[MR] Wikipedia: The Tyburn Tree

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Now for something a bit on the grim side. On this date in 1497, Michael An
Gof and Thomas Flamank, leaders of the 1497 Cornish Rebellion, were
executed for treason at Tyburn on the orders of King Henry VII.

They were not the first, and certainly not the last, people to be executed
at Tyburn for a variety of crimes. Tyburn was outside London at the time,
and is/was a junction point between Bayswater Road, Oxford Street and
Edgeware Road. It was about 200 paces west of the current Marble Arch.

The first recorded execution there was in 1196 when a rebel named William
Fitz Osbert was hanged. It soon became the last earthly stop for both state
and local criminal commoners. Gentlemen and noble criminals usually ended
their days on Tower Hill, in sight of the Tower of London.

In 1571 a permanent gallows was erected at Tyburn. It was a three-legged
affair, with its cross-pieces forming a triangle. The gallows became known
as "the Tyburn Tree". The Tyburn Tree was last used in 1783.

A similar three-legged gallows, thankfully a replica not actually used, can
be seen today outside the jail at Colonial Williamsburg.

More about The Tyburn Tree is found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyburn
 .

For more on the Cornish Rebellion (seen in the 1972 BBC TV series THE
SHADOW OF THE TOWER) see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyburn . The
television series dramatizes significant episodes in the life of Henry
VII.The DVD set is not currently in the BBC catalog, but copies can be
found on Amazon.

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep Merry Rose relevant and in business.