Today in 1532 Henry VIII heard a pretty damning Easter sermon. Friar William Peto, who was the confessor to Princess Mary, was preaching in the Franciscan chapel in Greenwich. Instead of focusing on a nice traditional Easter service talking about resurrection and rebirth, Peto went rogue.
He was a supporter of Katherine of Aragon and wanted to speak truth to power, so he focused on a text from 1 Kings chapter 22 where King Ahab ignores the concerns of a prophet, and then died from wounds he got in a battle, and the text mentions that dogs licked his blood as he was being buried. Peto compared Henry to Ahab, compared Anne Boleyn to Jezebel, and warned Henry that if he didn’t turn from his wicked ways, his blood too would be licked by dogs.
Peto was imprisoned for several months, and then went into exile. But some saw a fulfillment of the prophecy when Henry VIII’s coffin leaked some sort of fluid as it was being moved for burial.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
Also, check out the Top Ten Tudor Women Episodes you might have missed.
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop.
She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 30 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history (how exciting when she got to interview Alison for the first time!). In addition to history, she is passionate about travel, and has lived in 3 countries and 4 states (not counting her perpetual state of confusion), and her family (who help her host her YouTube channel occasionally).
