On this day in Tudor history, 1st December 1581, twenty-five year old Roman Catholic priest Alexander Briant was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, along with Ralph Sherwin and Edmund Campion. 

 

Briant had been imprisoned, starved, racked and tortured in other awful ways, but he claimed that he felt no pain due to God's help. He refused to give his interrogators the information he wanted, and he was tried for treason and suffered a full traitor's death.

 

In today's talk, Claire Ridgway, author of "On This Day in Tudor History", shares Alexander Briant's story, what led to his arrest,  his account of what happened when he was tortured and his fellow prisoner's account of what was done to him. 

 

Also on this day in Tudor history, 1st December 1541, Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were tried for high treason at Guildhall, London. Both men had been linked romantically with Queen Catherine Howard. They were both found guilty of treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. But what about Catherine Howard and her lady, Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, who had also been arrested. What was happening with them? Find out more about them, and the trial of Dereham and Culpeper in last year’s video - https://youtu.be/3vf3zSxkDf0