Upon entering Oxford one of the first things you will see is the Martyrs’ Memorial at the intersection of St Giles’, Magdalen Street and Beaumont Street.
I have been drawn to this memorial long before I started studying the Tudor period. It is such a sad reminder of a dark time in England’s history.
Queen Mary was burning heretics and 3 are memorialized here.
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Hugh Latimer
Nicholas Ridley
All three were instrumental in the break from Rome and the creation of the Church of England, and for that, they were burned at the stake.
It is my opinion that Cranmer was doomed from the start, mainly because he was the catalyst behind the end of Katherine and Henry’s marriage and Henry’s subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn. Even though he signed a statement of recantation, Queen Mary would not change her mind. She wanted him to die by burning and in the end he renounced what he had done, saying,
“And for inasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall first be punished; for if I may come to the fire it shall be first burned.”
When Latimer and Ridley were burned a few months before, Latimer said to Nicholas Ridley,
“Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”
I think as much as this is a significant event in history, it is one that I am glad I did not witness. Such a horrific end to three men of strong convictions.
Time Traveling Granny 