The Tudor Society
  • March 25 – Elizabeth I grants letters patent to Walter Ralegh

    On 25th March 1584, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, letters patent were granted to Walter Ralegh giving him “free liberty and licence… to discover, search for, fynde out and view… landes, countries and territories”, for the benefit of himself, “his heyres and assignes forever.”

    It went on to describe these territories: “such remote heathen and barbarous lands countries and territories not actually possessed of any Christian Prince and inhabited by Christian people”, and as Nancy Bradley Warren points out in her book “Women of God and Arms”, Elizabeth I and her government were not only granting Ralegh the right to colonise lands owned by the indigenous people, they were also giving him the right to take lands held by Spain, as they didn’t view Catholicism as true Christianity.

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  • October 24 – The Roanoke Colony: A Tudor mystery

    On this day in Tudor history, 24th October 1590, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the governor of the Roanoke Colony, John White, returned to England after failing to find the lost Roanoke colonists.

    The lost colonists included his daughter Ellinor (Elenora), his son-in-law Ananias Dare, and his granddaughter Virginia Dare.

    What happened to the Roanoke colonists and what did the word CROATOAN carved onto a post mean?

    Find out all about the lost Roanoke Colony and the theories regarding the disappearance of all 115 people, including the very latest research…

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  • August 18 – Virginia Dare

    On this day in Tudor history, 18th August 1587, the first child born to English settlers in the New World was born in the Roanoke Colony.

    Her name was Virginia Dare and the colony has gone down in history as the Lost Colony due to all of its 115 colonists disappearing.

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  • 18 August – John Dudley and Virginia Dare

    On this day in Tudor history, 18th August 1553, less than a month after his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey or Queen Jane, had been overthrown by Queen Mary I, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was tried for treason at Westminster Hall in London.

    During his trial, Northumberland pointed out that it couldn’t be treason to be acting by royal warrant and that some of those judging him had acted under the same warrant, but it did him no good.

    Find out what happened at his trial, what his reaction was to his sentence, and what happened to William Parr, Marquess of Northampton, and John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who were tried with him…

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  • Walter Raleigh’s colonisation, war over vestments, an earl who saved the day, and some burnings

    In part two of this week in Tudor history, I talk about Walter Raleigh (Ralegh) being given permission to colonise foreign lands in 1584; a disagreement over the wearing of vestments in 1566 which led to a pamphlet war, protests and ministers losing their parishes; a Tudor earl who saved the day for Henry VIII during the 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion, and the burnings of three Protestant martyrs in Essex in 1555.

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  • 24 October – Roanoke, the lost colony

    On this day in Tudor history, 24th October 1590, John White, the governor of the Roanoke Colony, returned to England after failing to find the lost colonists, which included his daughter, Ellinor (Elenora), his son-in-law, Ananias Dare, and his granddaughter, Virginia Dare.

    But what happened to these colonists and what did the word CROATOAN carved onto a post mean?

    Find out all about the Roanoke Colony and the theories regarding the disappearance of all 115 people, including the very latest research, in today’s talk.

    [Read More...]