Priest Holes - Avoiding Execution In Tudor England!

The Tudor period was a very dangerous one in England, for example during the reign of King Henry VIII 70,000 people were executed across the country. But during the reign of Elizabeth I, she sought to crush Catholicism and she employed a number of priest hunters who would search and arrest Catholic priests. Many of these priests were then tortured and were then executed, but many Catholic families sheltered priests and to help them escape they created priest holes in their homes to accommodate them. These were tiny shelters in which a priest would be hid when the hunters came searching. However the authorities knew that many priests were being hid, and then in secret would hold Catholic mass and other services and they even began to employ carpenters to search for the holes. Many priest holes look like dungeons, and some were even hidden inside of chimneys and staircases and others had escape routes out of the house completely. But the point in the priest hole was to shelter the underground priest from danger and they were actually very successful. One of the most prominent priest hole builders was Nicholas Owen, who built many of them but he was later tortured to death at the Tower of London. Join us today as we look at, 'Priest Holes - Avoiding Execution In Tudor England!' To support our channel please make sure to subscribe.