Was the king of England able to execute a high rank noble and his family between 1216 and 1688?
score:14
OK, I've done some research, and I can't find any cases of high-ranking nobles and their families being executed by the monarch after Magna Carta.
In fact, there were surprisingly few extra-judicial executions after 1215. The exceptions seem to have been mostly during the Wars of the Roses (1455 - 1487). Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick was allegedly executed following the Battle of Barnet (although this might be construed as being part of the battle), but his family were not targeted for revenge, despite his acts of rebellion.
A more egregious case was that of William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, who was summarily executed without even a pretence of a trial by Richard, Duke of Gloucester (the future Richard III) in 1483. But even in this case, Richard made no effort to persecute Hastings' widow and children. In fact, Richard explicitly allowed Lady Hastings to retain her husband’s land and goods, with the sole exception of Hastings’ royal grants, which were seized and returned to the crown.
Apart from these few exceptions, English monarchs seem to have been pretty scrupulous in their application of the law in these cases. Even Henry VIII had to follow a form of procedure (often through acts of attainder passed by Parliament). Of course, as @TheHonRose has pointed out in the comments above, Parliament was likely to do what it was told in the case of a powerful king like Henry VIII. Nevertheless, he still had to go through the process of the law to get what he wanted.
Sources
Oxford History of England:
- Volume IV: The Thirteenth Century, 1216–1307 — Sir Maurice Powicke
- Volume V: The Fourteenth Century, 1307–1399 — May McKisack
- Volume VI: The Fifteenth Century, 1399–1485 — E. F. Jacob
- Volume VII: The Earlier Tudors, 1485–1558 — J. D. Mackie
- Volume VIII: The Reign of Elizabeth I, 1558–1603 — J. B. Black
- Volume IX: The Early Stuarts, 1603–1660 — Godfrey Davies
- Volume X: The Later Stuarts, 1660–1714 — Sir George Clark
Upvote:3
This was before 1215, but it illustrated the power of the king. In this instance, it was King Henry II who reportedly said, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?. This was a reference to Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Some four knights took this complaint as a "command" and assassinated the Archbishop. Basically, there was always someone in kingdom willing to do the king's dirty work, as evidenced by a number of mysterious deaths over the centuries, especially of young children or deposed rulers with potential rival claims to the throne, as MAGolding pointed out.
So the king (or queen) basically had the ability to have anyone they wanted killed, even if it were technically not an "execution." The main reason why a king might go through a formal trial and execution of someone is because of the further punishment of "attainder" that is the right to disinherit the condemned man's family and seize his estates, because of "corruption of blood."
Upvote:6
Most of the time the King couldn't just order "off with his head!" but instead had to have a sham trial and conviction before killing a noble. The execution of nobles after often sham trials was so common that at the end of the reign of Elizabeth I there weren't any dukes left in England. They had all been beheaded and their titles forfeited.
There are a number of exceptions to the rule of nobles being tried and convicted before being killed by the king.
Eleanor, sister and heiress of Arthur of Brittany, and rightful Queen of England from 1203 to 1241, died in captivity in 1241 and some suspected she had been killed without a trial by order of Henry III.
Deposed king Edward II was reported to have died of natural causes in prison at Berkeley Castle but many believed he had been killed without a trial.
Deposed King Richard II was reported to have died of natural causes in prison, but many believed he had been killed without a trial.
17-year-old Edmund, Earl of Rutland, was either killed in battle in 1460 or else captured and put to death by the Lancastrians, probably without a trial.
17-year-old Edward, Prince of Wales, was either killed in battle in 1471 or else captured and put to death by the Yorkists, probably without a trial.
Deposed King Henry VI died in the Tower of London in 1471 soon after Prince Edward, allegedly of grief, though modern examination of his skeleton showed signs of violence - no doubt ordered by Edward IV without a trial.
The last legitimate male member of the Beaufort family was captured by the Yorkists in battle in 1471 and put to death a few days later, probably without a trial.
12-year-old King Edward V was deposed in 1483 and, along with his 9-year-old brother Richard, disappeared from sight in the Tower of London, being presumed to have been killed without a trial.
Henry VIII's vengeance on the Pole family included sending little Henry Pole to the Tower where he vanished from the record, being presumed to have been starved to death without a trial.
The bones of two children were discovered in the Tower in the 17th century and presumed to be those of Edward V and Richard Duke of York. A few decades earlier Sir Walter Raleigh recorded the discovery of two children's skeletons in the Tower when he was imprisoned, so perhaps there were two "foul and midnight murders" - ordered by kings - of pairs of children in the Tower.
More post
- 📝 Why does the US use MM/DD/YY?
- 📝 Why were terminal train stations built in Germany?
- 📝 During the Soviet era, were people charged with crimes able to hire lawyers of their own?
- 📝 Did princess Maria von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen -Belgian king Albert's mother- have a child out of wedlock?
- 📝 How harmful was the Tea Act of 1773 to the American colonies?
- 📝 Could an enlisted soldier in German Imperial Army get rank above Gefreiter?
- 📝 How was the term "global" popularized by Nazi Germany?
- 📝 Did the U.S. actively encourage discord between the Soviets and Chinese?
- 📝 How did the Catholic Pope manage to become more powerful than Kings in old Europe?
- 📝 What is the best historical example of conflict between two cultures with differing levels of technology?
- 📝 What was Prince Philip’s surname (prior to Mountbatten)?
- 📝 How did medieval serfs obtain their iron goods?
- 📝 What's this 1607 Hispania coin?
- 📝 How did ancient Greek musicians tune their instruments?
- 📝 Post world war one mandates model
- 📝 Was Walden Pond ever the primary source for rail transported ice?
- 📝 Why did Thomas Larkin write his biographical sketches?
- 📝 Why did Stalin deem Quantum Mechanics 'counter-revolutionary'?
- 📝 When did Ireland become majority English-speaking
- 📝 Can anyone help identify the name of the white vessel in this photo w/the masts and funnel?
- 📝 How does governance evolve?
- 📝 Have there been any great female military commanders?
- 📝 How did John Duns Scotus live in England during the Scottish Wars of Independence?
- 📝 What uniform is my ancestor wearing?
- 📝 Why did China hate dogs? Why were dogs abject creatures in China?
- 📝 What religions (other than Judaism) worshiped only one god?
- 📝 Were there large scale protests after earlier presidential elections in the US?
- 📝 Is the EU the world's first supranational political union?
- 📝 Who was the first American woman to become a millionaire?
- 📝 How much did it cost to buy a ticket on the Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul in 1914?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Was the king of England able to execute a high rank noble and his family between 1216 and 1688?
- 📝 How was Enguerrand VII de Coucy able to keep his allegiance to both king of England and France during the Hundred Years War?
- 📝 When was King John of England given the name 'Dollheart', and who first used it?
- 📝 What was the relation between the biblical king Herod and the Parthian king Orodes II?
- 📝 What was the relationship between Ottoman emperor Murat IV and his mother Kosem Sultan?
- 📝 Was England called England in the days of King Arthur?
- 📝 How and why was the boundary between West and East Berlin decided to be where it was?
- 📝 How was the modern geographic boundary between Europe and Asia decided?
- 📝 What was the shortest time between a historical event occuring and a museum opening dedicated to said event?
- 📝 Why was the Cold War carried out over the whole world instead of between Siberia and Alaska?
- 📝 How common was marriage between nobles and peasants in the Middle Ages?
- 📝 How was security on the Silk Road between China and the West maintained?
- 📝 Why did the negotiations between Henry V of England and France fail?
- 📝 Did the Romans see Africa as a black continent? Was there a perception of a divide between Africa and Europe?
- 📝 When was the concept of the "border wall" between the United States and Mexico first proposed?
- 📝 Was there any connection between the Ottonians and Benedictines?
- 📝 In the British empire, what was the difference between a Governor General and a Viceroy?
- 📝 How was the relation between the Ottoman Empire and Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro during the Second Balkan War?
- 📝 Is there a relationship between Portugal and Spain being able to discover the New World and the Moor occupation?
- 📝 Between the 7 Years War and 1776, was there any effort to have the colonies represented in Parliament?
- 📝 Was there any conflict/interaction between the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam?
- 📝 What was the border regime between Poland and Czechoslovakia like during the 1970s and 1980s?
- 📝 Where was the pre-war (ww2) border between Poland and Germany?
- 📝 What was the relationship between Indian caste system and martial skills?
- 📝 Was there anything in common between the War of 1812 between Britain and America and the War of 1812 between Napoleon and Russia?
- 📝 How was the border between Vichy and German Occupied France decided?
- 📝 How high was the morale of non-Soviet Warsaw Pact states' armies and governments in the '80s?
- 📝 How was the administration of the liberated part of The Netherlands organised between 12 September 1944 and 5 May 1945?
- 📝 What was the motivation for the Church of England to begin recording births, marriages and deaths in 1538?
- 📝 What was the procedure for prosecuting criminals in England between the World Wars?