In March 1534, Pope Clement VII announced that Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn was invalid.
So began Henry's "reign of terror" against anyone who opposed him.
He first declared that the Pope no longer had authority in England.
In November 1534, Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy. This gave Henry the title of the "Supreme Head of the Church of England".
One important point to note is that the Act effectively made it treasonable to support the authority of the Pope over the Church of England. By tying the church and monarch so closely together, support for Catholicism became not simply a statement of personal religious conviction, but a repudiation of the authority of the monarch, and as such, an act of treason - punishable by death.
All English subjects were ordered to take an oath accepting this.
Catholics who still held the Pope as the supreme head of the church and refused to swear this oath, were indicted for treason.
In addition, his mother, Alice, was Anne Boleyn's aunt.
That's right: Queen Anne Boleyn is our 2nd cousin 15x removed!
Before these "troubles", Sir Adrian Fortescue had been in very high favor at Henry VIII's Court -
Frequently seen among the royals at Court, he was appointed Justice of the Peace for Oxford in 1511.
A true country gentleman of the period, Sir Adrian Fortescue followed Henry to Calais in June 1513 in the enterprise against Louis XII of France concerning the region of Milan.
In July 1517, Sir Adrian and his brother, Sir John, were in the king's retinue at the royal banquet at Greenwich.
Sir Adrian was a Gentleman of the King's Privy Chamber.
He attended The Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520 and he was charged with guarding Queen Catherine.
In 1522, he fought under the Earl of Surrey in Picardy.
In 1523, he took part in the capture of Bray and of Montdidier.
Despite these activities, he had time to marry Lady Anne Stonor in 1499 and they had two daughters, Margaret and Frances.
On June 14, 1518, his wife Anne died and was buried at Pyrton Church at Shirburn.
But, on March 31, 1525 she was moved to the church at the Priory of Bysham, Berkshire, to be buried among her ancestors.
In 1538 the Priory was razed by Henry VIII and Sir Adrian removed Anne's remains to Brightwell-Baldwin Church, 2 to 3 miles from Stonor..
By 1528, he had finished his military career and married for the second time to Lady Anne Reade.Together, they had three sons and two more daughters.
Late in life (1532), Sir Adrian became a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem. The Knights loudly opposed the religious errors of the King of England.
Adrian Fortescue thus drew the lightning.
All the property that the Order had in England had just been seized.
As a consequence, the members of the Order were not welcome at court.
Although he held no political office, Adrian was asked to take the Oath of Succession.
When he refused, Sir Adrian was taken to Woodstock where he was questioned. After several days, he was removed to Southwark and held in Marshalsea Prison on August 23, 1534.
The King then gave Stonor Castle, a part of his wife's inheritance, to her brother, Sir Walter Stonor.
Sir Adrian's imprisonment - uncharged - grew long. No doubt Thomas Cromwell wished to take time to strengthen his power.
He was keeping in check a possible leader of the opposition and of the resistance.
Then, for no apparent reason, our Knight was released.
This worthy gentleman had been overwhelmed by some unexplained whim of the Tudor tyrant.
On February 3, 1539, when he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy supporting Henry VIII's separation from Rome, he was arrested a second time and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
On the 18th, an inventory was drawn up of all his real and personal possessions and they were declared seized by the Crown.
There was no trial, or at least no traces of it are to be found.
To condemn with certainty those whom he wanted to eliminate, Cromwell had revived the Bill of Attainder of 1459 and applied it to the Catholics, "enemies of the throne".Their property was confiscated to "pay for the insult".
In April, Adrian was condemned - with no trial but by an act of attainder.
On July 9, 1539, he was beheaded at Tower Hill, London.
No specific act of treason was ever alleged against him, but only in general "sedition and refusing allegiance".
The attainder, however, went on to decree death against Cardinal Pole and several others because they "adhered themselves to the Bishop of Rome". Catholic tradition has always held that Sir Adrian died for the same cause, and modern Protestant critics have come to the same conclusion.
His cultus has always flourished among the Knights of St. John, and he was beatified by Leo XIII in 1895.
Blessed Adrian Fortescue was one of the few virtuous relatives of Anne Boleyn.
Lady Anne Fortescue was remembered by Queen Mary, who took her into her favor in 1553, after her husband's heresy. She attended the queen on 30th September, and was granted several manors in Gloucestershire, namely Pannington, Gotherington, Tredington, and Washbourne near Tewkesbury, and the Manor of Hamstead near Chipping-Sodbury.
Lady Anne married again - Thomas Ap-Harry or Parry, who died in 1575. She died on 5th January 1585, aged 75, and was buried at Welford, near Newbury, Berkshire. An alabaster monument was erected there by her son Thomas.
