Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy - Arrest, Trial and Execution

Arrest, Trial and Execution

Darcy was apprehended, brought up to London, and lodged in the Tower of London, as were several other of the northern leaders at the same time.

Examined by the Privy Council, Darcy used the occasion to make clear his hatred and contempt for Thomas Cromwell: "thou that art the very original and chief causer of this rebellion and mischief and likewise art the cause of apprehension to us that be noblemen and dost earnestly travail to bring us to our end and strike off our heads."He warned Cromwell that he must not count on the King's favour lasting:" others that have been in such favour with Kings that you now enjoy have come to the same end you bring me to" and hoped that even if Cromwell struck off every nobleman's head, " yet one shall remain that shall strike off yours".

An indictment found against Darcy and the other northern leaders on 9 May at York says that they had conspired together in October, first to deprive the king of his royal dignity by disowning his title of Supreme Head of the Church of England, and secondly to compel him to hold a parliament; that they had afterwards committed divers acts of rebellion; that after being pardoned they had corresponded with each other, and that Darcy and others had abetted Bigod's rebellion in January. On these charges he and his old friend, John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford were arraigned at Westminster on 15 May before the Marquess of Exeter as Lord High Steward, and a number of their peers.

They were condemned to suffer the extreme penalty of treason, but the punishment actually inflicted upon them was decapitation, which Lord Hussey underwent at Lincoln, whither he was conveyed on purpose to strike terror where the insurrection had begun. But Darcy was beheaded on Tower Hill on 30 June. His head was set up on London Bridge, and his body, according to one contemporary writer, was buried at Crutched Friars. But if so, it must have been removed afterwards; at least, if a tombstone inscription may be trusted, it lies with the bodies of other Darcys in the church of St Botolph's Aldgate.