St Swithin's Church was situated on Candlewick Street, the original name for Cannon Street, located just within the boundaries of Walbrook Ward. Also known as 'St Swithun London Stone', the church, dedicated to the 9th century Bishop of Winchester, stood on the south-west corner of St Swithin's Lane, adjoining a house which, in the early years of the 16th century, was inhabited by Edmund Dudley.

On the morning of 17 August 1510, a large crowd gathered on Tower Hill, a large area of open land, overlooking the Tower of London, in anticipation of a double execution. One of the victims that had been led from his cell within the nearby Tower of London was Edmund Dudley, Henry VII's controversial chief financial agent, who had been sentenced to death, convicted on charges of constructive treason.

Edmund Dudley, an ambitious lawyer had led to his subsequent appointment within the king's Privy Council. Reflective of his growing-social status, widower Dudley had remarried; his bride was Elizabeth Grey, the daughter of Edward Grey, and his wife Elizabeth Talbot, daughter and heir of John Talbot, 1st Viscount Lisle - eldest son of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury from his second marriage to Margaret Beauchamp, the daughter of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick.

On 03 March 1542, Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, died within the Tower of London, aged about eighty-years old, having been imprisoned there since May 1540.

In medieval London, there were multiple public places of execution, places where death sentences which had been given to prisoners convicted of serious crimes against the monarch or the state, including treason and heresy, were carried out. These locations included Tyburn (the location of the city's primary public gallows), Smithfield marketplace and the churchyard of St-Giles-in-the-Field. In 1464, another site was established on a raised plot of land, overlooking the Tower

On This Day (21 April) in 1509, Henry VII died at Richmond Palace, aged 52, with his 17-year-old son Henry, succeeding him as Henry VIII.

Edmund Dudley, esq. was the grandson of John Dudley, 1st Baron Sutton - a courtier and diplomat, who after switching from the Lancastrian to the Yorkist cause during the Wars of the Roses, joined the court of Edward IV and was appointed as 'Constable of the Tower of London'.