Dispatch from London: Westminster Hall (Parliament) and the Tower of London

I went to Westminster Hall (of Parliament, which is next to Westminster Abbey) in London to report the re-enact of the trial of Thomas More that occurred in 1535.  I am hoping this dispatch will help you treat the dry history as the evening news.  More was Henry VIII's counselor and was committed to the Tower of London, (where I also visited the cell he was kept.) after he refused to take an oath to the Act of Succession, which acknowledged Henry VIII as the supreme head of the church, which was against his conscientious belief of Papal supremacy in church affair.

His favorite daughter, Margaret, wrote to him, begging him to take the oath, he replied that her plea gave him more pain than his imprisonment.

On July 1, 1535 he was given a trial at the Great Hall (see photos below), a building he was so familiar as he served several terms as a member and became Speaker of the House of Commons before his appointment of Lord Chancellor, replacing Cardinal Wolsey.

Great Hall

entering Great Hall

While More was returning from Great Hall to the Tower, her daughter twice broke through the crowd and the guards, running to her father, embracing her dad.  I didn't witness this scene as I couldn't get through the layers of the crowd along the street, a scene comparable to watching the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  But, to this day I still can hear the crying and sobbing of his daughter when her father wouldn't change his mind to take the oath.  I came across a book called “A Daughter’s Love” (see photo right) is a story of Thomas More and his daughter, Margaret.

For a thousand years the crown has conducted its affair of governing at the Parliament, which was burnt down in the Great London Fire in 1666; only the Great Hall survived the fire, so one sees today is what More saw when he defended himself in 1535.  I missed taking the photo of the plaque in the center of the floor commemorating this trial.  The enormous Great Hall is relative plain, but the hallway leading to it is quite ornate and majestic (see photos).

ornate hallway leading to the Great Hall

More was beheaded at the Tower Hill.  More begged the spectators to pray for him, and “to bear witness that he . . . suffered death for the faith of the Holy Catholic Church.”

After the head fell the executioner would grab the fallen head and hold it high, and the crowd would shout "God save the king".  The Yeoman Warder guide (commonly known as beefeater) did have us say "God save the king" twice as he was not satisfied by the not quite enthusiastic first shout.  The loud and passionate shouting of the second time pleased him.

Katy and the beefeater

The iconic beefeater guard (see photo of Katy with the beefeater) is the best guide I have ever seen; in fact, we followed three guides and each was highly entertaining in his own way.  One needs to have at least 20 years of military service to be qualified as Yeoman Warder.

Thomas More (minus his head, which was hanged at the London Bridge) was buried at St. Peter Ad Vincula chapel (see photo), which is next to the Waterloo Barracks, which houses the Royal Jewels.  Thomas Cromwell, Bishop Fisher, Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey and Catherine Howard (another Henry VIII’s wife) were also buried here after their executions; no wonder the 19^th century historian, Thomas Macaulay, (he was buried at Westminster Abbey) said that this chapel was the saddest place on Earth.

Pope Pius XI canonized More in 1935 as a martyr.  Pope John Paul declared More the “heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians”.  In 2002 More was placed as number 37 in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.

St. Peter Ad Vincula chapel

The only reservation I have about Thomas More is his writing of the biography of Richard III, in which he had an unfairly negative portrait of Richard III, and Shakespeare's Richard III was based on this biography.  Will Durant in his The Story of Civilization (Volume VI—The Reformation) said More “may bear some responsibility for the character that Richard bears”.

A martyr though More was, he was no historian or the historian as I see it, neither was Shakespeare.

 

entering the Great Hall

The Great Hall

feeling sad at the saddest place on earth