No Offence, Your Majesty
Sedition could cost you your life in Tudor England, but by the 18th century the monarch was fair game, writes David Cressy.
In 1444 a Berkshire gentleman named Thomas Kerver was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered for calling the king a child, disparaging his majesty’s manhood and saying that England would be better if Henry VI ‘had never been born’. Almost a century later, in 1535, George Baburney, a tailor from Newport Pagnell, faced death for calling Henry VIII ‘a heretic, a thief and a harlot’, and saying that before midsummer he hoped to ‘play football with his head’. Hundreds of people were investigated and more than 100 executed for treasonable words in Henry VIII’s reign.
To continue reading this article you need to purchase a subscription, available from only £5.
Start my trial subscription now
If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.
Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems.
