The Tudor Society
  • The Anne Boleyn Experience Tour 2018 diary coming very soon!

    Hello everyone, I hope you’ve had a good start to the week. I’m just taking a break from running around the house like a headless chicken to write this. I’m trying to pack while leaving Tim and the kids instructions for what to do while I’m away, and trying to prevent dogs and cats from curling up in my suitcase! Aaaaggghhh!

    Anyway, I leave home tomorrow as I’m meeting up with Philippa, from British History Tours, and our group of Anne Boleyn Experience participants in London on Wednesday afternoon. This tour is running in association with the Tudor Society, so each day of the tour (16th-20th May) – WiFi willing! – I’m going to post a diary entry here on the Tudor Society. I know that for some of you visiting the UK is a real bucket list item, so you can live vicariously through me!

    As well as the diary entries, I’m hoping to share photos on Instagram (tudor.society) and to also do some Facebook Live videos on the Tudor Society Facebook page, so do keep an eye on our social media too.

    I’m so very excited. I love Hever Castle and to be staying there again will be wonderful.

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  • This week in history 14 – 20 May

    Mary, Queen of Scots

    14 May:

    1511 – Death of Walter Fitzsimmons, Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Deputy of Ireland, at Finglas, Dublin. He was buried in the nave of St Patrick’s Cathedral.
    1523 – Death of Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux, courtier and soldier, at the Hospital of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem in Clerkenwell.
    1571 – Matthew Stewart, Earl of Lennox and regent to James VI, held the “Creeping Parliament”.
    1595 – Death of Anne Fiennes (née Sackville), Lady Dacre, at Chelsea. She was buried in the More Chapel, Chelsea, next to her husband, Gregory Fiennes, 10th Baron Dacre.
    1629 – Death of Jean Gordon, Countess of Bothwell and Sutherland. She is known for having been married, albeit briefly, to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who went on to marry Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1573 she married Alexander Gordon, 12th Earl of Sutherland, and after his death she married Alexander Ogilvy of Boyne, the man she had been in love with before she married Bothwell.
    1635 – Burial of Helena Gorges (née Snakenborg), Lady Gorges, in Salisbury Cathedral. Helena was married twice, firstly to William Parr, Marquis of Northampton (brother of Catherine Parr), and secondly to Sir Thomas Gorges, courtier.

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  • Anne Boleyn True or False Quiz

    As we’re nearing the anniversary of the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn, I thought I’d choose her as the topic of this week’s quiz. Grab your favourite beverage and snack, get that thinking cap on and let’s test your knowledge of this famous Tudor queen!

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  • Anne Boleyn Myths – Part 1

    As it is nearing the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s execution, our informal live chat is on Anne Boleyn this month AND I’m getting ready to go on the Anne Boleyn Experience Tour, I thought I’d talk about some of the most prevailing myths that surround the second wife of Henry VIII. These are the myths that I am challenging and correcting on a regular basis.

    Here is Part 1 and I will be looking at a few more next week.

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  • William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1507-1570)

    William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, attributed to Steven van Herwijck

    William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, soldier and magnate and a man who served four monarchs, was the second son of Sir Richard Herbert of Ewyas (the illegitimate son of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, of the 8th creation) and his wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir Matthew Cradock of Swansea. Richard served King Henry VII as a gentleman usher. Very little is known of Herbert’s early life, only that he lost his father in 1510 and was then brought up by his mother and her third husband, William Bawdrip.

    In 1514, Herbert entered the service of Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester, who was married to Herbert’s half-uncle’s daughter. John Aubrey recorded that William Herbert was known as ‘Black Will Herbert’ and that he was ‘a mad fighting fellow’. Aubrey also recorded that Herbert was illiterate, which seems to be a baseless accusation, and that he killed a mercer in Bristol and then fled to France, joining the army of Francis I. It is not known whether that claim was true and his name does appear in a coroner’s report.

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  • Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria (1538-1612)

    Jane Dormer became one of Queen Mary I’s foremost confidants during the 1550s. Born in 1538 at Eythrope, Buckinghamshire, she was the daughter of Sir William Dormer and Mary Sidney. Upon her mother’s death in 1542 she was brought up by her maternal grandparents. According to Jane’s biography, The Life of Jane Dormer, written by her secretary Henry Clifford) her upbringing shaped her academic career, as she ‘before seven years began to read the Primer or the office of our Blessed Lady, in Latin’. Evidently intelligent, the quote emphasises her traditional Catholic education with reference to the ‘blessed lady’. Her Catholicism, as shall be examined in this article, would later become symbolic of her identity. Similarly, her academic achievements in mastering languages were the result of her grandfather’s fluency, especially in Spanish; he served at the court of Charles V for a period.

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  • This week in history 7 – 13 May

    A sketch of Bishop John Fisher by Hans Holbein the Younger

    7th May:

    1535 – John Fisher, former Bishop of Rochester, was visited by Thomas Cromwell, Master Secretary, and member of the King’s Council. Cromwell read out the “Act of Supremacy” and Fisher refused to acknowledge the King as the supreme head of the Church, saying “The King owre Soveraign Lord is not supreme hedd yn erthe of the Cherche of Englande.” It is alleged that Richard Rich tricked him into saying those words, telling him that the King wished to know his real opinion in secret, but whatever the truth of the matter, Fisher was found guilty of treason and executed on 22nd July 1535.
    1536 – Queen Anne Boleyn’s chaplain, William Latymer, was searched by the mayor and jurates of Sandwich on his arrival back in England. He was returning from a business visit to Flanders, a visit he had undertaken on behalf of the Queen. Latymer had often brought Anne religious books back from the Continent, so it was lucky for him that he did not have anything which could have been deemed as heretical in his luggage. Records were made of the books that he was carrying and of those which he was having sent directly to London, but he was allowed to carry on with his journey.
    1540 – Death of Sir William Weston, Prior of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in England. He died at the priory on the day that the order to dissolve it was passed through the Commons. He was the uncle of Sir Francis Weston, a man executed in 1536 in the coup against Anne Boleyn.

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  • General Tudor History Quiz

    This week’s Sunday puzzle is a general Tudor history quiz. Grab your favourite snack and beverage, make yourself comfortable and let’s get testing your knowledge of Tudor history with this fun quiz.

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  • This month’s live chats – 12 and 25 May

    Just to let you know that this month’s live chats will be taking place on 12th and 25th May. Both chats will last one hour and will take place in the Tudor Society chatroom at www.tudorsociety.com/chatroom/ and will last an hour each.

    Our informal chat will take place on Saturday 12th May and this month’s topic is Anne Boleyn. This is your chance to share your views on Anne, to ask me questions about her (I have done a bit of research on her!), to ask the views of other members, to share book recommendations, and to just talk Tudor.

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  • Morris Dancing

    In this week’s Claire Chats video talk, I look at the history of the tradition that we see in towns and villages all around the UK on May Day – morris dancing.

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  • Sir John Gage (1479-1556)

    Sir John Gage was born on 28th October 1479 and was the only son of William Gage of Burstow and his wife, Agnes, daughter of Bartholomew Bolney of Bolney in Sussex. Gage was baptised in Burstow, where he was born, but the family later moved to Firle, near Lewes.

    In 1499, Gage became a ward of Robert Tate, alderman of London, and in 1502 Gage married Philippa, daughter of Sir Richard Guildford of Cranbrook who was comptroller of the royal household. This marriage match was good for Gage in that it helped him to join the royal household, which he did by becoming an esquire of the body to King Henry VII. He continued in this role after the accession of 17-year-old Henry VIII in 1509.

    Gage served as a Justice of the Peace for the counties of Sussex (1514) and Surrey (1528) and by 1522 he had been appointed as deputy to Sir Nicholas Vaux, who was serving as captain of Guînes. This was due to the patronage of Sir William Sandys who was serving as treasurer of Calais. In August 1522, Gage was granted survivorship of the office of comptroller of Calais, because the comptroller, Sir Robert Wotton was ill, and he became comptroller in 1524 on Wotton’s death. He served in the campaigns in France in the 1510s and 1520s and was rewarded with a knighthood in 1525.

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  • Expert Talk – Henry VII: Bosworth to Coronation by Nathen Amin

    This month we’re thrilled to welcome back Nathen Amin to speak about Henry VII between the Bosworth to his coronation. Nathen has a great way of making history come to life and Henry VII is his topic!

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  • Livechat transcript – Seamus O’Caellaigh – Henry VIII’s Health

    Thank you to the wonderful group of people we had in our live chat on Friday night. Seamus answered lots of questions about Henry VIII and his health, and also let us know some of the remedies that he had personally tried.
    Congratulations also to the winner of a copy of Seamus’ book Pustules, Pestilence and Pain.

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  • This week in history 30 April – 6 May

    1532 – James Bainham, lawyer and Protestant martyr, was burned at Smithfield.
    1536 – Scottish theologian Alexander Alesius witnessed an argument between Queen Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, and at 11 o’clock that night, the King and Queen’s upcoming visit to Calais was cancelled and arrangements made for the King to journey alone a week later. Also 30th April, court musician and member of the Boleyn circle, Mark Smeaton, was taken to Thomas Cromwell’s house in Stepney and interrogated. Within twenty-four hours, he had confessed to making love three times to the Queen.
    1544 – Death of Thomas Audley, Baron Audley of Walden and Lord Chancellor, at his home in Aldgate, London. Audley was Cromwell’s right-hand man in 1536, during the fall of Anne Boleyn, and became even more important after Cromwell’s fall.
    1547 – Sir Anthony Denny was made Henry VIII’s Groom of the Stool.
    1563 – Death of Henry Stafford, 10th Baron Stafford, at Caus Castle, Shropshire. Stafford was the only legitimate son of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, and his wife, Eleanor, daughter of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland.
    1595 – Death of Thomas Bedwell, mathematician, engineer and keeper of the ordnance store at the Tower of London. He was buried at the Tower, in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. Bedwell’s engineering projects included him supervising the building of Dover harbour, giving advice on the fortification of Portsmouth and working on the River Thames’ defences at Tilbury and Gravesend in 1588, at the time of the Spanish Armada.
    1596 – Death of Sir John Puckering, administrator and Speaker of the House of Commons, from apoplexy. Puckering’s other offices included Serjeant-at-Law, Recorder of Warwick, Privy Councillor and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. In 1587, he was involved in the trial of Elizabeth I’s secretary William Davison, appearing for the Crown. He was buried at Westminster Abbey, in St Paul’s Chapel.
    1596 – Death of Thomas Bickley, Bishop of Chichester, at the bishop’s palace in Aldingbourne. He was buried in his cathedral.

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  • Tudor Thomases Wordsearch

    Oh well, I can’t tie this into the royal baby news! But one name that was popular in Tudor times was Thomas. There were a lot of Tudor Thomases and this wordsearch is about some of them. Test your knowledge of Tudor Thomases with this fun wordsearch. Good luck and have fun!

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  • May 2018 – Tudor Life -Elizabeth I’s Last Years

    What a treat we have for members this month! Here’s the full version of our massive 96-page May edition of Tudor Life Magazine. This month we’re focusing on the last years of Elizabeth I’s life.

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  • Touching for the King’s Evil

    In this week’s Claire Chats video talk, I look at the practice of touching for the king’s evil, including how and when it started, what it involved and when it stopped. It’s a fascinating subject and I enjoyed researching it.

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  • Put Out the Lights – a Tudor-themed play on in May in Ipswich

    The Red Rose Chain theatre company have just let me know about their latest Tudor-themed play, Put Out the Lights, which is being performed at the Avenue Theatre in Ipswich, UK, from 8-27 May 2018. I thoroughly enjoyed Joanna Carrick’s play “Fallen in Love” and this one is also written by her, and sounds wonderful. Here are all the details:

    1538. Ipswich is a dangerous place of dark secrets and new whisperings. A preacher is dragged from his pulpit, arrested for protestant heresy, while Cromwell sends agents to dismantle the Town’s beloved Catholic Shrine and burn the statue of Our Lady. Trying to make sense of it all are Alice Driver, an ordinary Suffolk woman with an unshakable belief and her two best friends – the well-meaning Edward and loose cannon Alexander. A tragic love story, where beliefs, convictions and divided loyalties threaten to tear their world apart.

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  • 24 April 1558 – The marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Dauphin of France

    On this day in history, 24th April 1558, Mary, Queen of Scots, married Francis, the Dauphin of France, at Notre Dame in Paris. Mary was fifteen, and Francis was fourteen.

    In his book The Book of the Ladies (Illustrious Dames), Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, wrote of their marriage:

    “This lady and princess pleased France so much that King Henri was urged to give her in alliance to the dauphin, his beloved son, who, for his part, was madly in love with her. The marriage was therefore solemnly celebrated in the great church and the palace of Paris; where we saw this queen appear more beauteous than a goddess from the skies, whether in the morning, going to her espousals in noble majesty, or leading, after dinner, at the ball, or advancing in the evening with modest steps to offer and perform her vows to Hymen; so that the voice of all as one man resounded and proclaimed throughout the Court and the great city that happy a hundredfold was he, the prince, thus joined to such a princess; and even if Scotland were a thing of price its queen out-valued it; for had she neither crown nor sceptre, her person and her glorious beauty were worth a kingdom; therefore, being a queen, she brought to France and to her husband a double fortune.

    This was what the world went saying of her; and for this reason she was called queen-dauphine and her husband the king-dauphin, they living together in great love and pleasant concord.”

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  • Happy birthday William Shakespeare and RIP

    As you probably already know, the 23rd April is the traditional date for celebrating the birth of William Shakespeare, playwright, poet and actor. We don’t know his actual birthdate, as it was not recorded, but we know that he was baptised on 26th April 1564 and baptisms usually took place within a few days of birth. St George’s Day seems a good day to celebrate the Bard’s birthday.

    23rd April is also, sadly, the anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. He died on 23rd April 1616 and was laid to rest in the chancel of Holy Trinity Church, in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon

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  • This week in history 23 – 29 April

    1500 – Birth of Alexander Ales (Alesius, Aless), Scottish theologian and reformer, at Edinburgh. His mother was Christina Bigholm, and his actual surname seems to have been Alan or Allane. He changed his name when he went into exile, choosing “Alesius”, meaning “bird”, or in this case, “exile”.
    1512 – Birth of Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel, son of William Fitzalan, 11th Earl of Arundel, and Anne (née Percy), daughter of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland. At his baptism, Henry VIII stood as his godfather. He served Henry VIII as Deputy of Calais, Privy Councillor and Lord Chamberlain.
    1536 – Sir Nicholas Carew was elected to the Order of the Garter at the annual chapter meeting at Greenwich, rather than George Boleyn, brother of Queen Anne Boleyn.
    1564 – Traditional birthdate of William Shakespeare, the Bard. It is not known on what date Shakespeare was actually born but he was baptised at Stratford-upon-Avon on 26th April 1564, and baptism usually took place around three days after birth.
    William Shakespeare also died on this day in 1616. He was buried at the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, in the chancel.
    23 April, St George’s Day, was the traditional day for announcing new appointments to the Order of the Garter, the highest order of chivalry in England.

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  • Henry VII: True or False?

    Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of King Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty, on 21st April 1509. To commemorate this anniversary, I thought it would be fitting to test you on your knowledge of this Tudor king. Just how much do you know about Henry VII? Find out with this fun true or false quiz. Good luck!

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  • 21 April 1509 – The king is dead! Long live the king!

    On this day in history, 21st April 1509, King Henry VIII died at Richmond Palace. He had ruled since defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth on 22nd August 1485 and was aged fifty-two when he died. He was succeeded by his seventeen-year-old only surviving son, Henry, who became King Henry VIII.

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  • Execution methods – From boiling to pressing

    Following on from last week’s Claire Chats video talk on hanging, drawing and quartering, this week I’m looking at other methods of execution used in England, and also Scotland, during the Tudor period. Brutal times!

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  • 17 April 1554 – Sir Nicholas Throckmorton’s acquittal and an arrested jury

    On this day in history, 17th April 1554, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was tried for treason for his alleged involvement in Wyatt’s Rebellion, the rebellion led against Mary I by Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger in early 1554. The indictment against him accused him of being “a principal, deviser, procurer and contriver of the late Rebellion” and said that “Wyatt was but his minister”, but he was acquitted. According to Stanford Lehmberg, his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography biographer, “Throckmorton gave a bravura display of eloquence and learning to run rings round his accusers” and “poured ridicule on the prosecutors’ attempts to find him guilty by association, and repeatedly caught them out on points of law”. The jury acquitted him but the jurors were arrested straight after the trial and Throckmorton remained in prison until January 1555.

    The chronicle of Queen Jane, and of two years of Queen Mary, and especially of the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyat gives the following account of what happened on that day:

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  • Was Anne Boleyn a mistress of Francis I?

    Thank you to Tudor Society member Lynne for asking this question: “When Anne Boleyn was a teenager in the court of Francis I, did she have a bit of a romance going on with the king?”

    I (Claire Ridgway) will answer this one as I have done in-depth research into Anne Boleyn’s life, including her time in France.

    Anne Boleyn left England in the spring or summer of 1512 to serve at the court of Margaret of Austria in Mechelen. In August 1514, Anne’s father, Thomas Boleyn, wrote to Margaret to inform her that Anne had been appointed to serve Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII. Mary was travelling to France to marry King Louis XII of France and Anne had been chosen as one of her maids of honour. It is not known when Anne arrived in France, whether it was in time for Mary’s marriage on 9th October or whether it wasn’t until her coronation in the November, but Anne served Mary from that time until Mary returned to England in the spring of 1515. Anne was retained by the new queen consort of France, Queen Claude, wife of Francis I, and served her until late 1521 when Anne was recalled to England in late 1521.

    So, Anne spent seven years in France, serving at the royal court, but was she linked to Francis I romantically during that time?

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  • Winner of our “Young and Damned and Fair” competition

    Congratulations to Mary, the winner of our competition to win a copy of Gareth Russell’s “Young and Damned and Fair”.

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  • This week in history 16 – 22 April

    16th April:

    1512 – The Mary Rose began her first tour of duty in the English Channel on the hunt for French warships.
    1521 – German Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, appeared in front of Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms. He had been summoned to the diet to either recant or reaffirm his religious views.
    1550 – Birth of Francis Anthony, alchemist, apothecary and physician. He was probably born in London and was the son of Derrick Anthony, a goldsmith. Anthony was imprisoned twice for practising as a physician without a licence, and is known for his aurum potabile (drinkable gold), made from gold and mercury, which he claimed had amazing curative powers. His works included Medicinae chymicae et veri potabilis auri assertio (1610).
    1570 – Baptism of Guy Fawkes, conspirator, at the Church of St Michael le Belfrey in York.
    1578 – Burial of Thomas Drant, Church of England clergyman and poet. He was part of the “Areopagus” intellectual circle at court, but also had an ecclesiastical career and was chaplain to Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London. He is known for his work on prosody (metre), and actually drew up some rules concerning it, which were mentioned by Edmund Spenser, Gabriel Harvey, Philip Sidney, Edward Dyer and Fulke Greville.
    1587 – Death of Anne Seymour (née Stanhope), Duchess of Somerset and wife of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector during part of Edward VI’s reign. Anne was a reformer and a literary patron. She died at Hanworth Place and was buried at Westminster Abbey.
    1595 – Death of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby and literary patron. His sudden death caused rumours of poisoning and witchcraft, but nothing was ever proved. Stanley was patron of the Strange’s Men company of players, which probably included William Shakespeare, and he was also a patron of poets. It is thought that he also was a poet.

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  • April Tudor Events Crossword Puzzle

    How much do you know about the events that happened in the month of April during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs? Why not test your knowledge with this fun crossword. Good luck!

    Click on the link or the picture below to print out the crossword.

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  • 13 April 1534 – Sir Thomas More is summoned to Lambeth

    Sketch of Sir Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger

    On this day in history, 13th April 1534, Sir Thomas More, Henry VIII’s former Lord Chancellor and good friend, was summoned to Lambeth to swear his allegiance to the Act of Succession. He refused to swear the oath and “thereupon was he delivered to the abbot of Westminster to be kept as a prisoner.”

    His son-in-law, William Roper, recorded what happened that day in his book The Life of Sir Thomas More:

    “So fell it out, within a month, or thereabout, after the making of the Statute for the Oath of the Supremacy and Matrimony, that all the priests of London and Westminster, and no temporal men but he, were sent for to appear at Lambeth before the Bishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, and Secretary Cromwell, commissioners appointed there to tender the oath unto them. Then Sir Thomas More, as his accustomed manner was always ere he entered into any matter of importance, (as when he was first chosen of the king’s privy council, when he was sent ambassador, appointed Speaker of the parliament, made Lord Chancellor, or when he took any like weighty matter upon him) to go to church and be confessed, to hear mass, and be houseled; so did he likewise in the morning early the selfsame day that he was summoned to appear before the lords at Lambeth.

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