Virginia Rounding: Author, editor, proofreader, indexer

The Burning Time

  • 6 February 1554 – John Bradford imprisoned with Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley

    On this day in 1554, John Bradford, a Protestant preacher who had been imprisoned in the Tower of London after being involved in a ‘disturbance’ at Paul’s Cross, was moved into another room in the Tower, which he shared with Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, until these three were taken to Oxford in

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  • 6 February 1550: Bishop Bonner’s appeal dismissed

    Bishop Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London under Henry VIII, and seen here in caricature, was quick to fall foul of the new regime of the young Protestant King, Edward VI. He had been called before the Privy Council and sent to the Fleet prison on 18 September 1547 for refusing to observe the Royal Injunctions

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  • THE BURNING TIME Final extract from Introduction: Setting the scene

    If we open our story in the year 1530 or thereabouts, we find little to suggest the turmoil to come – apart from the King’s increasing impatience with Rome, and the rise of Lutheranism in parts of Europe. (Soon after Luther’s teachings had been condemned by the Pope in 1521, his works had been publicly burnt

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  • THE BURNING TIME Some more from the Introduction: Setting the scene

                  Of the burnings which took place in England between 1529 and 1558 by far the largest number occurred in one small area of London – the area known as (West) Smithfield. Just outside the City walls though still within its bounds, not far from Newgate prison, ten minutes’ walk from both the Guildhall and St

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  • THE BURNING TIME Introduction: Setting the scene

    Anne Askew was burnt at the stake along with John Lascelles (a lawyer and Gentleman of the King’s Privy Chamber), John Hadlam (a tailor from Essex) and John Hemsley (a former Franciscan friar), on 16 July 1546. A great stage was built at Smithfield for the convenience of Chancellor Wriothesley, other members of the Privy

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  • Reviews of The Burning Time

    David Aaronovitch in The Times “This gruesomely entertaining book examines the Tudor zeal for burning people in the name of religion, says David Aaronovitch.” Steve Tomkins in The Church Times Reviews at Goodreads.com Bob Duffy in The Washington Independent Review of Books “An authoritative chronicle of the gruesome era when religious dissenters met their end at the

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