body buryed at Barkynge ]. The xvj. day of Julii syr Thomas More was behedyd at Tour hyll  [then ye body of byshope of Rochestar was taken vp, & wt ye body of s. Thomas More buryd in ye Towre]. 

'A London Chronicle: Henry VIII', Two London Chronicles from the Collections of John Stow (1910), pp. 1-17. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=81143 Date accessed: 17 April 2013.


Act of Supremacy, 1534

 

Luminarium Encyclopedia

www.liminarium.org

National Archives, UK

By the 1530s Henry VIII needed the broad agreement of the realm for the massive changes created by the Reformation. Here, in the Act of Supremacy, he is invoking the authority of Parliament to proclaim the declared wishes of the convocations of clergy that had already agreed to his becoming the head of the Church of England.

Henry VIII's reign witnessed many far-reaching changes to the structure of a society that was still essentially medieval. Despite its bombastic language, this proclamation gives an indication of how the monarch could use the function of Parliament to define and modify the English state that he or she upheld. 
Catalogue reference: C 65/143, m. 5, nos. 8 and 9 (1534)


Transcript
c65-143a.gif

Praemunire

{FS}
a A barbarous word for praemonere.
b Old Nat. Brev. 101. edit. 1534.
.{FE}
that
.P 103
PUBLIC WRONGS.
Book IV. 
Ch. 8.
that antient univerfal obfervation; that, in all ages and in all countries, civil and ecclefiaftical tyranny are mutually productive of each other. And it is the glory of the church of England, as well as a ftrong prefumptive argument in favour of the purity of her faith, that fhe hath been (as her prelates on a trying occafion once expreffed it c) in her principles and practice ever moft unqueftionably loyal. The clergy of her perfuafion, holy in their alfo moderate in their ambition, and entertain juft notions of the ties of fociety and the rights of civil government. As in mattes of faith and morality they acknowlege no guide but the fcriptures, fo, in matters of external polity and of private right, they derive all their title from the civil magiftrate; they look up to the king as their head, to the parliament as their lawgiver, and pride themfelves in nothing fo juftly, as in being true members of the church, emphatically by law eftablifhed. Whereas the principles of thofe who differ from them, as well in one extreme as the other, are equally and totally deftructive of thofe ties and obligations by which all fociety is kept together; equally encroaching on thofe rights, which reafon and the original contract of every free ftate in the univerfe have vefted in the fovereign power; and equally aiming at a diftinct independent fupremacy of their own, where fpiritual men and fpiritual caufes are concerned. The dreadful effects of fuch a religious bigotry, when actuated by erroneous principles, even of the proteftant kind, are fufficiently evident from the hiftory of the anabaptifts in Germany, the covenanters in Scotland, and that deluge of fectaries in England, who murdered their fovereign, overturned the church and monarchy, fhook every pillar of law, juftice, and private property, and moft devoutly eftablifhed a kingdom of the faints in their ftead. But thefe horrid devaftations, the effects of mere madnefs or of zeal that was nearly allied to it, though violent and tumultuous, were but of a fhort duration. Whereas the progrefs of the papal policy, long actuated by the fteady counfels of fucceffive pontiffs,

The Treasons Act of 1534

THE TREASONS ACT, A. D. 1534,

 Transcr. Statutes of the Realm, iii. 508.

 

 

26 HENRY VIII, CAP. 11

 

Forasmuch as it is most necessary, both for common policy and duty of subjects, above all things to prohibit, provide, restrain, and extinct all manner of shameful slanders, perils, or imminent danger or dangers, which might grow, happen, or rise to their sovereign lord the king, the queen, or their heirs, which when they be heard, seen, or under­stood, cannot be but odible, and also abhorred of all those sorts that he true and loving subjects, if in any point they may do, or shall touch the king, his queen, their heirs or successors, upon which dependeth the whole unity and universal weal of this realm, without providing wherefore too great a scope of unreasonable liberty should be given to all cankered and traitorous hearts, willers and workers of the same; and also the king's loving subjects should not declare unto their sovereign lord now being, which unto them has been, and is most entirely both beloved and esteemed, their undoubted sincerity and truth.

 

Be it therefore enacted by the assent and consent of our sovereign lord the king, and the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if any person or persons, after the first day of February next coming, do maliciously wish, will, or desire, by words or writing, or by craft imagine, invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the king's most royal person, the queen's, or their heirs apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of their dignity, title, or name of their royal estates, or slanderously and maliciously publish and pronounce, by express writing or words, that the king our sovereign lord should be heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel or usurper of the crown, or rebelliously do detain, keep, or withhold from our said sovereign lord, his heirs or succes­sors, any of his or their castles, fortresses,fortalices, or holds within this realm, or in any other the king's dominions or marches, or rebelliously detain, keep, or withhold from the king's said highness, his heirs or successors, any of his or their ships, ordnances, artillery, or other munitions or fortifications of war, and do not humbly render and give up to our said sovereign lord, his heirs or successors, or to such persons as shall be deputed by them, such castles, fortresses, fortalices, holds, ships, ordnances, artillery, and other munitions and fortifications of war, rebelliously kept or detained, within six days next after they shall be com­manded by our said sovereign lord, his heirs or successors, by open proclamation under the great seal:

 

That then every such person and persons so offending in any the premises, after the said first day of February, their aiders, counsellors, consenters, and abettors, being thereof lawfully convicted according to the laws and customs of this realm, shall be adjudged traitors, and that every such offence in any the premises, that shall he committed or done after the said first day of February, shall be reputed, accepted, and adjudged high treason, and the offenders therein and their aiders, consenters, counsellors, and abet­tors, being lawfully convicted of any such offence as is aforesaid, shall have and suffer such pains of death and other penalties, as is limited and accustomed in cases of high treason.

 

And to the intent that all treasons should be the more dread, hated and detested to be done by any person or persons, and also because it is a great boldness and an occasion to ill-disposed persons, to adventure and embrace their malicious intents and enterprises, which all true subjects ought to study to eschew: be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, that none offender in any kinds of high treasons whatsoever they be, their aiders, consenters, counsellers, nor abettors, shall be admitted to have the benefit or privilege of any manner of sanctuary, considering that matters of treasons touch so nigh both the surety of the king our sovereign lord's person, and his heirs and successors.

 

And over that, be it enacted by authority aforesaid, that if any of the king's subjects, denizens or other, do commit or practise out of the limits of this realm, in any outward parts, any such offences, which by this Act are made, or heretofore have been made treason, that then such treasons, whatsoever they be, or wheresoever they shall happen so to be done or committed, shall be inquired and presented by the oaths of twelve good and lawful men, upon good and probable evidence and witness, in such shire and county or this realm, and before such persons as it shall please the king's highness to appoint by commission under his great seal, in like manner and form as treasons committed within this realm have been used to be inquired of and presented; and that upon every indictment and presentment found and made of any such treasons, and certified into the King's Bench, like process and other circumstance shall be there had and made against the offenders, as if the same treasons, so presented, had been lawfully found to be done and committed within the limits of this realm. And that all process of outlawry hereafter to be made and had within this realm against any offenders in treason, being resident or inhabited out of the limits of this realm, or in any of the parts of beyond the sea, at the time of the outlawry pronounced against them, shall be as good and as effectual in the law to all intents and purposes, as if such offenders had been resident and dwelling within this realm at the time of such process awarded, and outlawry pronounced.

 

And be it further enacted by authority aforesaid, that every offender and offenders, being hereafter lawfully convicted of any manner of high treasons, by presentment, confession, verdict or process of outlawry, according to the due course and custom of the common laws of this realm, shall lose and forfeit to the king's highness, his heirs and successors, all such lands, tenements, and hereditaments, which any such offender or offenders shall have of any estate of inheritance in use or possession, by any right, title, or means, within this realm of England, or elsewhere, within any of the king's dominions, at the time of any such treason committed, or any time after; saving to every person and persons, their heirs and successors (other than the offenders in any treasons, their heirs and successors, and such person and persons as claim to any their uses), all such rights, titles, interests, possessions, leases, rents, offices, and other profits, which they shall have at the day of committing such treasons, or any time afore, in as large and ample manner as if this Act had never been had nor made.

,

Death Warrant for Mary Queen of Scots

MQOS_1.jpg

Death Warrant for Charles I

kingcharles_big.jpg

Death Warrant of Charles I of England. 1648. (Parliamentary Archives, London). http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/rise_parliament/making_history_rise.htm

Lady Jane Grey's Signature

janegreysig.jpg

This signature was used against Jane as evidence for her treason.

Signature of Lady Jane Grey. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Lady_Jane_Grey_Signature.svg

King Henry VIII love letter to Anne Boleyln

?m=02&d=20090423&t=2&i=9822230&w=320&fh=