Sir Thomas More had refused to accept Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn and, although he had been a favourite of the King, was still tried and beheaded. His head was impaled on a pole on London Bridge – as seemed to be the fashion of the time…
But legend has it that his eldest daughter Margaret Roper resolved to retrieve it. So it was today, 20th July back in 1535 that she passed under the bridge in a boat and exclaimed, “That head hath lain many a time in my lap, would to God it would fall into my lap as I pass under.” And it did.
However, rather than an answer to a prayer, she probably bribed a guard to throw it down to her…
When Margaret died 9 years later, the head was buried with her in the family vault at St Dunstan’s, Canterbury.
I dread to think where it had been kept in the intervening years…
But legend has it that his eldest daughter Margaret Roper resolved to retrieve it. So it was today, 20th July back in 1535 that she passed under the bridge in a boat and exclaimed, “That head hath lain many a time in my lap, would to God it would fall into my lap as I pass under.” And it did.
However, rather than an answer to a prayer, she probably bribed a guard to throw it down to her…
When Margaret died 9 years later, the head was buried with her in the family vault at St Dunstan’s, Canterbury.
I dread to think where it had been kept in the intervening years…