On this day in Tudor history, 27th November, a former Benedictine monk was burnt at Smithfield for heresy for importing Lutheran books (1531); and 18-year-old William Shakespeare got married to 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant at the time (1582)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 25th November, Elizabeth of York, Henry VII’s queen consort, was crowned queen at Westminster Abbey (1487), and lawyer, MP, diplomat and ecclesiastical administrator Sir Thomas Legh died (1545)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 21st November, John Bale, Protestant playwright, historian and bishop, was born (1495); and Frances Grey (née Brandon), Duchess of Suffolk and mother of Lady Jane Grey, died (1559)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 20th November, Elizabeth I’s Lord Chancellor and favourite, Sir Christopher Hatton, a man she called her “mouton”, died (1591); and her godson, author, courtier and a man who invented a flush toilet, Sir John Harington, died (1612)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 18th November, Ralph Baynes, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, died while imprisoned in the Bishop of London’s home, and his fellow clergyman, Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London, died in prison at Lambeth Palace (1559)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 17th November, Queen Mary I died at St James’s Palace, London, and her half-sister, Elizabeth, became Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth would reign for over forty-four years (1558)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 13th November, mercer and member of Parliament Robert Packington was shot to death by an unknown assailant (1536); and Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, two of his brothers, and Archbishop Cranmer were tried for treason…
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On this day in Tudor history, 12th November, Queen Jane Seymour’s remains were taken from Hampton Court Palace to Windsor Castle for burial (1537); and Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, “Wily Winchester”, died (1555)…
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#OTD in Tudor history, 11th November, the Admiral of France landed on English soil, a visit that was going to cause George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, a lot of stress (1534); and Archbishop Cranmer was instructed to move Queen Catherine Howard from Hampton Court Palace to Syon House (1541)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 10th November, privy councillor Sir Henry Wyatt, father of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, died (1536); and explorer and navigator Richard Chancellor was drowned after saving the Russian ambassador after their ship was wrecked (1556)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 7th November, Henry VII’s first Parliament attainted Richard III and his supporters (1485); and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer visited a confined Queen Catherine Howard, seeking a confession (1541)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 23rd October, a prior wrote a rather grovelling letter to Thomas Cromwell regarding the forthcoming dissolution of his monastery; and renowned poet, psalmodist and clergyman John Hopkins was buried at Great Waldingfield…
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On this day in Tudor history, 20th October, Lord Darcy yielded Pontefract Castle to the rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace, but all was not how it seemed (1536), and courtier Mary Arundell, a countess twice over, died at Bath Place in London (1557)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 18th October, Margaret Tudor, former Queen of Scotland and Henry VII’s eldest daughter, died at Methven Castle; and Elizabeth (future Elizabeth I) finally received permission from her half-sister Mary I to leave court and travel to Hatfield, rather than return to house arrest…
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On this day in Tudor history, 15th October, the infant Prince Edward (Edward VI) was christened in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace (1537); and teacher and Welsh language poet Richard Gwyn (White) was hanged, drawn and quartered for his Catholic faith (1584)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 14th October, statesman, diplomat and poet Thomas Chaloner died (1563); and the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots began at Fotheringhay Castle (1586)…
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On this day in Tudor history, rebel leader Sir Francis Bigod was born; and the Lincolnshire Rising, the beginnings of the Pilgrimage of Grace, continued as trouble erupted in Horncastle…
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On this day in Tudor history, 28th September, Mary I and her half-sister, Elizabeth, travelled to the Tower of London to prepare for Mary’s coronation; and Elizabeth I’s favourite, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, strode into the queen’s bedchamber unannounced and saw her without her “mask of youth”…
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On this day in Tudor history, 26th September, Sir Francis Drake returned from his 3-year circumnavigation of the Globe; and Sir Amias Paulet, who had served as Mary, Queen of Scots’ gaoler, died…
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On this day in Tudor history, 21st September, theologian and chaplain Henry Pendleton, a man known for changing his faith, was buried; and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, married Lettice Devereux in secret…
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On this day in Tudor history, 20th September, Henry VII’s eldest son and heir, Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, was born at Winchester; and Anthony Babington and his fellow Babington Plot conspirators were executed…
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On this day in Tudor history, Walter Devereux, 1st Viscount Hereford and a man with a distinguished court career, died at Chartley; and loyal courtier and soldier Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, died during an outbreak of the plague…
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On this day in Tudor history, 13th September, famous Tudor poet and antiquary John Leland was born; and Elizabeth I’s chief advisor and “spirit”, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, was born…
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On this day in Tudor history, the English force defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden while Catherine of Aragon was regent (1513); and the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned queen at Stirling Castle (1543)…
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On this day in Tudor history, 8th September, Amy Dudley (née Robsart), wife of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, died after falling down some stairs; and John Shakespeare, father of playwright William Shakespeare, was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon…
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On this day in Tudor history, 7th September, Queen Anne Boleyn gave birth at Greenwich Palace to a daughter who would become Queen Elizabeth I; and forty-nine-year-old Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, married his fourteen-year-old ward, Catherine Willoughby…
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On this day in Tudor history, 6th September, famous reformer Martin Luther sent his treatise to Pope Leo X; Sir Francis Drake entered the Pacific Ocean; and physician, clergyman and inventor of modern shorthand, Timothy Bright, was buried…
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On this day in Tudor history, 5th September, Catherine Parr, Queen Dowager, died a few days after giving birth to her first child at Sudeley Castle; and Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London and a man known as “Bloody Bonner”, died in prison…
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On this day in Tudor history, 28th August, Edward VI’s half-sister, Mary, was ordered to stop celebrating the Catholic mass, and an ailing Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, wrote his final letter to his queen and childhood friend, Elizabeth I…
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On this day in Tudor history, 25th August, the rebels of Kett’s Rebellion launched at an attack on the city of Norwich, and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, magnate, soldier and uncle of Queens Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, died at Kenninghall…
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