December
10,
1520 Martin Luther burned his copy
of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.
The Tudors
1541 Thomas Culpepper and Francis Dereham were
executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and fifth
wife of Henry VIII. Culpepper was beheaded and Dereham was hanged, drawn, and
quartered, and their heads were placed on top of London Bridge. Catherine
remained imprisoned in Syon Abbey until Parliament passed a bill of attainder
on 7 February 1542. The bill made it treason, and punishable by death, for a
queen consort to fail to disclose her sexual history to the king within twenty
days of their marriage, or to incite someone to commit adultery with her. This
solved the matter of Catherine's supposed precontract and made her
unequivocally guilty. She was subsequently taken to the Tower on 10 February
and was executed on February 13th.
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