On this day in Tudor history, 31st August 1580, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Welsh language poet and elegist Wiliam Llŷn died at Oswestry.

J.C. Morrice, who published a collection of Llŷn’s works in 1908, described him as “the best elegist not only of the sixteenth century but, perhaps, of all Welsh bards”.

Llŷn left his works to his pupil Rhys Cain, who wrote an elegy to him and recorded that he was not yet forty-six at his death. His other pupil Siôn Phylip also wrote an elegy to him.

On this day in Tudor history, 29th August 1583, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, courtier, adventurer and mariner Maurice Browne died.

Browne captained The Swallow and then The Delight on a venture to colonise North America in 1583. Although the expedition saw voyage leader Sir Humphrey Gilbert claiming Newfoundland for the queen, the venture failed. Browne and Gilbert both drowned.

On this day in history, 27th August 1610, Lady Anne Bacon (née Cooke), mother of Sir Francis Bacon, was laid to rest at St Michael’s Church, near St Albans. She was in her early eighties when she died.

Anne was the second daughter of the humanist scholar Sir Anthony Cooke, and the wife of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who served Elizabeth I as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. The couple had two children together, Tudor spy Anthony Bacon and politician, philosopher, author and scientist Francis Bacon, Viscount St Alban.

On this day in Tudor history, 24th August 1561, naval officer and administrator Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, was born.

Howard served Elizabeth I as vice-admiral in the 1596 Cadiz expedition and the 1597 voyage to the Azores, and as Constable of the Tower of London. He went on to have a distinguished career under James I until his fall in 1619.

On this day in Tudor history, 23rd August 1553, just over a month after Mary I had been proclaimed queen, Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, was made Lord Chancellor.

Here are some facts about Stephen Gardiner, a man known as “Wily Winchester”…

On this day in Tudor history, 20th August 1580, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, soldier and administrator Sir George Bowes died at Streatlam, County Durham.

Bowes was buried in the family vault at Barnard Castle Church.

Bowes had served Elizabeth I as a member of the Council of the North and the Ecclesiastical High Commission for York, a Justice of the Peace and sheriff, and as the Earl of Sussex’s Deputy in Co. Durham and Richmondshire, and Provost Marshal.

Bowes had also been chosen to escort Mary, Queen of Scots from Carlisle to Bolton Castle in 1568.

On this day in Tudor history, 17th August 1498, soldier and royal councillor John Scrope, 5th Baron Scrope of Bolton, died.

the Yorkist Scrope was lucky to die a natural death. It is likely that he fought on King Richard III’s side at the Battle of Bosworth against Henry Tudor in 1485, but escaped punishment by Henry, who won the battle and was crowned King Henry VII. Scrope was imprisoned two years later after supporting the pretender Lambert Simnel. However, he was released and went on to prove his loyalty to Henry VII.

On this day in Tudor history, 16th August 1549, in the reign of King Edward VI, landowner and administrator Sir Christopher More died. He was buried in St Nicholas’s Church, Guildford, in the Loseley Chapel.

More was a Justice of the Peace and sheriff during the reign of Henry VIII and was appointed to the guard of honour prepared for Anne of Cleves in late 1539.

Here are some facts about Sir Christopher More:

Sir Christopher More was born in around 1483 and was the son of fishmonger John More and his wife, Elizabeth.
By 1504, More was married to Margaret Mugge, who came from Guildford, and the couple had 12 children together. By 1535, Margaret had died and More had married Constance Sackville, widow of William Heneage.
In 1505, in the reign of King Henry VII, More was made a clerk of the exchequer, and More also purchased the office of alnager, i.e. an inspector of the quality and measurement of woollen cloth, in Surrey and Sussex.

On this day in Tudor history, 15th August 1594, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, playwright Thomas Kyd was buried at St Mary Colechurch in London.

Kyd is known for his play “The Spanish Tragedy” (c1537), which was performed twenty-nine times between 1592 and 1597, and some scholars believe that he wrote a “Hamlet” play before that of William Shakespeare.

14th August 1479 is the traditional birthdate of Katherine of York, Countess of Devon.

Katherine was the second youngest daughter of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville, and so was the sister of the Princes in the Tower and Elizabeth of York, wife of King Henry VII. Katherine was also the wife of Sir William Courtenay, Earl of Devon.

Here are some facts about Katherine of York…

On this day in Tudor history, 13th August 1566, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Humphrey Radcliffe died at his manor of Elstow. He was buried at Elstow Abbey.

Radcliffe served as a Member of Parliament during the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I, and then as a Justice of the Peace and Sheriff in Elizabeth I’s reign.

Here are some more facts about Sir Humphrey Radcliffe…

On this day in Tudor history, 12th August 1577, humanist scholar and diplomat Sir Thomas Smith died at Hill Hall in Essex. He was buried in St Michael’s Church, Theydon Mount.

Smith served Elizabeth I as Chancellor of the Order of the Garter and as Secretary of State, but is known for his political books “The Discourse of the Commonweal” and “De Republica Anglorum; the Manner of Government or Policie of the Realme of England”.

On this day in Tudor history, 11th August 1556, politician Sir John Kingsmill, a man who had been close to Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Wriothesley, died.

He served as a sheriff in the reign of Henry VIII and as a commissioner for the dissolution of chantries in 1548 to Edward VI.

Here are some more facts about Sir John Kingsmill:

On this day in Tudor history, 9th August 1557, composer Nicholas Ludford was buried in St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, in a vault with his first wife, Anne..

Ludford is known for his festal masses, which can be found in the Caius and Lambeth choirbooks (1521-27) and the Peterhouse partbooks (1539-40).

His biographer David Skinner described Ludford as “one of the last unsung geniuses of Tudor polyphony”.