Introduction

‘Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long.’
The Merchant of Venice

Murder was much on the mind of William Shakespeare; he used the word more than 200 times in his plays. It would not have been surprising if the unlawful slaughter of his fellow man pre-occupied the bard, for during the era in which he lived the homicide rate was at least five times higher than it is today. The Tudor age, which began in 1485 with the reign of Henry VII and ended in 1603 with the death of Elizabeth I, was a dangerous and bloody one. Under Henry VIII alone there were 72,000 executions and the Tudor epoch has become synonymous with the beheadings of high profile figures like Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell and Mary Queen of Scots. Yet it was also a time in which the everyday threat of murder was always present, whichever sector of society you came from. Sudden death at the hands of others could come in many forms: from the blade of a robber, the sword of a rival or deadly poison administered by a cheating spouse.

The crime of murder was one that filled the nation with a growing fear, but fascination too. There was a new eagerness among the public to know all the details of murder cases, with chroniclers and pamphleteers producing comprehensive accounts of the most sensational killings to a news-hungry audience. This book is written in that tradition, seeking to bring together all the most dramatic true life tales of murder from the reign of the Tudors for the first time. From stories of grisly domestic killings, to elaborate plots inspired by lust, as well as politically motivated assassinations, many of the cases throw up intriguing mysteries as well as providing powerful insights into social history.

The focus of the Tudor Murder Files is mainly on murders from England but also touches on some of the most shocking and compelling stories from Scotland and Wales. With a cast list that includes Sir Thomas More, Sir Francis Drake, Christopher Marlowe and many more, as well as a startling variety of motives, methods, culprits and victims this collection proves that when it comes to murder the Tudor period could serve up cases just as shocking and mysterious as those from our own times.