On this day in Tudor history, 8th July 1549, in the reign of King Edward VI, a rebellion began in East Anglia. It was Kett’s Rebellion.
Find out more about Kett’s Rebellion, why it began, what happened next and what happened to the rebels leaders, in this short video:
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July 1553 was a month of three Tudor monarchs – Edward VI, Queen Jane and Mary I – but how did this come about?
In this talk, historian and author Claire Ridgway looks at what led to the events of July 1553 and particularly the actions that Mary took to stage her successful coup d’etat.
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On this day in Tudor history, 16th June 1487, the final battle of the Wars of the Roses took place, and I’m not talking about the Battle of Bosworth!
The Battle of Stoke Field was between the forces of Henry VII and the Yorkist forces of Lord Lovell and John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, who had recently crowned Lambert Simnel as King Edward VI.
Who won that day? What happened? And what happened to the boy, Lambert Simnel?
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On this day in Tudor history, 15th June 1559, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, court fool William Somer (Sommers) died in Shoreditch, London.
He’d served as court fool to Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I.
Somer managed to survive the wrath of King Henry VIII to die a natural death in Elizabeth’s reign.
He wasn’t the only court fool at the time, and you can find out more about him and Jane the Fool in this video:
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On this day in Tudor history, 6th June 1549, in the reign of King Edward VI, an army of rebels assembled at Bodmin in Cornwall. A town meeting was held, in which the rebels’ demands were put forward.
These men were rebelling against the recent religious changes, particularly the new law concerning the Book of Common Prayer.
Trouble ensued and their grievances became a full-blown rebellion, the Prayer Book Rebellion. You can find out what happened next and how the rebellion ended in this video:
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On this day in Tudor history, 4th June 1550, sweethearts Robert Dudley and Amy Robsart tied the knot at the royal palace of Sheen at Richmond in a service attended by King Edward VI.
This marriage was a love-match, but it lasted just ten years, ending with Amy’s death in 1560, a death which is surrounded by controversy.
Find out more…
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On this day in Tudor history, 12th April 1550, in King Edward VI’s reign, courtier and poet, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was born.
In this video, I talk about Oxford, his not-so-nice personality, the idea that he was Elizabeth I’s son by Thomas Seymour. and the Oxfordian theory regarding the works of William Shakespeare…
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On this day in Tudor history, 14th March 1555, courtier, envoy and landowner, Sir John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, died at his London residence on the Strand aged around 70.
Russell was an important Tudor man who served four Tudor monarchs – Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I – AND he managed to keep his head, dying a natural death at a good age.
Find out more about this Earl of Bedford, his life, his rise and his career at the royal court, in this talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 26th February 1552, Sir Thomas Arundell, Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir Miles Partridge and Sir Ralph Fane (or Vane) were executed.
The men had been condemned as traitors after being accused of conspiring with Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and former Lord Protector, against John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, the new man in control of King Edward VI’s government.
Find out all about these men and how these loyal royal servants came to these sticky ends in this talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 5th February 1549, in the reign of King Edward VI, fifteen-year-old Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth I, was summoned to appear before Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, who was keeping her under house arrest at Hatfield while the Crown investigated Thomas Seymour.
Edward VI’s privy council were investigating whether Elizabeth was secretly plotting to marry Thomas Seymour, Edward VI’s uncle, helped by her servants, Katherine Ashley and Thomas Parry.
Parry and Ashley had made confessions, but what had they said? And what would happen to them all?
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On this day in Tudor history, 30th December 1552, in the reign of King Edward VI, Spanish humanist scholar, translator, author and Protestant apologist, Francisco de Enzinas died at Strasbourg from the plague. He was buried there the next day. Humanist Francisco had changed his name to Francis Dryander after leaving Spain to study at Louvain.
Dryander fit a lot into his thirty-four years of life. He escaped from prison and was an outlaw, he translated the Bible, he taught Greek in England, he was supported by Archbishop Cranmer and the Duchess of Suffolk, and published several works.
Find out more about the accomplished Francis Dryander in this talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 6th December 1573, soldier and administrator, Sir Hugh Paulet, died at his home in Hinton St George in Somerset.
He distinguished himself as a soldier in Henry VIII’s reign, served as Governor of Jersey in Edward VI’s reign, was a Protestant but survived Mary I’s reign and served as Vice-President of the Welsh marches, and had a successful career in Elizabeth I’s reign. He was an important man and a servant of the Crown, but still managed to die a natural death at his home.
Find out more about Sir Hugh Paulet, his life and career, in this talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 24th November 1572, John Knox, the Scottish clergyman, famous Reformer , royal chaplain, and founder of Presbyterianism, died at his home in Edinburgh as his second wife, Margaret, read aloud from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.
John Knox is known for bringing the Protestant reformation to the church in Scotland and his controversial views about women rulers, but he was also chaplain to King Edward VI and had a very eventful life, being taken prisoner by the French and being forced into service on the galleys of their fleet at one point.
Find out more about John Knox’s life and career in this talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 6th October 1510, John Caius was born at Norwich.
Caius was a theological scholar, founder of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, royal physician (to Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I) and author of a book on sweating sickness.
In this video, I give an overview of John Caius’ life and career, as well as sharing some of what he wrote on sweating sickness, that mystery Tudor illness.
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On this day in Tudor history, 17th September 1558, Walter Devereux, 1st Viscount Hereford and grandfather of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and a favourite of Elizabeth I, died at the Devereux family seat at Chartley in Staffordshire.
Devereux had a long and distinguished court career, serving Henry VIII, Princess Mary in Ludlow, and Edward VI. He also married at around the age of 11 and was imprisoned at one point. An interesting Tudor man.
Find out more about this soldier and royal servant…
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n this day in Tudor history, Saturday 10th September 1547, in the reign of King Edward VI, the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, also known as the Battle of Pinkie, took place near Musselburgh, in Scotland, on the banks of the River Esk. The English forces, led by Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, defeated the Scots, killing thousands.
It was a bloody battle, but started off well for the Scots. In this video, I share an eye-witness account of how the battle changed so dramatically, leading to the loss of between 6,000 and 15,000 Scots.
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On this day in Tudor history, 19th August 1551, Princess Mary, the future Mary I, wrote to her half-brother King Edward VI regarding orders that he had sent, orders that she was not going to obey.
As historian Henry Ellis noted, this letter is evidence of Mary’s talent at writing and her intellect, and it also shows just how stubborn she could be. But then Edward was stubborn too! He wasn’t going to let his sister defy him but she wasn’t going to obey him and compromise her faith – oh dear!
Find out more about the situation, and hear Mary’s words to Edward…
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On this day in Tudor history, 10th August 1553, the same day that Queen Mary I held requiem mass for the soul of her late half-brother, Edward VI, seven men died at London Bridge. They were drowned.
Find out more about what happened to these men – one of whom was Thomas Brydges, the son of Sir Thomas Brydges, Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower of London – how the Thames was the preferred way of travelling around London, and how and why it could be dangerous around London Bridge, in this video…
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On this day in Tudor history, 3rd August 1549, in the reign of King Edward VI, Lord Russell marched his troops from Honiton to Woodbury.
They were off to put down the Prayer Book Rebellion.
Find out more in this edition of #TudorHistoryShorts…
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On this day in Tudor history, 8th July 1549, in the reign of King Edward VI, a rebellion began in East Anglia. It was Kett’s Rebellion.
Find out more about Kett’s Rebellion, why it began, what happened next and what happened to the rebels leaders, in this latest edition of #TudorHistoryShorts…
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On this day in Tudor history, 17th June 1551, Sir George Blage died a natural death in Edward VI’s reign.
Blage was fortunate to die such a death as he’d been condemned to death in Henry VIII’s reign.
Find out more about him in this TudorHistoryShorts talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 25th May 1553, in the reign of King Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey married Lord Guildford Dudley.
The bride and groom were from prominent families, but there is the prevailing idea that this marriage was part of a plot by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.
Find out more…
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On this day in Tudor history, 23rd May 1547, in the reign of King Edward VI, Henry Grey, 3rd Marquis of Dorset, was finally installed as a Knight of the Garter.
Grey had wanted this honour for years and had been nominated many times, so what had changed? How did he end up joining the Order of the Garter.
Find out in this video…
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In this first part of This Week in Tudor History for week beginning 29th March, I talk about William Wager, a playwright and clergyman who picked wonderful titles for his works; the interesting life and career of Sir Ralph Sadler, who started out working for Thomas Cromwell and who went on to serve Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Jane (Lady Jane Grey) and Elizabeth I – oh, and I will tell you about his bigamous marriage! Then, finally, I will leave you with the dying King Henry VIII making his last will and testament.
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One of the questions I received for the Anne Boleyn Files and Tudor Society Channel’s fan Q&A series was from Tudor Society member Colleen, and her beautiful cat, King Louis.
The question was regarding Anne Seymour (née Stanhope), second wife of Edward Seymour, who, of course became Lord Protector in his nephew Edward VI’s reign. In Showtime’s “The Tudors” series, Anne is rather a colourful character, a badly behaved woman who has an affair with a courtier and another with her own brother-in-law, but is there any truth in this or is it fictional?
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In this first part of “This week in Tudor history”, I look at Tudor history events for 1st, 2nd and 3rd February.
1st February 1552, in the reign of King Edward VI – The birth of Roger Cooke, an alchemist who worked for Dr John Dee, Francis Anthony, the Wizard Earl (Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland) and Sir Walter Ralegh, and a man with whom Dee shared the secret of a special elixir…
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On this day in Tudor history, 30th December 1552, in the reign of King Edward VI, Spanish humanist scholar, translator, author and Protestant apologist, Francisco de Enzinas died at Strasbourg from the plague. He was buried there the next day. Humanist Francisco had changed his name to Francis Dryander after leaving Spain to study at Louvain.
Dryander fit a lot into his thirty-four years of life. He escaped from prison and was an outlaw, he translated the Bible, he taught Greek in England, he was supported by Archbishop Cranmer and the Duchess of Suffolk, and published several works.
Find out more about the accomplished Francis Dryander in today’s talk.
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 6th December 1573, soldier and administrator, Sir Hugh Paulet, died at his home in Hinton St George in Somerset.
He distinguished himself as a soldier in Henry VIII’s reign, served as Governor of Jersey in Edward VI’s reign, was a Protestant but survived Mary I’s reign and served as Vice-President of the Welsh marches, and had a successful career in Elizabeth I’s reign. He was an important man and a servant of the Crown, but still managed to die a natural death at his home.
Find out more about Sir Hugh Paulet, his life and career, in today’s talk.
[Read More...]
On this day in Tudor history, 24th November 1572, John Knox, the Scottish clergyman, famous Reformer , royal chaplain, and founder of Presbyterianism, died at his home in Edinburgh as his second wife, Margaret, read aloud from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.
John Knox is known for bringing the Protestant reformation to the church in Scotland and his controversial views about women rulers, but he was also chaplain to King Edward VI and had a very eventful life, being taken prisoner by the French and being forced into service on the galleys of their fleet at one point.
Find out more about John Knox’s life and career in today’s talk.
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 6th October 1510, John Caius was born at Norwich.
Caius was a theological scholar, founder of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, royal physician (to Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I) and author of a book on sweating sickness.
In today’s “on this day” talk, I give an overview of John Caius’ life and career, as well as sharing some of what he wrote on sweating sickness, that mystery Tudor illness.
[Read More...]