On this day in history, 29th October 1618, in the reign of King James I, Elizabethan courtier, explorer, author and soldier, Sir Walter Ralegh (Raleigh, Rawley, Ralagh, Rawleigh) was executed in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster Palace.

Ralegh had led an eventful life. He’d been a favourite of Elizabeth I – except when he secretly married her lady, Bess Throckmorton – but had been imprisoned in the Tower of London on several occasions, he’d been accused of atheism at one point, had sailed to America and tried to establish a colony, he was knighted for his service in Ireland, and he was a poet too!

Find out all about Sir Walter Ralegh’s colourful life in today’s talk.

On this day in Tudor history, 23rd October 1570, John Hopkins, poet, psalmodist and Church of England clergyman, was buried at Great Waldingfield in Suffolk.

You’ve probably never heard of John Hopkins, but his versions of the Psalms were “the best-known English verses” in the late 16th and 17th century because they were sung in church by every member of society.

He was a clergyman and psalmodist, but also appears to have been a shepherd of sheep, as well as men! Find out more in today’s video.

On this day in Tudor history, 22nd October 1577, Henry Parker, 11th Baron Morley and Roman Catholic exile, died in Paris. Morley had fled abroad in 1570 after refusing to subscribe to Elizabeth I’s “Act of Uniformity” and after being implicated in the 1569 Rising of the North.

Find out more about this Tudor man, who was the nephew of Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, and his rather interesting family, with their connections to the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots and the Gunpowder Plot, in today’s video.

By this day in Tudor history, the Pilgrimage of Grace Rebellion in the north of England was well underway, and King Henry VIII had come to the decision that tough action was needed to put it down.

The king had refused to give in to the rebels’ demands and they had refused to go back to their homes, so on 19th October 1536, the king wrote to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby, with instructions on what to do. The letters do not make for easy reading. This was the king at his most brutal. Examples were to be made of people, after all, these people were traitors to the Crown.

Awful.

I give a recap of what the rebellion was about and then share Henry VIII’s letters.

On this day in history, 17th October 1560, Walter Marsh, spy and Protestant martyr, was baptised at St Stephen’s Church, Coleman Street, London.

Marsh came to a sticky end, being burned to death in Rome’s Campo dei Fiori after having his tongue and hands cut off. Here is my Claire Chats talk on Walter Marsh:

On this day in Tudor history, 17th October 1586, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the poet, courtier and soldier, Sir Philip Sidney, died as a result of an injury inflicted by the Spanish forces at the Battle of Zutphen in the Netherlands.

Sir Philip Sidney is known for his literary works, which include “Astrophel and Stella”, which was inspired by his sweetheart, Lady Penelope Devereux, “The Arcadia” and “A Defense of Poetry.

Sidney was lucky to escape the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in Paris, but was shot in the thigh at the Battle of Zupthen and died twenty-six days later.

Warning: John Foxe’s account is pretty horrible.

On this day in Tudor history, 16th October 1555, in the reign of Queen Mary I, Protestants Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned at the stake in Oxford for heresy. Along with Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, they have become known as the Oxford Martyrs.

In today’s talk, I give an overview of Latimer and Ridley’s careers, and then shares an account of their burnings from John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

“Every eye shed tears at the afflicting sight of these sufferers, who were among the most distinguished persons of their time in dignity, piety, and public estimation.” John Foxe