Sir George Blagge was an English politician. He was the Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Bedford

Bedford (UK Parliament constituency)

Bedford is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The seat was established in its current form in 1997, restoring a centuries old name. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election...

 from 1545 to 1547, and Westminster

Westminster (UK Parliament constituency)

Westminster was a parliamentary constituency in the Parliament of England to 1707, the Parliament of Great Britain 1707-1800 and the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801. It returned two members to 1885 and one thereafter....

 from 1547 to 1551, during the reign of Edward VI

Edward VI of England

Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...

.

Controversy

Before serving in parliament, he was a member of the Privy Chamber

Privy chamber

A Privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The gentlemen of the Privy chamber were servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King and Queen at court during their various activities, functions and entertainments....

 of Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

, who used to call him 'Pig'. In 1546, towards the end of Henry VIII's reign, Blagge attracted attention due to his sacramentarian beliefs about the Lord's Supper

Lord's Supper

The Lord's Supper may refer to:*Eucharist, Mass or Communion, a rite in Christianity*The Last Supper, the last meal Jesus of Nazareth shared with his disciples in the collection of Christian Scriptures called The Holy Bible....

, denying the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation

Transubstantiation

In Roman Catholic theology, transubstantiation means the change, in the Eucharist, of the substance of wheat bread and grape wine into the substance of the Body and Blood, respectively, of Jesus, while all that is accessible to the senses remains as before.The Eastern Orthodox...

. He was thus arrested, imprisoned at Newgate

Newgate Prison

Newgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London. It was originally located at the site of a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished in 1777...

 and sentenced to execution by burning for heresy

Heresy

Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...

. The King, however, previously unaware of Blagge's arrest, issued a pardon, allowing Blagge to avoid execution.

Personal life

Blagge was the only son of Mary Brooke and Robert Blagge. He was educated at Cambridge. He married Dorothy Badby, who outlived him and married Richard Goodrich of Bolingbroke

Bolingbroke

Bolingbroke is the name of:* Henry IV of England, also known as Henry of Bolingbroke* Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke , a Tory party Jacobite grandee and British statesman...

. He had a daughter named Hester, who married Charles Le Grice.