<Ul> <Li> Sir William de la Pole . A nephew of Edward IV and thus potential Yorkist claimant to the throne, he was incarcerated at the Tower for 37 years (1502--1539) for allegedly plotting against Henry VII, thus becoming the longest - held prisoner . </Li> <Li> John Frith, a contemporary of William Tyndale, was imprisoned for 8 months before being tried for heresy and burnt at the stake in Smithfield on 4 July 1533, he is considered to be the first Protestant martyr . </Li> <Li> Saint John Fisher was executed on Tower Hill on 22 June 1535 . Thomas Cranmer's consecration as Archbishop of Canterbury had taken place in March 1533, and, a week later, John Fisher was arrested . </Li> <Li> Saint Thomas More was imprisoned on 17 April 1534 for treason . He was executed on 6 July 1535 and his body was buried at the Tower of London . </Li> <Li> Blessed Thomas Abel, chaplain to Queen Catherine of Aragon, was imprisoned for refusing to accept the annulment of her marriage to Henry VIII . He was put to death in Smithfield on 30 July 1540 . </Li> <Li> Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII of England, was imprisoned on 2 May 1536 on charges of High Treason: adultery, incest, and witchcraft . She remained a prisoner until 19 May 1536 when she was beheaded by a French swordsman on Tower Green . </Li> <Li> In 1539, Hugh Latimer opposed Henry VIII's Six Articles, with the result that he was imprisoned in the Tower of London (where he was again in 1546). </Li> <Li> Adam Sedbar, Abbot of Jervaulx, imprisoned in 1537 for taking part in the Pilgrimage of Grace, before being hanged, drawn and quartered . </Li> <Li> Blessed Richard Whiting Abbott of Glastonbury Abbey was imprisoned in 1539 for a short time before being returned to Glastonbury to be hanged, drawn and quartered . </Li> <Li> Blessed Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury was imprisoned from 1539 until her beheading in 1541 for treason . </Li> <Li> Thomas Cromwell was imprisoned by Henry VIII in 1540 before his execution . </Li> <Li> Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, was imprisoned in 1542 before her execution . </Li> <Li> Lady Rochford, sister in law to queen Anne Boleyn, held there before her execution with Catherine Howard . </Li> <Li> Anne Askew, Protestant reformer, was imprisoned and tortured for heresy in 1546 before being burnt at the stake . </Li> <Li> Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, was imprisoned in the Tower and set to be executed at the time of Henry VIII's death in 1547 . Edward VI granted him as a reprieve, but he remained in the Tower until pardoned by Mary I in 1553 . </Li> <Li> Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and his steward Sir John Thynne . Although Somerset was released from the Tower and restored to the Council, he was executed for felony in January 1552 after scheming to overthrow John Dudley, Earl of Warwick's regime . </Li> <Li> Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, was imprisoned in 1553 before being sent to Oxford in 1554 to be burnt at the stake for heresy . </Li> <Li> Lady Jane Grey, uncrowned Queen of England and her husband Guilford Dudley were imprisoned in the tower from 1553 until 12 February 1554, when they were beheaded by order of Queen Mary I . </Li> <Li> In the reign of Edward VI Stephen Gardiner was imprisoned in the Tower (1548--1553) for his failure to conform . Upon Mary's accession to the throne he was restored to his see and made Lord Chancellor . </Li> <Li> The future Queen Elizabeth I, was imprisoned for two months in 1554 for her alleged involvement in Wyatt's Rebellion . </Li> <Li> In 1566 Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox was sent to the Tower, but after the murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley in 1567 she was released . </Li> <Li> Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton imprisoned from October 1571 to May 1573, for his part in the Ridolfi plot to assassinate Elizabeth I and replace her on the English throne with Mary, Queen of Scots . </Li> <Li> Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland, for involvement in several pro-Catholic and Marian plots, from November 1571 to after June 1573, a few weeks in late 1582, and from December 1584 to June 21, 1585, when he was found shot to death in his cell; brought in as a suicide . </Li> <Li> Saint Henry Walpole was imprisoned in 1593 . While incarcerated in the Salt Tower, he carved his name in the plaster along with those of saints Peter, Paul, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory the Great . He was put to death in York on 7 April 1595 . </Li> <Li> Saint Philip Howard was committed to the Tower of London on 25 April 1585 . He died alone on Sunday, 19 October 1595 . </Li> <Li> Robert Poley, spy and messenger for the court of Queen Elizabeth I, was imprisoned on the charge of treason . He used his time in the Tower to gather information on his fellow prisoners . He was released a year and a half later . </Li> <Li> Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford imprisoned from March to June 1581 for impregnating Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, who had given birth to a son . Vavasour and infant were also imprisoned . </Li> <Li> Anne Vavasour, a Maid of Honour (1580--81) to Elizabeth I, for having an illegitimate son with Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford . All were sent to the Tower by orders of the Queen: mother, father, and child . </Li> <Li> John Gerard, an English Jesuit priest operating undercover during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, when Catholics were being persecuted . He was captured in 1594 and tortured and incarcerated in the Salt Tower before making a daring escape by rope across the moat in 1597 . </Li> <Li> William Wright, another Jesuit priest who was arrested in the aftermath of The Gunpowder Plot . </Li> </Ul> <Li> Sir William de la Pole . A nephew of Edward IV and thus potential Yorkist claimant to the throne, he was incarcerated at the Tower for 37 years (1502--1539) for allegedly plotting against Henry VII, thus becoming the longest - held prisoner . </Li> <Li> John Frith, a contemporary of William Tyndale, was imprisoned for 8 months before being tried for heresy and burnt at the stake in Smithfield on 4 July 1533, he is considered to be the first Protestant martyr . </Li> <Li> Saint John Fisher was executed on Tower Hill on 22 June 1535 . Thomas Cranmer's consecration as Archbishop of Canterbury had taken place in March 1533, and, a week later, John Fisher was arrested . </Li>

Who was held prisoner in the tower of london