Although separate to Berkeley Square, Hay Hill is so much an integral part of the square and is so closely connected with an historical incident, it will be included in this article.
Here occurred a critical phase in the ill—starred rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt against Queen Mary in 1554, a skirmish between the royalist forces and the rebels taking place at this spot. Machyn, in his invaluable Diary, wrote:
"Ther the qweyns men and (Wyatt's) men dyd skryssmys, wher he and ys captayns wher over-cum, thanke be unto God."
Stowe said: "Wyat and his companie planted his ordinance upon a hill beyond S. James, almost over against the parke corner, and himselfe after a few words spoken to his soldiers came down the old lane on foote, hard by the court gate of S. James, with foure or five ancients, his men marching in good array."
The outcome of Wyatt's rebellion is a matter of history, and it is only interesting to us here to note, that after his execution on Tower Hill, "his head was set up on the gallowes on Hay Hill neare Hyde Parke, from whence it was shortly after stolen and conveied away."