December 10 - A priest caught by a priestfinder and torturer

On this day in Tudor history, 10th December 1591, Roman Catholic priest Edmund Gennings and Catholic Swithin Wells were executed on a scaffold set up outside Wells' house at Holborn.

 

Gennings had been caught celebrating mass at Wells' home by the famous Elizabethan priestfinder and torturer, Richard Topcliffe, who punished him by throwing him into the Little Ease.

 

Find out more about St Edmund Gennings and St Swithin Wells, and their sad ends, in today's talk from Claire Ridgway, author of "On This Day in Tudor History".

 

Also on this day in Tudor history, 10th December 1541, Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were executed at Tyburn. They had been found guilty of high treason for intending to do ill with Queen Catherine Howard, i..e intending to commit adultery with her, and had been sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Dereham suffered the full traitors' death, while Culpeper was beheaded. Find out more about what happened in last year’s video - https://youtu.be/zmWYSqtrVT0