John Somerville

John Somerville arrested before the Queen was assassinated (left) and strangled himself in jail (right)

John Somerville (* 1560 ; † December 19, 1583 in London ) was executed as a conspirator against Queen Elizabeth I of England .

Somerville, who had studied at Oxford , was the head of an old Catholic family of landowners who were wealthy in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire . He was married to Margaret Arden, the daughter of Edward Arden , who was also a Catholic . In the middle of the summer of 1583 he came to believe that he was chosen to put an end to the persecution of Catholicism in England and that he was destined to die for the common good. On October 24th, he announced that he would go to the royal court in London and shoot the queen there with a pistol .

The following day he left his country estate in Edstone for London. On the way he made no secret of his plan and moreover, with his sword drawn, attacked some people he met. When arrested, he confessed his intention to kill the Queen and named his father-in-law Edward Arden, his wife, his own wife, and Hugh Hall , a Catholic priest camouflaged as a gardener in the Ardens' house , as co-conspirators .

All five were tried on December 16, 1583 at the Guildhall in London on charges of conspiracy. Somerville pleaded guilty; his co-defendants, who declared themselves not guilty, were, like himself, sentenced to death by the judgment of the court of assists . Hugh Hall and the two women were pardoned , however .

On December 19, the Tower of London commander took Somerville and Arden to Newgate Prison for execution , where they were locked in separate cells . Two hours later, Somerville, who had strangled himself, was found dead in his cell. His head was severed and put on impaled display on London Bridge along with the head of Arden, who was executed the following day .

Web links

Wikisource: John Somerville  - Sources and full texts (English)

literature

• Bill Bryson : Shakespeare. The World as a Stage. HarperPress et al., London 2007, ISBN 978-0-00-719789-7 , ( Eminent Lives ).
• Ludwig Friedrich August von Pastor : The history of the Popes from the close of the Middle Ages . Edited by Ralph Francis Kerr. Kegan Paul et al., London 1923–1953.