TOP 10 BOTCHED EXECUTIONS

1 THE WRATH OF THE KING

Being the right-hand man of Henry VIII was a dangerous position to be in – something Thomas Cromwell, the King’s chief minister from 1532-40 knew all too well. It was Henry’s marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, that proved Cromwell’s downfall – Cromwell himself had been the mastermind behind the disastrous match, which was annulled six months after the January 1540 wedding. By June of the same year, Cromwell’s enemies had persuaded the King that he was a traitor.

Cromwell was executed on Tower Hill on 28 July. “[He] patiently suffered the stroke of the axe, by a ragged and butcherly miser, who very ungoodly [sic] performed the office,” wrote contemporary historian Edward Hall, whose description has led many to believe that the beheading was neither swift nor merciful, and that Cromwell