The Meeting of Thomas More with his daughter, after his sentence of death

Thomas More, chief minister to Henry VIII and Lord High Chancellor of England, was sentenced to death in 1535 for refusing to accept the King's assumption of spiritual authority over the Church of England instead of the Pope. Henry had been driven to split with the Roman Catholic Church in order to grant himself a divorce from his first wife Katherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn.

More's biographer, his son-in-law William Roper, told the moving story of how More's daughter Margaret (William's wife) burst through the crowds and armed guard to embrace her father as he returned from his trial in Westminster Hall to the Tower of London. This is the scene that Yeames has captured, creating a dynamic and touching moment typical of the Victorian trend for theatrical depictions of Tudor and Stuart history. Yeames exhibited this painting at the Royal Academy in 1863, where it was praised for its "quality of drawing and composition ... varied incident and touching pathos."