A Brief History
On January 16, 1537, an armed insurrection took place in England, specifically in Cumberland and Westmorland, pitting unhappy Roman Catholics against the blasphemous King Henry VIII.
Digging Deeper
Known as “Bigod’s Rebellion,” this religious war sounds mighty close to “By God’s,” a somehow almost appropriate name. The name of the rebellion actually derived from Sir Francis Bigod, a leader of the revolt.
King Henry VIII had infamously disbanded the Catholic Church in England and started his own brand of Christianity, later called The Church of England, in order to legitimize his marital wishes. The rebellion failed in less than a month and Sir Bigod along with 215 of his followers were executed, some hanged and some drawn and quartered.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Frasier, Antonia. The Wives of Henry VIII. Vintage, 1993.
Weir, Alison. Henry VIII: The King and His Court. Ballantine Books, 2007
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net) of a sign at the Tower Hill scaffold location, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
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