"Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary."
She's held responsible for the burning of nearly 300 protestants, granting her the infamous title little girls chant today in dark mirrors. But do you know her true story? The story of how her father bastardi...
Immediately after the rebellion was put down, Thomas Wyatt was hardly spared a single breath. He was imprisoned in the Tower, an infamous prison in London, and tortured in order to elicit a statement that Elizabeth was involved in the rebellion.
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(The Tower of London today. You can still visit the old prison and sign up for a tour.)
When even his own wife could not elicit an accusation against Elizabeth from him, he was subsequently hung, drawn, and quartered as punishment dictates for those guilty of treason. [53] These descriptors do not do justice to the extreme way in which Thomas Wyatt was executed. Treason was considered one of the utmost disgusting crimes one could carry out in defiance to one's nation. Thus, it merited a capital punishment, which included being tied to a horse and dragged towards the executioner. Then the person was hung until he or she slips into a near-death stage. The person was subsequently cut down, disemboweled, and his or her intestines were burned. Next the person was beheaded. Although one may think the execution is completed by now, there lies one last part—the quartering—in which each of the person's four limbs were tied to four horses who were spurred in different directions.... [54]
And Northumberland thought he had it bad just being beheaded.
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(The beheading portion of Thomas Wyatt's execution, although the artist took the liberty of sparing us the details of his disembowelment.)
Mary had to sentence Thomas Wyatt to death. Had she granted him clemency, like he had expected, it would have made the Queen look weak. If a man can lead a rebellion so close to the Queen's home and get away with just a slap on the wrist and some prison time, then it may inspire more radicals to take the risk of defying the Queen. With a slightly hardened heart Mary was, on occasion, strict where she otherwise would have been merciful. A prime example of Queen Mary's warring conscience was the execution of Lady Jane Grey on February 12, 1554. Although she had almost no role in the Wyatt Rebellion, it was noted that she could always be used as a focus figure for a future rebellion. Porter writes, "The decision to execute [Lady Jane] troubled the queen greatly, but Mary bowed to her councillors' advice that her cousin would always be a focus for rebellion." [55] Originally, Queen Mary ignored the previous calls from Renard for Lady Jane to be put to death alongside Northumberland. Mary had originally resisted executing Lady Jane because she saw her as the "innocent dupe of Northumberland." [56] The Wyatt Rebellion had transformed her and made her realize that she should listen to the advice of her councilors more often—starting with the execution of the innocent Lady Jane Grey.
