The Execution Of Sir Thomas More - Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor

On the 6th July 1535, one of the most prominent Tudor politicians and scholars was led to the execution scaffold on Tower Hill. A huge crowd had gathered to see his execution and his daughter wept as he made the short walk north of the Tower of London’s gates to the axeman who was waiting for him. Sir Thomas More is remembered in History as one of the greatest scholars of the time and he was an important historian. But he was the Lord High Chancellor of England during the reign of the notorious and brutal King Henry VIII and he did get on well with the English King, but More’s downfall came as he refused to accept many of the changes that Henry VIII brought to the nation and he would not accept Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and he also did not really support the annulment of his first marriage so Henry VIII could marry controversially his second wife Anne Boleyn. His final words on the scaffold were allegedly, ‘I die the King’s good servant and God’s first,’ but one swift strike of the axe brought the life of Thomas More to an end.