Deaths

  • 735: Bede dies at Jarrow

    Bede died at the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow in 735, with 26 May commonly used as the date. The date matters because Bede had already completed work that became central to the written record of early English Christianity. He lived and worked in a Northumbrian monastery, not at a royal court or on campaign. His authority…

  • 946: Edmund I is killed at Pucklechurch

    Edmund I was killed at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire on 26 May 946. His death was sudden. The usual account says he was killed during a confrontation at a feast or court gathering, after trying to intervene against a man with a violent reputation. That makes it different from the more familiar royal deaths in battle,…

  • 1100: William II is killed in the New Forest

    On 2 August 1100, William II was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest. His death left no agreed successor and allowed his younger brother Henry to take the English throne before their elder brother could return from abroad. William, known as William Rufus, had ruled England since 1087. He was a…

  • 1170: Thomas Becket is killed at Canterbury

    On 29 December 1170, Thomas Becket was killed inside Canterbury Cathedral. The murder was carried out by four knights, but it grew out of a longer conflict between Becket and Henry II. Becket was not a distant critic of the king. He had been Henry’s chancellor, a close royal servant and a man trusted with…

  • 1307: Edward I dies on campaign against Scotland

    On 7 July 1307, King Edward I died at Burgh by Sands in Cumberland while leading another campaign against Scotland. He had ruled England since 1272 and spent much of his later reign trying to bring Scotland under English control. Edward was about sixty-eight years old when he died. His army was moving north to…

  • 1400: Richard II dies in captivity

    Richard II is usually said to have died at Pontefract Castle on or about 14 February 1400. The year before, his cousin Henry Bolingbroke had deposed him and taken the throne as Henry IV. Richard was now a former king. He was still dangerous. Henry IV’s rule began with force, ceremony and argument. Richard had…

  • 1431: Joan of Arc is executed at Rouen

    On 30 May 1431, Joan of Arc was executed at Rouen. Rouen was under English control at the time, and the execution took place during the later stages of the Hundred Years’ War. Joan had been captured the year before and put through a trial process that served English political interests as well as church…

  • 1502: Arthur, Prince of Wales, dies at Ludlow

    Arthur, Prince of Wales, died on 2 April 1502. Was the wrong brother left in charge? Arthur was fifteen, newly married, and meant to be the Tudor future. Instead, he died at Ludlow Castle, less than five months after his wedding to Catherine of Aragon, and Henry VII’s plan for his dynasty changed at once.…

  • 1540: Thomas Cromwell is executed on Henry VIII’s wedding day

    On 28 July 1540, Thomas Cromwell was beheaded on Tower Hill. Later that day, Henry VIII married Catherine Howard at Oatlands Palace in Surrey. Cromwell had been one of the most powerful men in England. As Henry’s chief minister, he had helped establish the king’s authority over the English Church, increased Parliament’s role in carrying…

  • 1593: Christopher Marlowe is killed at Deptford

    On 30 May 1593, Christopher Marlowe was killed at Deptford. The inquest recorded a quarrel at the house of Eleanor Bull. Marlowe had spent the day there with Ingram Frizer, Robert Poley and Nicholas Skeres. The dispute was said to have been over payment. Frizer stabbed Marlowe above the eye, and Marlowe died from the…

  • 1649: Charles I is executed at Whitehall

    Charles I was executed outside the Banqueting House at Whitehall on 30 January 1649. He had lost the Civil War, lost effective power and then lost the claim that those beneath him could not judge a king. His death was public. That was part of the point. Charles had not been killed quietly after defeat.…

  • 1849: Anne Brontë dies at Scarborough

    Anne Brontë died at Scarborough on 28 May 1849, aged 29. She had travelled there from Haworth while seriously ill. The illness was tuberculosis, often called consumption at the time. Scarborough was not a passing detail in the story. It was where she spent her final days, away from the parsonage and the family setting…

  • 1916: Roger Casement is executed for high treason

    On 3 August 1916, Roger Casement was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London for high treason. Five years earlier, he had been knighted for his work as a British consular official. Casement had spent more than twenty years in British government service. In 1903, he investigated conditions in the Congo Free State, which was controlled…

  • 1955: Ruth Ellis is executed at Holloway Prison

    Ruth Ellis was hanged at Holloway Prison on 13 July 1955. She was the last woman executed in Britain. Ellis had been convicted of murdering her partner, racing driver David Blakely. On 10 April 1955, she waited outside the Magdala public house in Hampstead and shot him several times. She did not deny the killing.…