Cromwell was condemned to death without trial, lost all his titles and property and was publicly beheaded on Tower Hill on 28 July 1540, on the same day as the King's marriage to Catherine Howard. Cromwell made a prayer and speech on the scaffold, professing to die, "in the traditional faith" and denying that he had aided heretics. This was a necessary disavowal, to protect his family. The circumstances of his execution are a source of debate: whilst some accounts state that the executioner had great difficulty severing the head, others claim that this is and that it took only one blow. Afterwards, his head was set on a spike on London Bridge.