John Fisher
Bishop of Rochester. He refused the oath to the succession and was beheaded on 22 June 1535 for denying that the king was supreme head of the Church of England.
An Act of the Parliament of 1534 attainted John, bishop of Rochester, of misprision of treason because he had refused the oath to the succession (Statutes of the Realm, 26 Hen. VIII c. 22). A London chronicler of the time records that he was arraigned at Westminster on 17 June 1535 for denying the king to be supreme head of the Church of England and beheaded on Tower Hill on 22 June, and that his head was set on London Bridge (Wriothesley, Chronicle vol. 1, pp. 28–29). See England Breaks with Rome.
In the timeline
- 1534, firm dateEngland Breaks with Rome
Parliament forbids appeals to Rome and in 1534 declares Henry VIII the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England. John Fisher and Thomas More, who deny the title, are beheaded in 1535.