Edmund Bonner

c.1500-1569. Bishop of London. Born in Worcestershire and educated at Oxford, he was ordained priest in 1519 and with his training as a canon lawyer entered the service of Cardinal Wolsey.* As a supporter of Henry VIII's “divorce,” he obtained the king's favor after the fall of Wolsey. Bonner's service to Henry on the Continent and his acceptance of the break with Rome led to his appointment to the bishopric of London in 1540. Under Edward VI he opposed the Protestant regime and was deprived of his bishopric in 1549. Under Mary he was restored and became a chief agent of the royal persecution. As London was closest to the court, the persecution was fiercest there, and Bonner was hated intensely by the people of London. When Elizabeth came to the throne, he was again deprived and spent the rest of his life in the Marshalsea prison.