Sir Thomas More

On this day in 1535, Sir Thomas More was beheaded, his punishment for refusing to swear an oath making Henry VIII head of the Church of England, and husband of as many as he pleased. For his learning, wit and good government, More has become the portrait of Humanism; the actual Holbein portrait of him, now part of the Frick Collection in New York, is one of the most famous images of the English Renaissance, as his Utopia is one of its essential texts. More's last days are known to many through Robert Bolt's 1960 play, A Man For All Seasons -- the title comes from a description of More by his friend, and another giant of the era, Erasmus.

More's last letter, written in charcoal from the Tower on the eve of his execution, is to his daughter Margaret Roper, and has little irony.

. . . I cumber you, good Margaret, much, but I would be sorry if it should be any longer than to-morrow, for it is St. Thomas's even, and the utas of St. Peter; and therefore, to-morrow long I to go to God. It were a day very meet and convenient for me.

I never liked your manner towards me better than when you kissed me last; for I love when daughterly love and dear charity hath no leisure to look to worldly courtesy. Farewell, my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends, that we may merrily meet in heaven. I thank you for your great cost. . . .

The occasion "when you kissed me last" was four days previous, as More was being transported back to the Tower after his conviction and sentencing. Margaret had pushed through the onlookers and through the pikes and halberds of the encircling guards to hug him, and then after leaving had rushed back to kiss again, before being separated. Such defiance of authority and convention won the daughter the father's highest and last praise. Margaret got More's hair shirt with the letter; on her own she managed to retrieve his head from its pole on London Bridge.
(From Steve King)