Cromwell Beheaded: Henry VIII Executes His Fixer
The executioner was new to the job. He botched Thomas Cromwell's beheading on Tower Hill—multiple blows, witnesses said, before England's most powerful minister finally died. Ten strokes, maybe more. The man who'd dissolved 800 monasteries and orchestrated Henry VIII's break from Rome bled out while his king married teenager Catherine Howard across London. Same day. Henry had called Cromwell his "most faithful servant" just months earlier. He'd later admit the treason charges were false, blame his advisors. But Cromwell stayed dead, and Henry kept the monasteries' wealth anyway.
July 28, 1540
486 years ago
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