The Tudor Society

#OTD in Tudor history – 20 February

On this day in Tudor history, 20th February, Mary I was baptised, Lady Agnes Hungerford was hanged for murder, Edward VI was crowned king at Westminster Abbey, and Anne Herbert (née Parr), Countess of Pembroke, died...

  • 1516 – Baptism of Princess Mary, the future Mary I, in the Church of the Observant Friars at Greenwich. The princess was carried to the font by the Countess of Surrey, and her godparents were Catherine Courtenay, Countess of Devon and daughter of Edward IV; Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury and daughter of George, Duke of Clarence; the Duchess of Norfolk and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Click here to read more.
  • 1523 – Hanging of Agnes Hungerford, Lady Hungerford, at Tyburn. Agnes was hanged, with her servant William Mathewe, after they were found guilty of murdering Agnes's first husband, John Cotell. See video below.
  • 1547 - Edward VI was crowned King at Westminster Abbey by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Edward VI was the first monarch to be anointed as Supreme Head of the English Church. See video below.

  • 1552 – Death of Anne Herbert, sister of Catherine Parr and wife of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Click here to read more about her.
  • 1579 – Death of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lawyer, administrator, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and father of Sir Francis Bacon at Old Gorhambury House, the house he had built in Hertfordshire. He lay in state for nearly two weeks at York Place before being buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

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#OTD in Tudor history – 20 February