coln, Latimer in vain inquiring whether it were not lawful for him to appeal 'to the next general council which shall be truly called in God's name.'
On the 16th he and Ridley were brought out to execution by the mayor and bailiffs of Oxford, at 'the ditch over against Balliol College.' Ridley went first, Latimer following as fast as age would permit. When Latimer neared the place Ridley ran back and embraced him. For a few minutes the two conversed together. Then Dr. Richard Smith preached a sermon in the worst spirit of bigotry. Ridley asked Latimer if he would speak in reply, but Latimer desired him to begin, and both kneeled before the vice-chancellor and other commissioners to desire a hearing. No hearing, however, was allowed them unless they would recant, which they steadfastly refused to do. After being stripped of some outer garments they were fastened to the stake by a chain round the middle of both. Ridley's brother brought him a bag of gunpowder, and tied it about his neck; after which, at Ridley's request, he did the same for Latimer. The fagots were then lighted at Ridley's feet. 'Be of good comfort, Master Ridley,' said Latimer; 'we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England as I trust shall never be put out.' The old man succumbed first to the flames, and died without much pain.
The seven sermons preached before Edward VI in March–April 1549 were published collectively in that year. Others appeared separately in 1548 and 1550. Twenty-seven of Latimer's sermons were published collectively in 1562, and with 'others not heretofore set forth in print' in 1571. Later collective editions are dated 1575, 1578, 1584, 1596, and 1635. All Latimer's extant writings were edited for the Parker Society in 1844–5.
A portrait by an unknown artist is in the National Portrait Gallery.
[Latimer's Remains and Sermons (Parker Soc.); Original Letters (Parker Soc.); Foxe's Acts and Monuments; Calendar of Henry VIII, vols. iv. &c.; State Papers of Henry VIII; Tytler's England under Edward VI and Mary; Strype's Memorials, iii. ii. 288 sq. (ed. 1822); Machyn's Diary and the Chronicle of Queen Jane (Camden Soc.); Stow's Chronicle; Lives by Gilpin, Corrie, and Demaus. The revised edit. (1881) of the last is referred to.]
LATIMER, WILLIAM, first Baron Latimer (d. 1304), was a member of a family which had been settled at Billinges in Yorkshire since the time of Richard I. On chronological grounds it is improbable that he is, as stated by Dugdale, the William Latimer who was sheriff of Yorkshire from 1253 to 1259, and again in 1266–7. The holder of these offices was more probably his father. The elder Latimer was sent to assist Alexander III of Scotland in 1256, was escheator-general north of the Trent in 1257, and in December 1263 was one of those who undertook that the king would abide by the award of Louis IX. He supported the king in the barons' war, and is referred to in the 'Song of the Barons' (Wright, Pol. Songs, p. 63). He was at various times in charge of the castles of Pickering, Cockermouth, York, and Scarborough. He was alive in May 1270 (Cal. Docts. Scotl. i. 2561).
William Latimer the younger may be the baron of that name who took the cross in 1271. No doubt it is he who was summoned to serve in Wales in December 1276, and again in May 1282. At the defeat of the English at Menai Straits, 6 Nov. 1282, he escaped by riding through the midst of the waves (Hemingburgh, ii. 11). He was present in parliament on 29 May 1290, when a grant was made 'pur fille marier' (Rot. Parl. i. 25 a), but his first recorded writ of summons is dated 29 Dec. 1299. In April 1292 he was summoned to attend at Norham equipped for the field. He sailed in the expedition for Gascony which left Plymouth on 3 Oct., reaching Chatillon on 23 Oct. At the beginning of 1295 Latimer was in command at Rions. He seems to have remained in Gascony till 1297, in which year he was employed in Scotland, and was present at the battle of Stirling on 10 Sept., when the English were defeated by Wallace (Chron. de Melsa, ii. 268, Rolls Ser.). In 1298 he accompanied Edward to Scotland, and was present at the battle of Falkirk on 22 July. In August he was in command at Berwick. Next year, in April, he was appointed a commissioner to treat for the exchange of prisoners, and was one of those summoned to attend the council at York in July for the consideration of the affairs of Scotland (Stevenson, Hist. Documents illustrative of the Hist. of Scotland, ii. 296–8, 370, 379). In July he was engaged in a raid into Galloway, and in August was again at Berwick, being at this time the king's lieutenant in the marches. In June 1300 he was at the siege of Caerlaverock. In October 1300 he was again keeper of Berwick, and in September 1302 was in command at Roxburgh. In February 1301 he was present in the parliament at Lincoln, and was one of the barons who joined in the letter to Pope Boniface. Latimer died 5 Dec. 1304, and was buried at Hempingham or Empingham, Rutland
