One of his early missions was to interview Thomas Darcy, who was implicated in the pro-Catholic rebellion called the Pilgrimage of Grace.
On 12 November 1542, the Earl of Hertford sent Trahern to James V of Scotland from Sir Robert Tyrwhitt's house at Kettleby in Lincolnshire.
Although Ray stated the murderers were three English fugitives, John Prestman, William Leech of Fulletby, bailiff of Louth, and his brother Edward, veterans of the Pilgrimage of Grace,[6] Henry VIII treated his death in Scotland as a diplomatic incident and blamed James V of Scotland.
[10] A later 16th-century English chronicle suggested that the distress caused by Trahern's murder contributed to the final illness of James V of Scotland.
[11] Thomas Traherne's own coat of arms, including a chevron and three black herons, shows that he was a member of a Glamorgan family.