Historedia
EuropeEvent

Execution of William Laud

When
1645
Where
Tower Hill, London
Episodes
1

Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud was executed for treason on Tower Hill, London, on 10 January 1645. Following a failed trial and a bill of attainder, he was beheaded despite a royal pardon.

Episodes

  1. 10 January 1645 · Tower Hill, LondonExecution of William Laud

    William Laud was beheaded on Tower Hill on 10 January 1645 following a bill of attainder.

Background and detail

Background. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1633, Laud was arrested by Parliament in 1640. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he remained during the early stages of the English Civil War.

Trial and Attainder. Laud's trial in 1644 ended without a verdict because specific treasonable actions could not be identified. Parliament subsequently passed a bill of attainder, leading to his execution despite a granted royal pardon.

Execution. On 10 January 1645, Laud was beheaded on Tower Hill. This site, located north-west of the Tower of London moat, was historically used for the public execution of high-status prisoners.

People involved

Sources

  1. William Laud Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-15
  2. Tower Hill Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-29

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.