What really happened to Thomas More’s head
13th April 2026 by | Uncategorized
What really happened to Thomas More’s head
While More was held in the Tower, his much-loved daughter wrote to him daily. More had seen that his children were well educated, and Meg had a passion for the written word and could speak in both English and Latin.
More was put to death by beheading on July 6th, 1535: He died on Tower Hill, declaring himself “the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”
Heads were boiled before being placed on a pike on the Drawbridge Gate of London Bridge. After some days, Meg took a boat in the mists of evening, and with coinage bribed the guards to hand the head of her dead father to her in a bag. She wrapped his mutilated head in cloth and was rowed back to Chelsea.
Meg had married in 1521 William Roper, a member of a wealthy family who had land and homes in Canterbury, Kent, and Well Hall in Eltham. She raised seven children, and Meg was renowned not only for her scholarship but also for her devotion to her father.
When Meg herself died, in 1544, she had requested that her father’s head be buried with her, but instead a leaded casket was made, and we understand she was originally buried in London. When her husband died, he and Meg were taken to the family vaults in St Dunstan’s Church, Canterbury, Kent.
Meg was remembered as one of Tudor England’s most remarkable women.
In the vault, a brick wall was built to house the Skull of More, and there it remained to this day. I have been there and seen it in person, and currently, the church is looking in just over eight years to bring the skull up and have it placed in a reliquary so that pilgrims can pray to his soul.
Gemma
Author: The Reflection in the Mirror: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G4SLZ4T7
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The Wolf of Whitehall published this week: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GWD8P3VC