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  • This week in history 13 – 19 February

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history…

    13th February:

    1542 – Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, and Lady Jane Rochford were executed at the Tower of London. They had been found guilty of treason by Act of Attainder. They were both buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London. Click here to read more.
    1564 – Baptism of John Harvey, astrologer and physician, at Saffron Walden in Essex. Harvey was the third son of John Harvey, farmer and rope-maker, and his wife, Alice. His published works included “An Astrologicall Addition” (1583), a series of almanacs and “A Discoursive Probleme Concerning Prophesies” (1588).
    1579 – Death of John Fowler, the English Catholic printer and publisher, in Namur, during his exile in the reign of Elizabeth I. He was buried there in the church of St John the Evangelist. He is known as one of the most important English Catholic publishers of the 1560s and 70s.

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  • This week in history 6 – 12 February

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history, 6th February…
    1557 – The remains of reformers Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius were exhumed and publicly burned, after being posthumously found guilty of heresy. They were burned, along with their books, on Market Hill in Cambridge.
    1561 – Baptism of Tailboys Dymoke (pseudonym Thomas Cutwode) at Kyme in Lincolnshire. He was the son of Sir Robert Dymoke, and his wife, Bridget (née Clinton). Dymoke is known for his allegorical poem, Caltha poetarum, or, “The Bumble Bee”, which he published under the name of Thomas Cutwode.
    1585 – Death of Edmund Plowden, lawyer, legal scholar and law reporter, in London. He was laid to rest in the Middle Temple Church. Cambridge University libraries and the British Library contain manuscripts of his commentaries and opinions, and he is known for his 1571 “ Les comentaries ou les reportes de Edmunde Plowden” volume of law reports covering cases during the reigns of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

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  • Happy Candlemas!

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Yes, today is Candlemas, or the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin. It commemorates the purification (or churching, as medieval people would have seen it) of the Virgin Mary forty days after the birth of Jesus Christ, when it was traditional for the mother to make an offering or sacrifice according to Jewish law, and the presentation of the baby Jesus at the temple in Bethlehem. It is the end of the liturgical season of Christmas tide and Candlemas Eve was also time to take down any Christmas decorations that you hadn’t taken down on Twelfth Night.

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  • This week in history 30 January – 5 February

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history, 30th January:

    1520 – Birth of Sir William More, member of Parliament, Protestant and son of Sir Christopher More, a powerful administrator in Henry VII’s reign. More served Elizabeth I as Constable of Farnham Castle, Treasurer of the Lottery, Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Causes, Collector of the Loan, Chamberlain of the Exchequer, Master of Swans and Deputy Custos Rotulorum. He was also a commissioner on various commissions of oyer and terminer during her reign.
    1531 – Death of Sir Robert Brudenell, Judge. He served Henry VII as King’s Serjeant and Henry VIII as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He was buried at Deene church, Northamptonshire.
    1554 – Rebel Thomas Wyatt the Younger and his men besieged Cooling Castle, owned by George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham. Cobham claimed that he had fought valiantly against the rebels for seven hours before surrendering to them, but his biographer points out that his resistance was most probably a “pretence”.
    1593 – Ippolito Aldobrandini was elected as Pope Clement VIII.
    1606 – Execution of Robert Winter and three of his fellow conspirators, at St Paul’s. He was hanged, drawn and quartered for his part in the Gunpowder Plot. His brother, Thomas, was executed the next day.

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  • 25 January – The Feast of the Conversion of St Paul

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    This feast day celebrates the conversion of St Paul (formerly Saul) on the road to Damascus. The story of the conversion of Saul, a man known for his persecution of Christians, is found in the Bible in Acts 9:

    “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.

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  • Ten of the Best Henry VIII Locations to Visit with Children in 2017 and a Book Giveaway!

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    21 Comments

    A big welcome to historian Amy Licence who is joining us today to kick off her book tour for her children’s book All About Henry VIII. It’s a wonderful book, as are the others in the series, and you can enter the giveaway to win a copy of this book by leaving a comment before midnight on 27th January 2017. Simply comment below this post saying which historical place linked to Henry VIII you’d like to visit and why. One comment will be picked at random and the winner contacted.

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  • This week in history 2 – 8 January

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history…

    2 January:

    1492 – King Boabdil surrendered Granada to the forces of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile – click here to read more.
    1525 – Death of Sir William Uvedale. Uvedale had been created a Knight of the Bath and Knight of the Royal Body by Henry VII, and served Arthur, Prince of Wales, as his counsellor.
    1536 – Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial Ambassador, arrived at the dying Catherine of Aragon’s bedside in Kimbolton Castle.
    1539 – Geoffrey Pole, son of Sir Richard Pole and Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, was pardoned after attempting suicide for the third time.

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  • This week in history 26 December – 1 January

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    26th December:

    526 – Birth of Rose Throckmorton (née Lok, other married name: Hickman), Protestant and businesswoman, in London. She was the third child of Sir William Lok, a mercer who had also served Henry VIII as a gentleman usher. Rose was married twice: to merchant Anthony Hickman and to Simon Throckmorton of Brampton.
    1545 – Death of Sir George Bowes, soldier, rebel and Captain of Norham Castle. He was buried at Alnwick. Bowes was a member of the rebel army during the 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace, but the patronage of his uncle, Sir Robert Bowes, protected him. He fought in the 1542 Anglo-Scottish War and in the 1544 expedition. He was granted the Barony of Coldingham as a reward for seizing Coldingham Priory on November 1544, but was then taken prisoner in January 1545 and lost the barony.
    1546 – Henry VIII made some changes to his will, a document which had been prepared two years earlier. These changes were made to ensure successful transfer of royal authority to his son, the future Edward VI, and to prepare for Edward reigning during his minority.

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  • This week in history 5 – 11 December

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    5th December:

    1556 – Birth of Anne de Vere (née Cecil), Countess of Oxford, daughter of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, and his second wife, Mildred (née Cooke), and wife of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. The marriage was not the happiest of matches, with de Vere refusing to acknowledge their daughter Elizabeth as his. The couple were eventually reconciled.
    1558 – Death of Gabriel Dunne (Donne), Abbot of Buckfast and ‘keeper of the spiritualities’, in the diocese of London. He was buried at St Paul’s, before the high altar.
    1560 – Death of King Francis II of France and King Consort of Scotland as husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Francis was aged just fifteen when he died from some type of ear infection. He was succeeded as King of France by his brother, Charles, who became Charles IX. Francis was buried at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint-Denis on 23rd December.

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  • 24 November 1542 – the Battle of Solway Moss

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    6 Comments

    Thank you to Heather R. Darsie, our regular Tudor Society contributor, for today’s article. Over to Heather…

    Happy Thanksgiving to our American members! Today also marks the 474th anniversary of the Battle of Solway Moss, a border skirmish that took place on the English side of the border with Scotland on 24th November 1542. This was the last of a series of such battles that arose from a falling-out between Henry VIII of England and his nephew, James V of Scotland.

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  • This week in history 21 – 27 November

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Tomb effigy of Frances Grey (Brandon), Duchess of Suffolk

    On this day in history events for 21-27th November.

    21 November:

    1495 – Birth of John Bale, churchman, Protestant playwright, historian and Bishop of Ossory, at Cove, near Dunwich, in Suffolk. Bale wrote twenty-four plays, including “Three Laws of Nature, Moses and Christ, corrupted by the Sodomytes, Pharisees and Papystes most wicked”, “A Tragedye; or enterlude manifesting the chief promyses of God unto Man”, “The Temptacyon of our Lorde”, “A brefe Comedy or Enterlude of Johan Baptystes preachynge in the Wyldernesse, etc” and “ Kynge Johan”. His most famous work is his Illustrium majoris Britanniae scriptorum, hoc est, Angliae, Cambriae, ac Scotiae Summarium… (“A Summary of the Famous Writers of Great Britain, that is, of England, Wales and Scotland”), which was his effort to record every work by a British author.
    1558 – Death of James Bassett, courtier and stepson of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle. Bassett was a member of Philip of Spain’s Privy Chamber and private Secretary to Mary I. He was buried at Blackfriars, London.

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  • This week in history 14 – 20 November

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    1 Comment

    14 November

    1501 – Catherine of Aragon married Arthur, Prince of Wales at St Paul’s Cathedral.
    1531 – Birth of Richard Topcliffe, member of Parliament, priest-hunter, interrogator and torturer, in Lincolnshire. During the reign of Elizabeth I, Topcliffe was issued with warrants allowing him to use torture when examining imprisoned Catholic recusants and priests. His famous victims included Robert Southwell, John Gerard and Henry Garnet.
    1532 – On this day in 1532, according to the chronicler Edward Hall, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn secretly married:

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  • This week in history 7-13 November

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history events for 7th – 13th November:

    7 November:

    1485 – Richard III and his supporters were attainted at Henry VII’s first Parliament. Click here to read more.
    1541 – Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and the Duke of Norfolk went to Hampton Court Palace to interrogate Queen Catherine Howard, and to arrange that she should be confined to her chambers there. Click here to read more.
    1557 – Death of Sir John Arundell of Lanherne. He was buried at St Mawgan Church. Arundell served Henry VIII as Sheriff of Cornwall and Commander of troops against the rebels during the Pilgrimage of Grace. He also served in France in 1544. During Edward VI’s reign, in 1549, he was imprisoned after John, Baron Russell, accused him of refusing to raise troops and of ordering the mass to be performed. He was released in June 1552.
    1565 – Death of Sir Edward Warner, soldier, member of Parliament and Lieutenant of the Tower of London during the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I. He was the gaoler of Katherine Seymour (née Grey), Countess of Hertford, who had been imprisoned for secretly marrying Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford. Warner died in Norfolk and was buried at Little Plumstead Church in the county.
    1568 – Baptism of Dunstan Gale, poet and author of “Pyramus and Thisbe”, at St Giles Cripplegate, London.
    1581 – Death of Richard Davies, scholar and Bishop of St David’s, in Abergwili, Carmarthenshire, in the bishop’s palace. He was a friend of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and undertook translations of parts of the Bible.
    1603 – Burial of Robert Allot, literary compiler, bookseller, poet and editor of the 1599 “Wits Theater” and the 1600 “Englands Parnassus”, at St Ann Blackfriars.

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  • Expert live chats timetable – 28 October Open Day

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    live_chat_melanieHere is a reminder of our expert live-chats programme for today's Tudor Society Open Day. Just head on over to the https://www.tudorsociety.com/opendaychatroom/ at the following times to get asking your questions and discussing these Tudor people and topics. We hope you enjoy it and a big thank you to all of these historians and authors.

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  • The marriage of Robert Dudley and Lettice Devereux

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On the morning of Sunday 21st September 1578, between seven and eight o’clock, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, married Lettice Devereux (née Knollys), widow of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, at his house in Wanstead, Essex.

    Leicester’s chaplain, Humphrey Tindall officiated, and the guests at this secret and private ceremony included Sir Francis Knollys, father of the bride; Richard Knollys, the bride’s brother; Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick and brother of Leicester; and Leicester’s friends, the Earl of Pembroke and Lord North.

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  • 31 August 1555 – The martyrdom of Robert Samuel

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history, 31st August 1555, Robert Samuel, former minister of East Bergholt Church in Suffolk, was burned at the stake in Ipswich, probably at the Cornhill. He was one of the Ipswich Martyrs, Protestants who were executed in Ipswich during the reign of the Catholic queen, Mary I.

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  • This week in history 29 August – 4 September

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history events for 29th August to 4th September.

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  • This week in history 22 – 28 August

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history events for 21-28 August in the Tudor period.

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  • 22 August 1553 – The execution of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    2 Comments

    On 22nd August 1553, John Dudley, Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland, was beheaded on Tower Hill for his part in putting his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, on the throne in place of Mary I. Northumberland’s friends, Sir John Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer, were also executed on this day in 1553 for supporting Northumberland.

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  • This week in history 25 – 31 July

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history events for week 25th July to 31st July.

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  • The Scots Queen Surrenders: An Overview of the Battle of Carberry Hill 1567 by Heather R. Darsie

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    7 Comments

    By 15 June 1567, twenty-four-year-old Mary Stuart had been Queen of Scotland for almost her entire life; never knew her father, James V, because he died when she was six days old; was Queen Consort, then Queen, of France for less than seventeen months; had lost her mother in July 1560; was about to celebrate her son and heir’s first birthday on 19 June, and was married to her third husband. Mary’s first husband, King Francis II of France, died three days before Mary’s eighteenth birthday in 1560. Mary’s mother was dead for roughly five months when her first husband died. She married her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, when she was twenty-two. Mary gave birth to her only surviving child, James VI, during her marriage to Darnley. Darnley died, likely murdered, less than two years after the marriage, and Mary married her third husband, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. Bothwell may have had a hand in the death of Mary’s second husband and there is speculation as to whether Mary indeed wanted to marry Bothwell or whether she was coerced into the marriage.

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  • This week in history 13 – 19 June

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history events for 13th to 19th June.

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  • March Feast Days

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    1st March is the feast day of St David (Dewi Sant), patron saint of Wales. According to Rhigyfarch’s Life of Saint David, David lived in the 6th century and founded religious centres including Glastonbury and Croyland. He then travelled to the Holy Land and was made archbishop at Jerusalem before travelling back to Wales and settling at Glyn Rhosyn (Rose Vale), or St David’s, in Pembrokeshire, Wales. There, he founded a monastery whose site is now marked by St David’s Cathedral.

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  • February Feast Days

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    If you haven’t taken down your Christmas decorations yet then don’t worry, you’re just following the medieval and Tudor tradition of taking them down on Candlemas Eve. 1st February was the traditional day for removing the greenery, such as laurel, holly, ivy and rosemary, which had decorated homes over the Christmas period. However, Candlemas Eve really is your last chance to rid your home of decorations and please don’t leave them up otherwise you may just get invaded by goblins!

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  • 7 June 1520 – The Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting begins

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    This day in history, 7th June 1520, was the first day of the historic meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I of France. It took place between the English stronghold of Guînes and the French town of Ardres, on a piece of land referred to as the Field of Cloth of Gold.

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  • Bargain History Books

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    1 Comment

    I’ve mentioned Postscript Books before in videos, but I thought I’d write a post just highlighting them as a great resource for bargain history books. Thank you to Tudor Life contributor Olga Hughes for recommending them to me, what a find!

    Postscript Books are a mailorder bookseller based in Devon, in the UK, and who offer books at up to 75% off publishers’ prices. They can offer these discounts because the books are publishers’ overstocks or remainders. By the way, I’m not affiliated to them in any way, I’m just a happy customer!

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  • 1 June 1533 – Queen Anne Boleyn’s coronation

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Today is the 483rd anniversary of the coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII. What was interesting about her coronation is that she was crowned with the crown of St Edward, a crown usually reserved for crowning the reigning monarch, so her coronation was quite a statement. Whether the use of the crown was to do with Anne’s status or to do with her unborn child, who was, of course, expected to be a prince, it is still an interesting fact.

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  • This week in history 9 – 15 May

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history events for 9-15 May.

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  • This week in history 2 – 8 May

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history events for 2nd to 8th May.

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  • This week in history 18 – 24 April

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history events for 18-24 April.

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