Trial and Execution of the Duke of Buckingham

Trial and Execution of the Duke of Buckingham is in 1520-1532 Field of the Cloth of Gold and Anne Boleyn.

In Apr 1521 Edward Stafford 3rd Duke of Buckingham (age 43) was arrested and imprisoned at Tower of London [Map]. He was accused of listening to prophecies of the King's death and intending to kill the King. Thomas Howard 3rd Duke of Norfolk (age 48) presided at his trial. Thomas Grey 2nd Marquess Dorset (age 43) and Henry Guildford (age 32) acted as judges. Thomas Brooke 8th Baron Cobham (age 51), Anthony Poyntz (age 41) and Edmund Walsingham (age 41) as jurors.

Wriothesley's Chronicle 1520-1529. 17 May 1521. This yeare, on Fridaye before Whitsonday, beinge the 17 day of Maye, Edward Duke of Buckingham (age 43)a was beheaded at Tower Hill [Map].

Note a. Edward Stafford (age 43), Duke of Buckingham, was restored in 1486 by Henry VII. to his honours and estates. He commanded the select guard of Henry VIII (age 29) in the battle of the Spurs, 1613, but his observation, that the "Field of the Cloth of Gold" entailed ruin on the English nobles, so irritated the King that he determined on his ruin. It is also asserted that the King was jealons of his descent from Thomas of Woodstock and Edward III.

On 17 May 1521 Edward Stafford 3rd Duke of Buckingham (age 43) was beheaded at Tower Hill [Map] for no specific reason other than his having a significant amount of Plantagenet blood and was, therefore, considered a threat by Henry VIII (age 29). He was posthumously attainted by Act of Parliament on 31 July 1523, disinheriting his children. He was buried at St Peter's Church, Britford [Map]. Duke of Buckingham, Earl Stafford and Baron Stafford extinct.

His father Henry Stafford 2nd Duke of Buckingham had been executed for his part in Buckingham's Rebellion, his great-grandfather Humphrey Stafford 1st Duke of Buckingham was killed at the 1460 Battle of Northampton, and his great-great grand-father was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury, not forgetting his great-uncle Henry Stafford who was killed at the Battle of Barnet and his daughter Margaret Stafford (age 10) who was burned at the stake for her part in Bigod's Rebellion.