He closed scores of monasteries; he helped crush a national rebellion and meted out cruel revenge on local rebels who had ravaged his estates; he personally arrested the Lord Protector of England; he supervised the burning alive of three bishops and he even managed to irritate Philip II of Spain.

Having cleverly made his way through the mine-field of Tudor politics at a time when three queens, four ministers of the Crown and several notable churchmen were beheaded, John Williams, founder of the school which bears his name in Thame, died in his bed at Ludlow Castle as President of the Council of Wales, and one of the top ten richest men in England.