The Tudor Society

May 23 – Elizabeth under house arrest, Henry VIII gets his annulment, and Henry Grey becomes a Garter Knight

On this day in Tudor history, 23rd May 1554, Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, arrived at the Palace of Woodstock in Oxfordshire, where she was placed under house arrest.

Elizabeth remained under house arrest there for just under a year, and she didn't make it easy for her gaoler, Sir Henry Bedingfield, and neither did her servants.

Find out why Elizabeth was under house arrest and what happened...

On this day in Tudor history, 23rd May 1533, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, declared the sentence of the special court that had met at Dunstable Priory in Bedfordshire.

The Dunstable Priory court had convened to hear the case for the annulment of King Henry VIII's marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Predictably, the court declared the marriage to be contrary to God's laws and the archbishop was able to inform the king of the sentence of "divorce".

On this day in Tudor history, 23rd May 1547, in the reign of King Edward VI, Henry Grey, 3rd Marquis of Dorset, was finally installed as a Knight of the Garter.

Grey had wanted this honour for years and had been nominated many times, so what had changed? How did he end up joining the Order of the Garter?

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May 23 – Elizabeth under house arrest, Henry VIII gets his annulment, and Henry Grey becomes a Garter Knight