Adrian Fortescue (martyr)

Blessed Sir Adrian Fortescue (1476 — 9 July 1539) was a courtier at the court of King Henry VIII of England who was executed in 1539 and later beatified as a Roman Catholic martyr.
Sir Adrian was the son of Sir John Fortescue of Ponsbourne Park at Newgate Street Village in Hertfordshire, and a cousin of Anne Boleyn's father. He was made a Knight of the Bath in 1503 and participated in England's wars against France in 1513 and 1523. He was made a Knight of the Order of St. John in 1532. Sir Adrian was also a Dominican Tertiary. On 29 August 1534, he was arrested without any stated reason but was freed after a period of months.John Hungerford Pollen, Bl. Adrian Fortescue, Catholic Encyclopedia 1909 In 1539, he was one of sixteen people condemned for treason without a trial by Parliament for unspecified acts presumably relating to hostility to Henry VIII's church policies. He was beheaded at the Tower of London on 9 July 1539. His widow married Thomas Parry, Comptroller of the Royal Household.
The Order of St. John of Jerusalem has advocated devotion to Blessed Adrian as a martyr since the 1600s and Leo XII beatified him on 13 May 1895.Ibid. 
==References==
Category:1476 births
Category:1539 deaths
Category:Victims of Anti-Catholicism
Category:Knights of Malta
Category:Beatified people
Category:People from Welwyn Hatfield (district)
Category:Tudor people
Category:16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs
Category:16th-century venerated Christians