On this day in history, 1st March 1620, Tudor poet, composer and physician Thomas Campion died and was laid to rest.
Campion was a prolific composer and poet, yet he died in quite humble circumstances. He did, however, escape imprisonment and worse after being implicated in a man's poisoning. Find out more about this man in this video.
Note: I accidentally say 1520 instead of 1620 - oops!
Thomas Campion poem:
Thomas Campion compositions:
The Poetry Foundation page on Thomas Campion - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/thomas-campion
Also on this day in history:
- 1546 – Hanging and burning of George Wishart, Scottish evangelical preacher and martyr, at St Andrews, Scotland. In his preaching. Wishart had denounced the Pope and had continued preaching contrary to Cardinal Beaton's orders. He was tried on 1st March 1546, eighteen charges being levelled against him, and was condemned to death. He went to his death with courage, asking Christ's forgiveness for those who had condemned him to death “ignorantly”.
- 1553 – Edward VI opened Parliament. The king was ill at the time, so it was a much more low key ceremony than usual.
- 1554 – Birth of William Stafford, son of Sir William Stafford (husband of the late Mary Boleyn) and his second wife Dorothy Stafford. William is known as a conspirator, having concocted a plot, The Stafford Plot, probably on the instructions of William Cecil. This plot was supposedly against Elizabeth I, but its purpose is likely to have been to show Elizabeth that her life was in danger from Mary, Queen of Scots and her followers.
- 1559 – Death of Sir Thomas Tresham, Catholic politician and Grand Prior of England in the Order of Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, at Rushton in Northamptonshire. He was buried at St Peter's Church, Rushton. When Edward VI died in 1553, Tresham had supported Princess Mary's claim, and proclaimed her Queen in Northampton.
- 1562 – The Massacre of Vassy. Sixty-three Huguenot worshippers were killed, and over a hundred injured, when Francis, Duke of Guise, ordered his troops to set fire to the barn being used as a church in Vassy (Wassy), France. Trouble had started when some of his men had barged their way into the barn, and the Duke was hit by a stone being thrown.
- 1568 – Death of Sir Thomas Throckmorton, son of William Throckmorton. He was buried at Tortworth in Gloucestershire. In the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I, Throckmorton was a Justice of the Peace, and in Elizabeth I's reign he was a Sheriff, also serving on the Council in the Marches.
- 1587 – Death of Welsh landowner, lawyer and antiquary Rice Merrick at Cotrel. He was buried at St Nicholas' Church. Merrick was the author of Morganiae archaiographia (“A Book of Glamorganshire's Antiquities”).
- 1602 – Death of Herbert Westfaling, Bishop of Hereford, at Hereford. He was buried in the cathedral there.