On 31st July 1548, the fourteen year-old Elizabeth, future Elizabeth I, wrote to her stepmother Catherine Parr, the Dowager Queen. The letter was written just before the pregnant Catherine took to her chamber, and just weeks before Catherine died of puerperal (childbed) fever. Elizabeth wrote:
[Read More...]
On this day in history, Catholics Thomas Abell, Edward Powell and Richard Fetherston were hanged, drawn and quartered at Smithfield for refusing to acknowledge the royal supremacy. Also, at Smithfield that day, religious reformers Robert Barnes, William Jerome and Thomas Garrard were burned at the stake for heresy. Reformers and Catholics being executed on the same day – I wonder what the common people made of that!
[Read More...]
In my last article, Unravelling Mary Boleyn, I wrote about Catherine and Henry Carey, the children of Mary Boleyn. There have always been questions surrounding the paternity of Mary Boleyn’s children as around the time that both children were conceived Mary Boleyn was not only a married woman but she was also the mistress of Henry VIII.
[Read More...]
Test your knowledge on the people and families of the Wars of the Roses in this fun quiz.
[Read More...]
On 25th July 1554, the feast day of St James, Mary I married Philip of Spain, son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The wedding took place at Winchester Cathedral and the ceremony was performed by Stephen Gardener, Bishop of Winchester and Mary’s chancellor.
In the appendix of The Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary, and especially of the Rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt, written by a Resident in the Tower of London, edited by John Gough Nichols, there is an official account of the preparations for the wedding and the wedding itself by the English Heralds:
[Read More...]
In this week’s Claire Chats I talk about outdoor games and pursuits enjoyed by Tudor people, including stool ball, quoits and Last Couple in Hell.
[Read More...]
On 24th July 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle and who had recently suffered a miscarriage, was forced to abdicate. The Scottish crown was passed on to her one year-old son, James, who became James VI of Scotland, with his uncle, Mary’s illegitimate half brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, acting as regent.
Claude Nau de la Boisseliere, Mary’s private secretary, recorded this event in his memoirs, which were translated from French into English as The History of Mary Stewart: From the Murder of Riccio Until Her Flight Into England:
[Read More...]
I’ve had an email from the Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education about an online course they’re running in 2016 on Elizabeth I. It looks really good so I just had to share the details.
[Read More...]
Here’s the August 2015 magazine with all our regular items and contributors plus lots of fascinating articles. This month we have a “Coronation Special” section with articles from a number of eminent historians….
[Read More...]
We tend to think of her as the woman who comes from nowhere, she’s not. In many ways she’s the most interesting, the most exciting, the best educated, and the cleverest of Henry’s wives. -David Starkey
Katherine Parr has been remembered through history as King Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife. The fortunate wife that survived. She has been labelled as merely Henry’s nurse, tending to the sickly king’s infirmities. Essentially, she is believed to be little more than Henry’s companion in his final years, with no great achievements of her own. She is often viewed as a wife of lesser importance, in contrast to the hugely popular Anne Boleyn whose legacy has been carried through centuries of intrigue and fame. This article intends to demystify the myths associated with Katherine Parr’s turbulent life, thus to reveal a more realistic view of a women who was well read, deeply religious and ultimately important during her time.
[Read More...]
Author Livi Michael is one of our August speakers (yes, we’ve got 2!) and I just wanted to let you know that the second of her “Wars of the Roses” novels, Rebellion, is due out in the UK on 13th August as a paperback and kindle. It is also coming out on kindle on that date in the US.
[Read More...]
Following on from last week’s special on historical fiction books, MadeGlobal Publishing’s non-fiction history books are kindle countdown deals today and tomorrow (21 and 22 July) at 99c/99p each on Amazon.com and Amazon UK.
[Read More...]
On 20th July 1554, John Knox, theologian and a leader of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland, published his pamphlet A Faithful Admonition to the Professors of God’s Truth in England.
[Read More...]
Test your knowledge on the offspring of the Plantagenet and Tudor monarchs with this fun quiz.
[Read More...]
On 19th July 1553, thirteen days after the death of her half-brother Edward VI, Mary, eldest daughter of Henry VIII, was proclaimed queen in London in place of Queen Jane, who had been proclaimed queen on 10th July.
The Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London records:
[Read More...]
Today we have an article by Sarah Bryson, author of Mary Boleyn: In a Nutshell and a regular contributor to the Tudor Society.
Mary Boleyn is most certainly a woman of mystery. Her younger sister was Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII and Queen consort of England. Mary’s brother was a well-known member of Henry VIII’s court, who was evangelical in his religious beliefs and who, like his sister Anne, ended up on the scaffold. Mary’s father was also an important member of Henry VIII’s court. Thomas Boleyn was a talented man, who was fluent in French and who was sent on many missions as an ambassador for England. He was cunning and smart and used his skills and wits to provide a fantastic education for his children, as well as to further himself and his family at court. And yet when we look at Mary’s life compared to her famous siblings and father so little is known.
[Read More...]
On this day in history, 18th July 1509, Edmund Dudley, administrator, President of the King’s Council in the reign of Henry VII and speaker of the House of Commons, was convicted of treason after being blamed for the oppression of Henry VII’s reign. He was charged with conspiring to “hold, guide and govern the King and his Council” and ordering his men to assemble in London during the final days of Henry VII’s life.
In the Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1842), we have the record of “Trial and conviction of Edmund Dudley, Esq. – Constructive Treason – Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, London, 18 July, 1509. 1 Hen. VIII”:
[Read More...]
Here’s the transcript from our live-chat session with Elizabeth Goldring. Well done to Ceri for winning a copy of Elizabeth’s beautiful Robert Dudley book.
[Read More...]
El Monasterio de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, now known simply as La Cartuja de Granada, is a Carthusian monastery in the city of Granada. The Carthusian Order once had twenty-four monasteries in Spain, but the majority were closed in 1836 and their lands confiscated and sold. Only four now remain inhabited today: Miraflores (Burgos), Montealegre (Barcelona), Aula Dei (Zaragoza) and Porta Coeli (Valencia).
[Read More...]
It’s not long until our brand-new August Tudor Life magazine will be available to members. This month we’re focusing on “Coronations” and there are many things that you wouldn’t believe unless you knew that they were true!
[Read More...]
Today marks the anniversary of the death of Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, poet and courtier, in 1626.
His notebook, which held a collection of poems and sonnets, and showed the revisions he made to them, was discovered in Warwick Castle’s library in the 1960s. It had a 19th century leather binding and researchers found that it had been acquired in 1848 after the library at Penshurst Place, Sidney’s home, had been broken up and sold. Although the poetry collection had been misattributed, scholar Peter Croft was able to identify Sidney’s handwriting and he went on to edit and publish Sidney’s poems with Oxford University Press. The British Library purchased the notebook at Sotheby’s in 1975 and it is now part of their collection, with reference Add. (Additional) MS 58435.
[Read More...]
John Dee, astrologer, mathematician, alchemist, antiquary, spy, philosopher, geographer and adviser to Elizabeth I and various influential statesmen during her reign, was born in London on 13th July 1527.
[Read More...]
If you’ve watched my Claire Chats video on Tudor Indoor Games then you should find this quiz easy-peasy!
How much do you know about Medieval and Tudor card games, dice games, board games and indoor pursuits? Test your knowledge with this fun quiz.
[Read More...]
On this day in history, 11th July 1564, the plague hit Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare, in Warwickshire, or rather the first death from the disease was recorded in the parish.
[Read More...]
