On this day in Tudor history, 5th June 1604, Tudor physician and naturalist Thomas Moffet, or Muffet, physician and naturalist, died at Wilton in Wiltshire.
The fact that he is known for a poem on silkworms and his daughter is linked to the famous nursery rhyme piqued my interest and I talk more about him and his poem in today's video.
You can read Moffet's 75-page poem at https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008513125/page/n5
Also on this day in history:
- 1516 – Maria de Salinas married William, 10th Lord Willoughby of Eresby. Maria was a good friend of Catherine of Aragon, and she and William were the parents of Katherine Willoughby, who went on to marry Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
- 1536 – Edward Seymour was created Viscount Beauchamp of Hache, Somerset, following the wedding of his sister, Jane Seymour, and Henry VIII.
- 1539 – Death of Brian Hygdon, Dean of York. Hygdon was close to Wolsey and Cromwell, and served on the King's Council in the North. He was buried in York Minster.
- 1577 – Death of John Rastell, author, Jesuit and Vice-Rector at Ingolstadt. He died in Ingolstadt.
- 1588 – Death of Anne de Vere (née Cecil), Countess of Oxford, at Greenwich. She was buried at Westminster Abbey. Anne was the daughter of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, and his second wife, Mildred. She had been contracted to marry Philip Sidney, but married Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford in 1571. It was not a successful marriage, and the couple separated after Oxford refused to recognise their daughter, Elizabeth, as his.
- 1597 – Death of Sir John North, soldier, member of Parliament, Justice of the Peace and traveller. He died in the Low Countries.
- 1600 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, was charged with insubordination during his time in Ireland at a special hearing at York House. He was ordered to remain under house arrest.