Thomas More

Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) was an English lawyer, humanist and statesman, author of Utopia and Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor, who went to the scaffold rather than accept the king as head of the Church. After Oxford and legal training in London, he was called to the bar in 1502 and considered monastic life before choosing the world. His Utopia (1516), about an imaginary island, made him famous across Europe.

Lord Chancellor from 1529 to 1532 after Wolsey's fall, he refused to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church or the annulment of his marriage to Catherine.

Convicted of treason on what he said was false evidence, he was beheaded at Tower Hill on 6 July 1535, reportedly saying he died the king's good servant, and God's first. Erasmus called his character purer than snow. The Church canonised More in 1935.