2-376-548 - Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images

Murder of the Duke of Suffolk, 1450 (1864). Banished by Henry VI (1421-1471) of England, William de la Pole (1396-1450), Duke of Suffolk, was intercepted in the Channel by the ship 'Nicholas of the Tower', possibly by order of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, and murdered by the lowest of the crew with a rusty sword; he hacked off the duke's head in four or five strokes.