The Earl of Essex knew how to make a statement. Foiled in his attempt to seize the Court, the Tower and the City, Essex, who was executed in 1601, appeared on the scaffold in a ‘gown of wrought velvet, suit of satin, a felt hat, all in black and a little ruff about his neck’. If clothes make the man, then the Earl of Essex died as he lived – a gentleman. Thus, the fully dressed and stylish earl may have lost his life, but not his status – and that was significant. Once stripped so they could be dishonoured and perhaps more easily dismembered, by the sixteenth century the political elite were choosing their final apparel with care – and often with an eye toward influencing the message of their execution.

Essex was not the only member of the English nobility to be described as smartly attired at his execution. Ann Boleyn reportedly wore a short mantle furred with ermine and according to the Chronicle of Queen Jane, Thomas Wyatt dressed in a gown, points, a doublet and a waistcoat for his execution. And when the Duke of Northumberland climbed the scaffold in 1553,