2-321-684 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sir Thomas Wyatt attacking the By-ward Tower, 1554 (1840). An exaggerated depiction of fighting at the Tower of London during the rebellion against Queen Mary led by Sir Thomas Wyatt. Wyatt led the rebellion in opposition to Mary's plans to marry Prince Philip (later King Philip II) of Spain. He 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).