The Tudor Society

  • July 6 – Sir Thomas More’s adopted daughter

    10 months ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    A chalk sketch of Margaret Clement (Giggs) by Hans Holbein the Younger

    On this day in Tudor history, 6th July 1570, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Margaret Clement (née Giggs), wife of John Clement and adopted daughter of Sir Thomas More, died in Mechelen where she and her husband had gone into exile. Margaret was buried in the Cathedral of St Rumbald.

    In 1535, in his final letter, written to his daughter, Margaret Roper, before his execution, Sir Thomas More mentioned Margaret Clement. He wrote “I send now unto my good daughter Clement her algorism stone and I send her and my good son and all hers God’s blessing and mine.” An algorism stone being a devise for helping with arithmetic. It was obviously a keepsake he wanted her to have.

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  • July 5 – A shoemaker is executed

    10 months ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    A silhouette of a man's side profile

    On this day in Tudor history, 5th July 1583, shoemaker and religious radical John Copping was executed for ‘dispersing’ books by Robert Browne and Richard Harrison, which were viewed as “sundry seditious, schismatical and erroneous printed books”.

    Copping had been arrested with his friend Elias Thacker, a tailor, and Thacker was executed the day before. Books were burned at each of their executions.

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  • July 4 – Elizabethan composer William Byrd

    10 months ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On 4th July 1623, Elizabethan composer, William Byrd died at Stondon Massey in Essex.

    Byrd served as a gentleman of the Chapel Royal from 1572, and in 1575 he and fellow composer Thomas Tallis were granted a patent for the importing, printing, publishing, and sale of music, and the printing of music paper for a period of twenty-one years. They published a collection of 34 motets – 16 written by Tallis and 18 by Byrd, in 1575 as their first work.

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  • Monday Martyr – Anthony Brookby

    10 months ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    The symbol of the Order of Friars Minor, the Franciscans, by Piotr Jaworski, PioM

    This week’s Monday Martyr is Franciscan friar Anthony Brookby (Brockby), who was executed on 19th July 1537, in the reign of King Henry VIII.

    In her 19th century book “Faithful unto Death”, J M Stone explains that Father Anthony Brookby was a Latin, Greek and Hebrew scholar who was Professor of Divinity at Magdalen College, Oxford, and “celebrated for his eloquence as a scholar”. He got into trouble when, during a sermon at the Church of St Lawrence, Brookby “spoke of Henry’s new marriage, as the cause of the dreadful evils which threatened to overwhelm the country”. He went on to denounce England’s break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries.

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  • July 3 – Mary I says goodbye to Philip of Spain

    10 months ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    A portrait of Mary I and Philip of Spain by Hans Eworth

    On this day in Tudor history, 3rd July 1557, Mary I bid farewell to her husband, Philip of Spain, at Dover as he set off for war with France.

    Philip had only returned to England in March 1557 after an absence of over 18 months and he had only returned then, as historian Anna Whitelock points out, because he needed money and for England to declare war on France, which they did on 7th June 1557.

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  • July 2 – Old Scarlett

    10 months ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    An 18th century etching of Robert Scarlett, Old Scarlett

    On this day in Tudor history, 2nd July 1594, in the reign of Elizabeth I, Robert Scarlett (Old Scarlett), sexton at Peterborough Cathedral, was buried at the cathedral, apparently aged 98, although another source states that he was a bit younger.

    A verse accompanying his portrait in the cathedral states that Scarlett buried two queens, Catherine of Aragon and Mary, Queen of Scots , but it is not known whether this is true. He is also said to have buried a court fool known as Edward the Fool.

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  • July 1 – The 1536 Act of Succession

    10 months ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in Tudor history, 1st July 1536, Parliament gave the Second Act of Succession its first reading.

    This act superseded the 1534 Act of Succession, which had made Mary, Henry VIII’s daughter by Catherine of Aragon, illegitimate and had appointed Elizabeth, his daughter by Anne Boleyn, as heir to the throne.

    The new act declared the illegitimacy of both of Henry’s daughters. Both girls were now barred from the line of succession and, Elizabeth, like Mary, now lost her title of “princess”.

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