The First Gun Crime in London

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

Early in the morning of Sunday 13 November 1536, a London merchant named Robert Pakington was shot dead crossing Cheapside as he walked to church. It was the first gun crime in London's history. But who pulled the trigger? In a time of religious turmoil, was Pakington's murder perhaps provoked by his outspoken criticism of the clergy?

In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb speaks to historian and writer Derek Wilson, whose novel The First Horseman launched a series exploring true, unsolved Tudor crimes.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	London's first gun crime occurred early on the morning of the 13th of November 1536.
0:10.4	Its victim was Robert Packington, a wealthy London Mercer or Deel-owned fine fabrics who
0:20.7	lived just off cheap sight and was killed on his way to mass.
0:26.2	His death has much to tell us about the story of the Reformation in England and the crucial
0:32.2	year of 1536.
0:38.5	To explore that story with me today, my guest is Derek Wilson, one of the most prolific
0:44.0	writers on the Tudor period and indeed on the 17th century and 15th centuries.
0:49.9	His books include Mrs. Luther and her sisters, women of the Reformation, the People's Bible,
0:55.2	the remarkable history of the King James version and Uncrowned Kings, the black legend of
1:01.0	the Dudley's which John Guy described as masterly stimulating and authoritative.
1:06.8	But Derek has also written novels and published under the name DK Wilson are a trilogy that
1:12.6	explore the adventures and misadventures of London Goldsmith Thomas Treviott.
1:18.5	Each is based on a real historical mystery and the first in the series, the first horseman
1:24.3	tells the tale of Packington's murder.
1:27.0	So I asked Derek to bring together his fictional world and his historical knowledge to discuss
1:34.0	this real life, historical crime.
1:43.2	Derek thank you so much for joining me today because you have been such an inspiration
1:50.7	to me. You were one of the first people who befriended me in the Tudor history world and
1:56.8	you have written more books than I can possibly dream of writing over such a range of wonderful
2:04.4	things.
2:05.8	And today we're going to be talking about one of your novels, the first horseman based
2:11.0	on a fascinating story from a year that we have both thought a lot about, 1536.
	...

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