The Tudor Society

May 7 – Bothwell’s ex-wife, the Siege of Leith, and Bishop Fisher is cruelly tricked

On 7th May 1567, eight days before James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, married Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic court granted him a divorce from his wife, Lady Jean Gordon.

Who was Jean Gordon? Why did Bothwell divorce her? And what happened to Jean afterwards?

Find out more about Bothwell and Jean's marriage, and about Jean's life...

On this day in Tudor history, 7th May 1560, English troops suffered a heavy defeat at the siege of Leith.

What was this siege all about? And who described their dead bodies as a fair tapestry?

And on this day in 1535, after a year of imprisonment in awful conditions at the Tower of London, John Fisher, former Bishop of Rochester, was visited at the Tower of London and tricked into saying something that would lead to his brutal end.

What led to his imprisonment, what happened on this day and what happened next?

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May 7 – Bothwell’s ex-wife, the Siege of Leith, and Bishop Fisher is cruelly tricked