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'.