The Tower of London, (Vol. 1 of 2)Gower, Ronald Sutherland, Lord
History
The Tower of London, (Vol. 1 of 2)
Gower, Ronald Sutherland, Lord
Tower of London (London, England)
Half-a-dozen years passed, and again the Tower prisons were filled,
some of the prisoners there having been concerned in a City riot.
With these was a Dr Bell, charged with “inflammatory and seditious
preaching.” During this riot the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Roger
Cholmondeley (whose effigy is in St Peter’s Chapel), fired the Tower
guns upon the City, but the damage done by the cannonade seems to have
been very slight.
In 1521 a descendant of Edward II. was brought to the fortress; this
was Edward Bohun, Duke of Buckingham, who traced his descent from
the grandfather of Richard II. through Anne the eldest daughter of
Thomas of Woodstock. Wolsey, now all-powerful, hated Buckingham for
the arrogance of his manner towards him, the Duke never troubling
to conceal his contempt for the lowly born, but ambitious Cardinal.
Wolsey’s opportunity for being revenged upon the nobleman for his
insolence came, when some ill-guarded expressions uttered by Buckingham
were repeated to him; the Duke was immediately arrested and taken
to the Tower. This was on the 16th of January 1521, and on the 13th
of the following month he was tried on the charge of high treason
and sentenced to death. Holinshed, in his Chronicle, describes how
Buckingham was taken by water from the Tower to Westminster. A barge
had been furnished for the occasion with a carpet and cushions, and
when the Duke was brought back from Westminster in the same manner, but
with the axe’s edge turned towards him, he refused to take the seat
which he had occupied on his way to his trial, saying to Sir Thomas
Lovel, “When I came to Westminster I was Lord High Constable, and Duke
of Buckingham, but now, poor Edward Bohun.” It is interesting to see
how closely Shakespeare has followed Holinshed’s description of this
episode in Buckingham’s condemnation, in his play of _Henry VIII._:
_Vaux._ Prepare there, the Duke is coming: see the barge be
ready;
And fit it with such furniture as suits
The greatness of his person.
_Buckingham._ Nay, Sir Nicholas,
Let it alone; my state will now but mock me.
When I came hither, I was Lord High Constable
And Duke of Buckingham; now, poor Edward Bohun—
In Brewer’s Introduction to the third volume of “Foreign and Domestic
State Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII.,” is the following interesting
account of Buckingham’s trial and execution:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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