On this day in Tudor history, 8th July 1553, two days after her half-brother King Edward VI's death and one day after hearing news of his death, Mary, daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, declared that she was Edward VI's heir and so was queen - Queen Mary I.
In today's talk, I explain what had led Mary to this point and why Mary had fled London.
Also on this day in history:
- 1503 – Margaret Tudor said farewell to her father, Henry VII, and set off to Edinburgh to marry James IV. Anne Boleyn's father, Thomas Boleyn, was one of the men who accompanied her.
- 1536 – Death of William Wyggeston, merchant and benefactor, at Leicester. He was buried in the collegiate church of St Mary in the Newarke, Leicester, which was destroyed around 1548.
- 1540 – Abolition, by Henry VIII, of all heretical books and those containing errors.
- 1549 – The beginning of Kett's Rebellion. Robert Kett, a Norfolk farmer, agreed to lead a group of protesters who were angry with the enclosure of common land. The protesters marched on Norwich, and by the time they reached the city walls, it is said that they numbered around 16,000.