2-321-681 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sir Thomas Wyatt dictating terms to Queen Mary in the council chamber of the White Tower, c1553 (1840). Wyatt (c1521-1554) was involved in the failed attempt, organised by the Duke of Northumberland, to install Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the death of Edward VI. He escaped punishment by Queen Mary, but later led a rebellion in opposition to her plans to marry Prince Philip (later King Philip II) of Spain. Wyatt occupied Rochester on 26 January 1554, but his uprising had little support outside Kent. He marched on London with 4000 men but an anticipated rising amongst loyalist troops failed to materialise and Wyatt's supporters began to desert. After an attempt to force entry into the City at Ludgate failed Wyatt surrendered. He offered no defence when tried for treason, but his execution was delayed because Mary hoped that he would implicate her sister Elizabeth in the plot. Wyatt did not do so, instead clearing her of any involvement from the scaffold. Elizabeth was however placed under house arrest and spied upon for the rest of Mary's reign. A print from "The Tower of London a Historical Romance" by William Harrison Ainsworth. (London, 1840).