Archbishop Thomas Cranmer arrives at Traitors' Gate

After an original painting by Frederick Goodall.

Thomas Cranmer, reformist Archbishop of Canterbury for Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth I, was arrested in 1553 by the catholic Mary I and accused of treason and heresy. Despite apparently reconciling to catholicism, it didn't help his cause that, twenty years earlier, he had helped Henry VIII secure the annulment of his marriage with Mary's mother Katherine of Aragon. Cranmer was eventually condemned to execution and recanted his confession, before heing burnt at the stake in Oxford in 1556

Victorian painters created their own dramatic re-imaginations of scenes from British history. Goodall made studies at the Tower to inform the accuracy of his painting, as he placed Cranmer arriving through the water gate that had become known as Traitors' Gate a decade earlier, as state prisoners often arrived here before their trial. Apparently, Goodall did not stay long; he was put off by the stench from the undrained moat. Goodall's original composition is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.