Martyrs Memorial ~ Bury St Edmunds #burystedmunds #martyrsmemorial #cathedral #suffolk #history

Visited this Memorial during my stay at Bury St. Edmunds, It’s just outside the cathedral just behind the Norman Tower. Info: A memorial to the 17 Protestant martyrs who were executed in the town on the orders of Queen Mary I. Most of them were burnt at the stake. This was put up by public subscription in 1903. Each face of the rectangular base has an inscribed panel, the 4th has inscribed: ’Who, for their faithful testimony to God’s truth during the reign of Queen Mary suffered death in this town 1555-1558’. However there appears to have been an error as to the actual number of these men, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs includes fourteen that died in Bury St Edmunds, according to Suffolk Archives. The other three died elsewhere. Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and niece to Mary Tudor Queen of France (who is buried at St Mary’s Church next to the churchyard), was determined to return the country to the Roman Catholic faith and revived the medieval laws for heretics. More than 300