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SIR THOMAS MORE

Date of Birth: February 7, 1478

Date of Death: July 6, 1535 

Crime: High Treason for denying the validity of the Act of Supremacy 

 

Biography

Thomas More was born on Milk Street in London to John and Agnes More.  His father was an attorney who primarily represented London merchants and became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas and Court of the King’s Bench.  His father had also inherited land so the family was decidedly middle class.  Thomas attended St. Anthony’s free school until he was twelve when he became page for the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Morton. When he was fourteen he entered Oxford University where he studied for two years before preceding on for his legal training at New Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery and lastly Lincoln’s Inn, one of the Inns of Court.

More had four children by his first wife Jane Colt who died in 1511, six years after their marriage.  Jane was not well educated so More proceed to introduce her to music as well as literature.  Unusual for the time, More insisted that his daughters have the same educational opportunities as his son. 

In addition to practicing law More was a politician, statesman, and author and aptly described by Peter Ackroyd as a “London humanists.”  Along the way he was knighted and accepted various positions and titles including: Speaker of the House of Commons, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord Chancellor of England.  More was a prolific writer with some of his most well known works being: The History of King Richard the Third, Utopia and A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, which he wrote while awaiting trial in the Tower of London.  

 

Trial and Execution 

In 1509 More wrote a Coronation Ode of King Henry VIII, reflecting the exuberance felt throughout the kingdom. 

“Laws, heretofore powerless—yes, even laws put to unjust ends—now happily have regained their proper authority.

All are equally happy.  All weigh their earlier losses against the advantages to come.”1 

More expected the youthful King to promote the arts and education but found instead that the King’s desire for a legal male heir drove him to advance the concept of Praemunire which had been successfully used to limit Papal influence in England since the late fourteenth century.  A 1534 sample of the provision is provided in the Exhibits section.  The provision elevated the rights of the king and the common law courts above cannon law or clerical courts.  With the annulment of his eighteen-year marriage to Catherine of Aragon denied by Pope Clement VII, Henry moved to establish the Church of England with himself as the Supreme Head. This was all done with the blessing of Parliament, which passed the Act of Supremacy in 1534 (see Exhibits section).  This Act is significant on many levels as it not only defied papal authority and led the way for reformation but it included an oath to the King recognizing his authority over all, church and state.  This is the law that sent Thomas More to the scaffold on a charge of high treason.  

Parliament passed the Treason Act (see Exhibits) shortly after the Act of Supremacy.  This Act made it a capital offence to call the King a heretic, schismatic, tyrant or infidel.  This was followed by Parliaments’ Act of Attainder against More which charge him with intending to sow sedition by refusing the oath of succession.2  By this time More was in the Tower of London and his fate was being guided by Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex and chief minister to the King, who was a reformation advocate and intent on arranging a marriage between Henry and Anne of Cleves.  More’s support of the Catholic Church, Cromwell’s and Parliament’s support of the King and the King’s desire for control all met at More’s trial in Westminster Hall (see the attached video on the next page of More pleading his case). More argued his case, most say brilliantly, calling God’s law above all others but the jury of twelve men found him guilty.  The former counselor to the King probably was not surprised, as a verdict of innocent would surely have brought the jurors to their death.  He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, but the King commuted his execution to decapitation.

 

Historic Significance 

The Reformation Parliament (1529-1536) under King Henry VIII changed the nature of Parliament, the authority of the monarchy in England and the relationship between the Church of England and the Pope.  The power over life and death, heaven and earth shifted from Rome to London in less than five years.  Henry VIII knew he needed the statues Parliament passed to affirm his authority over the citizens and like any tyrant he used decapitation to focalize his hierarchy and project the power of the state and authority of its head.3

 

  

1 Thomas More, “Coronation Ode of King Henry VIII”, Center for Thomas More Studies, http://www.thomasmorestudies.org

2 Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More (First Anchor Books, 1999) Loc 7347.

3 Regina Janes, Losing Our Heads: Beheadings in Literature and Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2005) Loc 964.