Bloody Mary has her revenge

Today, the 21st March, in 1556 Archbishop Cramner was burnt at the stake for heresy in Oxford by England’s Catholic monarch, Mary.
Understandably, Mary had no love for Cramner as he had been instrumental in removing her Spanish mother from her father’s throne to replace her with a younger Anne Boleyn( also her step sister and heir’s mother). Cramner had been the perfect minister for Henry VIII, helping sort out a second divorce later on. He also served Mary’s predecessor and half brother, the Protestant Edward VI. Obviously, Cramner could not serve a third, Mary, because one’s religion could not be changed. Or could it?
Cramner, fearing the flames of treason and anti-papal acts of the last twenty years of his life, recanted his Protestantism. It was only when asked to do so in public, that he recanted again and faced Mary’s wrath. And the flames.
He died today in agony, after first thrusting in his right hand, the instrument of his written recantation. He was 66 years old.
Mary did not long outlive him, dying two years later in agony herself, probably of stomach cancer.

Thanks Garg: I love grumpy old men!

Hi Cromwell. It is hard to write something like this and not think of you.
I have posted fewer  of these anniversary events of late, but always enjoy doing so.
Thanks for reading.

Is the same for me too.
I want to see Gettysburg and Franklin, stand by Jackson’s grave and drive down the Shenandoah, spotting Virginia towns and villages about which I have read and understand the distances the armies marched.
I would visit Richmond to see that museum you pointed me to, but really I want to stand on the battlefields and just silently take in the terrain and noises of battle long gone.

Picked up my first book(McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom) when in my last year at University. Second book was two years later in a second hand bookshop in Wales: 2nd Volume of Shelby Foote’s trilogy. That was in 92.
I now have 60 books(that is a guess!).
I think what fascinated me at first was the battles were so bloody, yet inconclusive.
They did it again and again! Seemed mad.
It has replaced WW2 as my most knowledgeable subject.
I have said before I have very little knowledge of WW1 or Napoleonic battles.