The Lancashire executions of 1537 were particularly severe because the county had harboured the Whalley and Sawley monastic communities that had actively joined the rebellion. Henry VIII ordered that one man from every village that had risen be hanged in chains as a deterrent. The monks of dissolved abbeys who had participated were executed as traitors to their oaths of royal supremacy.
Hundreds executed across Lancashire; exact number uncertain
Royal commission under the Earl of Derby
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