PMP2000 > Places > Charnwood History

FAMOUS PEOPLE

HUGH LATIMER (c1485-1555)
HUGH LATIMER was born in THURCASTON in the late 15th century, the son of a prosperous yeoman father. The exact date - like the site of his birthplace - is unknown. His schooldays are also a mystery but he continued his education at Clare College, Cambridge where he was elected a Fellow in 1511 and became an MA in 1514. At this time he was, in his own words: "as obstinate a Papist as any in England" but gradually changed his views and became a fervent Protestant.

He first gained royal favour by speaking out in support of HENRY VIII's efforts to obtain an annulment of his marriage to CATHERINE OF ARAGON. In return for this, LATIMER received the benefice of West Kingston, Wiltshire in 1531. It ws soon after this that he met and befriended two key players in the English Reformation: THOMAS CROMWELL and THOMAS CRANMER, the future Archbishop of Canterbury.

Despite subsequent disagreements, including a period of imprisonment, HENRY VIII made him Bishop of Worcester in 1535 and two years later he preached the sermon at the funeral of JANE SEYMOUR. But he could not accept the Six Articles of Religion and in 1539, the sudden fall of his major supporter, THOMAS CROMWELL, forced LATIMER into resigning the See. For the rest of HENRY's reign, LATIMER was suspected of heresy and was in fact imprisoned in the Tower when the old King finally died.

HENRY's successor, the sickly EDWARD VI, repealed the Six Articles in 1547 and LATIMER was again able to preach freely. In fact, he refused to take up his old Bishopric so that he was free to preach as he wished. For the next few years, he preached in many places, frequently at St Paul's Cross. In 1548, he gave a series of impassioned sermons protesting the injustice of the rich towards the poor. Crowds flocked to hear him protest at every kind of oppression.

But EDWARD died after just six years and, despite the attempt to put the Protestant JANE GREY on the throne, MARY I succeeded and determined to return the country to Catholicism.

LATIMER was arrested for treason in September 1553, along with the former Bishop of London NICHOLAS RIDLEY and sent to the Tower of London. Both refused to recant their Protestantism and were burned at the stake outside Balliol College on Broad Street, Oxford on October 16th 1555.

Foxe's "BOOK OF MARTYRS" gives his last words as:
"Be of good comfort, Master Ridley and play the man, and we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England as I trust shall never be put out".

LATIMER died quite quickly as gunpowder round his neck exploded in the heat but RIDLEY was left to a slow, agonising death; the following year, THOMAS CRANMER was to follow them to the stake. Just three years later, ELIZABETH I became Queen and England was once again Protestant.

The three men are commemorated by the MARTYRS' MEMORIAL, erected in St Giles Street, Oxford in 1843 and the actual site of their deaths is shown by a cross set into the surface of Broad Street.

RIDLEY's last words are echoed on a marble tablet in THURCASTON church, erected by a former Rector, Reverend Richard Waterfield and designed by Leicester mason, Benjamin Broadbent. It reads:
"In grateful memory of HUGH LATIMER, Lord Bishop of Worcester... This great champion of the Protestant faith was born in the parish of THURCASTON... He was burnt at the stake in Oxford, AD1555 and then lighted a candle which shall never be put out".