Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and conventions
- 1 Introduction: mercy and the state
- 2 Changing approaches to punishment and mitigation
- 3 Changing approaches to the pardon
- 4 Patronage, petitions, and the motives for mercy
- 5 Public performances of pardon
- 6 Protest and pardons
- 7 Conclusion
- Appendix I Sources
- Appendix II Benefit of the belly
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the series
1 - Introduction: mercy and the state
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and conventions
- 1 Introduction: mercy and the state
- 2 Changing approaches to punishment and mitigation
- 3 Changing approaches to the pardon
- 4 Patronage, petitions, and the motives for mercy
- 5 Public performances of pardon
- 6 Protest and pardons
- 7 Conclusion
- Appendix I Sources
- Appendix II Benefit of the belly
- Bibliography
- Index
- Titles in the series
Summary
The 11th of April, being Wednesday, was Sir Thomas Wyatt beheaded up on the Tower Hill … When he was up upon the scaffold he desired each man to pray for him and with him, and said these or much-like words in effect: “Good people, I am come presently here to die, being thereunto lawfully and worthily condemned, for I have sorely offended against God and the queen's majesty, and am sorry therefore. I trust God hath forgiven and taken his mercy upon me. I beseech the queen's majesty also of forgiveness … And let every man beware how he taketh any thing in hand against the higher powers. Unless God be prosperable to his purpose, it will never take good effect or success, and thereof you may now learn at me. And I pray God I may be the last example in this place for that or any other like …” [Then] he plucked off his doublet and waistcoat unto his shirt, and kneeled down upon the straw, then laid his head down awhile, and raise on his knees again, then after a few words spoken, and his eyes lift up to heaven, he knit the handkerchief himself about his eyes, and a little holding up his hands, suddenly laid down his head, which the hangman at one stroke took from him. Then was he forthwith quartered upon the scaffold, and the next day his quarters set at divers places, and his head upon a stake upon the gallows beyond Saint James.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Mercy and Authority in the Tudor State , pp. 1 - 22Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003