John Dudley 1st Duke Northumberland English general admiral politician government tried 21 August 1553 l windsor castle
Northumberland was tried on 18 August 1553 in Westminster Hall. The panels of the jury and judges were largely made up of his former colleagues. Dudley hinted that he had acted on the authority of Prince and Council and by warrant of the Great Seal. Answered that the Great Seal of a usurper was worth nothing, he asked "whether any such persons as were equally culpable of that crime ... might be his judges". After sentence was passed, he begged the Queen's mercy for his five sons, the eldest of whom was condemned with him, the rest waiting for their trials. He also asked to "confess to a learned divine" and was visited by Bishop Stephen Gardiner, who had passed most of Edward's reign in the Tower and was now Mary's Lord Chancellor. The Duke's execution was planned for 21 August at eight in the morning; however, it was suddenly cancelled. Northumberland was instead escorted to St Peter ad Vincula, where he took the Catholic communion and professed that "the plagues that is upon the realm and upon us now is that we have erred from the faith these sixteen years." A great propaganda coup for the new government, Dudley's words were officially distributed—especially in the territories of the Emperor Charles V. In the evening the Duke learnt "that I must prepare myself against tomorrow to receive my deadly stroke", as he wrote in a desperate plea to the Earl of Arundel: "O my good lord remember how sweet life is and how bitter ye contrary." On the scaffold, before 10,000 people, Dudley confessed his guilt but maintained:
Size: 2990px × 4502px
Photo credit: © SOTK2011 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -fashioned, 19th, 1st, 21, 1553, 1800, 2d, academic, admiral, age, aged, ancient, antiquarian, antique, antiquity, art, artistic, august, black, book, bw, bygone, capital, castle, century, classical, copy, cut, cut-, deadly, death, drawing, dudley, duke, embossed, empire, english, engrave, engraved, engraver, engraving, etching, execution, expression, figure, formal, front, frontispiece, genera, general, government, graphic, hall, hand, heritage, historic, historical, history, illustrated, illustration, image, imperial, john, judges, jury, majesty, master, mercy, monotone, national, nineteenth, northumberland, notable, obscure, obsolete, offence, olden, original, paper, penalty, period, pictorial, picture, politician, portrait, pre, press, print, printed, printing, proof, publication, publicity, punihment, punishment, queen, rare, real, realism, realistic, reference, relief, replica, represent, representation, repro, reproduce, reproduction, retro, romantic, sentence, social, standard, steel, stroke, studio, style, teach, time, title, tool, topic, topical, tract, unusual, victoria, victorian, vintage, westminster, white, windsor
