Tudors buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London

A plaque in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London names those ‘Buried in this Chapel’ – among them are many Tudors.

Chapel Royal St. Peter Ad Vincula

1535 – John Fisher Bishop of Rochester

Executed on Tower Hill 22 June 1535

John Fisher by Hans Holbein the Younger

1535 – Sir Thomas More

Executed on Tower Hill 6 July 1535

Thomas More

1536 – George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford

Executed on Tower Hill 17 May 1536

1536 – Queen Anne Boleyn

Executed on Tower Green May 19 1536

Queen Anne Boleyn

1540 – Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex

Executed on Tower Hill 28 July 1540

Thomas Cromwell by Hans Holbein the Younger

1541 – Margaret of Clarence, Countess of Salisbury

Executed on Tower Green 27 May 1541

Portrait of an unknown woman traditionally thought to be Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury

1542 – Queen Katharine Howard

Executed on Tower Green 13 February 1542

Portrait miniature by Hans Holbein the younger.

1542 – Jane Boleyn Vicountess Rochford (not included on the plaque)

Executed on Tower Green 13 February 1542

1549 – Thomas Lord Seymour of Sudeley

Executed on 20 March 1549

1552 (Actual plaque states 1551) – Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset

Executed on Tower Hill 22 January 1552

Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset

1552 – Sir Ralph Vane

Hanged on Tower Hill 26 February 1552

1552 – Sir Thomas Arundel

Executed on Tower Hill 26 February 1552

1553 – John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland

Executed on Tower Hill 22 August 1553

John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland

1554 – Lord Guildford Dudley

Executed on Tower Hill 12 February 1554

1554 – Lady Jane Grey

Executed on Tower Green 12 February 1554

Lady Jane Grey, engraving published 1620

1554 – Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk

Executed on Tower Hill 28 February 1554

1572 – Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk

Executed on Tower Hill 2 June 1572

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk

1592 – Sir John Perrott

Died whilst in custody in the Tower on 3 November 1592

Sir John Perrott

1595 – Phillip, Earl of Arundel (In 1624 his body was moved to the Fitzalan Chapel located on the western grounds of Arundel Castle. His tomb was moved to the Catholic Arundel Cathedral in 1971 and remains a site of pilgrimage.)

Arundel spent ten years incarcerated in the Tower of London while charges of high treason were investigated but never proved. He died of dysentery on 19 October 1595 and was immediately acclaimed as a Catholic Martyr.

Phillip, Earl of Arundel

1601 – Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex

Executed on Tower Green 25 February 1601

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex by Isaac Oliver, c. 1597

Tower of London Monument

In the Tower of London a monument marks the site of the scaffold (now understood to be a short distance away from the actual scaffold site) where seven famous prisoners were privately executed. On the 19th May 1536, Anne was the first woman to suffer death by beheading for treason. She was followed by four other women: Margaret Pole the Countess of Salisbury (1541), Katherine Howard (1542), Jane- Viscountess Rochford (1542) and Lady Jane Grey (1554).

The two men were William Hastings (1483) and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex (1601).

Tower Monument

The poem written on the monument reads:

Gentle visitor pause awhile, where you stand death cut away the light of many days. Here jewelled names were broken from the vivid thread of life, may they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage under these restless skies.