The Tudor Society
  • #OTD in Tudor History – 4 February

    Portraits of Mary Boleyn and John Rogers

    On this day in Tudor history, Anne of York married the Earl of Surrey, Mary Boleyn married William Carey, and there was the first Protestant burning of Mary I’s reign…

    [Read More...]
  • July 15 – The Newbury Martyrs, and Inigo Jones

    On this day in Tudor history, 15th July 1556, in the reign of Mary I, the trial of Julins Palmer, John Gwyn and Thomas Robyns opened at St Nicholas Church in Newbury. These men, who are now known as the Newbury Martyrs, were accused of sedition and heresy.

    But how did Julins Palmer, a formerly staunch Catholic end up being executed for heresy in Mary I’s reign?

    Find out more about Palmer, his trial and the executions of the Newbury Martyrs…

    [Read More...]
  • 4 February – The burning of John Rogers

    On this day in Tudor history, the first English Protestant martyr, John Rogers, was burned in the reign of Queen Mary I. Let me tell you more about him and his fate.

    [Read More...]
  • 9 February 1555 – The burnings of Bishop John Hooper and Archdeacon Rowland Taylor

    On this day in history, 9th February 1555, the burnings of two prominent Protestant churchmen took place.

    John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, was burned at the stake in Gloucester. He had been deprived of his bishopric in March 1554, due to his marriage. Rowland Taylor, Rector of Hadleigh in Suffolk, Canon of Rochester Cathedral, Archdeacon of Bury St Edmunds, Archdeacon of Cornwall and former chaplain to Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned on Aldham Common, near Hadleigh. Both men were executed as part of Queen Mary I’s persecution of Protestants.

    [Read More...]
  • John Rogers, the first Protestant martyr of Mary I’s reign

    On this day in history, 4th February 1555, John Rogers, clergyman and Biblical editor, was burned at the stake at Smithfield. Rogers was the first England Protestant burned in Mary I’s reign after being condemned as a heretic. he refused the chance of a last minute pardon if he recanted, and died bravely. His wife and eleven children, one being newborn and at the breast, attended his burning. Martyrologist John Foxe recorded that Rogers “constantly and cheerfully took his death with wonderful patience, in the defence and quarrel of the Gospel of Christ.”

    [Read More...]