On this day in Tudor history, the future Elizabeth I wrote her earliest surviving letter. It was to her stepmother, Queen Catherine Parr; Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk and father of Lady Jane Grey, was released from the Tower of London; and Edmund Sheffield, 1st Baron Sheffield, was killed by a butcher during Kett’s Rebellion…
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On this day in Tudor history, 30th July, both Catholics and Reformers were executed at Smithfield; Henry VIII’s youngest daughter, Elizabeth, left Somerset House to greet her half-sister, Mary I, the new queen; and writer and diarist Robert Parry was born…
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On this day in Tudor history, 29th July, Henry VII’s stepfather, Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby, died; Mary, Queen of Scots, married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley; and the English fleet defeated the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines…
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On this day in Tudor history, 28th July, Thomas Cromwell suffered a rather botched execution; Walter Hungerford, Baron Hungerford, was executed for magic and “detestable vice and sin”; and Henry VIII married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard…
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On this day in Tudor history, 27th July, former royal tutor and secretary John Cheke was imprisoned; Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, sent Elizabeth I an invitation to try and keep her from harm; and Catholic priest William Davies was executed on Anglesey…
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On this day in Tudor history, 26th July, courtier and solder George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, died; and 4,000 men gathered at Tilbury Fort to defend England against the Spanish Armada. It’s also the feast day of St Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary…
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On this day in Tudor history, 25th July, Henry VIII was furious with his court fool; Mary I married Philip of Spain, son of Emperor Charles V, at Winchester Cathedral; and child actor Salomon Pavy was buried…
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On this day in Tudor history, 24th July, merchant and conspirator Richard Hesketh was born; Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicated and her one-year-old son became King James VI of Scotland; and Catholic priest John Boste was executed…
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On this day in Tudor history, 23rd July, Marie de Guise and her infant daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, escaped from Linlithgow Palace; Protestant printer John Day died; and Lord Chamberlain Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, son of Mary Boleyn, died…
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On this day in Tudor history, soldier and royal councillor John Scrope, 5th Baron Scrope, was born; Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, died; and playwright Edward Sharpham was baptised…
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On this day in Tudor history, 21st July, French forces landed on the Isle of Wight; John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was arrested following the fall of his daughter-in-law, Queen Jane; and explorer Thomas Cavendish set off on his South Sea voyage…
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On this day in Tudor history, Queen Claude, consort of Francis I of France, died; Philip of Spain arrived in England in readiness for his marriage to Mary I; and Protestant leader John Knox published a pamphlet attacking the Catholic Queen Mary I…
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On this day in Tudor history, Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn and mistress of Henry VIII, died; Henry VIII’s flagship, the Mary Rose, sank in the Battle of the Solent; and Mary I was proclaimed queen in place of Queen Jane…
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On this day in Tudor history, 18th July, Edmund Dudley, a man who’d been influential in Henry VII’s reign, was convicted of treason; the Earls of Pembroke and Arundel betrayed Queen Jane; and Elizabeth I’s chief gentlewoman of the privy chamber, Katherine Ashley (Astley), died…
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In the late summer of 1483, two princes, aged twelve and nine, vanished from the Tower of London where they had been imprisoned by their uncle, Richard III. Murder was suspected, but without bodies no one could be certain even that they were dead. Their fate remains one of history’s enduring mysteries, but the solution lies hidden in plain sight in stories we have chosen to forget, of English anti-Semitism, the cult of saints, and in two small, broken and incomplete skeletons.
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Tudor fans are invited to the Mary Rose Museum on July 20th to create their own Tudor-inspired pottery piece. In collaboration with the local pottery studio Fatclay Pottery, participants will learn from experts – no previous pottery experience required.
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On this day in Tudor history, 17th July, Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis, was burnt in Edinburgh for treason; the Dartford Martyrs were burnt for heresy; and antiquary, bee-keeper, translator and poet Richard Carew was born…
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On this day in Tudor history, Frances Grey (née Brandon), Duchess of Suffolk, was born; Anne Askew was burnt at the stake for heresy with two others; and Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII’s fourth wife, died at Chelsea Old Manor…
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On this day in Tudor history, 15th July, royal ships changed sides from Queen Jane to Queen Mary; the Newbury Martyrs were tried for sedition and heresy; and famous architect and theatre designer Inigo Jones was born…
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On this day in Tudor history, 14th July, Henry and Charles Brandon, sons of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and Catherine Brandon (née Willoughby), Duchess of Suffolk, died from sweating sickness; reformer and translator Richard Taverner died; and Cardinal Christopher Bainbridge died of alleged poisoning…
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On this day in Tudor history, 13th July, the famous multi-talented John Dee was born; members of the new Queen Jane’s council were meeting with the imperial ambassadors; and poet and courtier Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester, died at Penshurst…
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On this day in Tudor history, 12th July, Henry VIII married his sixth wife, Catherine Parr; men flocked to Lady Mary’s cause and Queen Jane made a mistake; and four Protestants were burnt at the stake in Canterbury for heresy…
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On this day in Tudor history, 11th July, the pope ordered Henry VIII to abandon Anne Boleyn on pain of excommunication; some Suffolk men were torn between supporting Queen Jane or Lady Mary; and plague hit Stratford-upon-Avon…
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On this day in Tudor history, Lady Jane Grey was received at the Tower of London and proclaimed queen; Francis Throckmorton was executed for high treason after the discovery of the Throckmorton Plot; and Elizabeth I visited the royal mint to check on her new coins…
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On this day in Tudor history, 9th July, Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne of Cleves was officially annulled; the Lady Mary (Mary I) wrote to the Privy Council stating her claim to the throne and demanding their allegiance; and Elizabeth I began a 19-day visit at Robert Dudley’s home, Kenilworth Castle…
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On this day in Tudor history, Margaret Tudor set off for Scotland to marry James IV; Kett’s Rebellion began in East Anglia; and Henry VIII’s eldest daughter, Mary, declared herself queen at Kenninghall…
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On this day in Tudor history, 7th July, Henry VIII’s eldest daughter, Mary, heard of her half-brother Edward VI’s death; Henry Peckham and John Danyell were hanged, drawn and quartered for their involvement in the Dudley Conspiracy; and William Turner, “father of English botany and of ornithology”, died…
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On this day in Tudor history, 6th July, Henry III’s former Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, was executed for high treason; King Edward VI died, leaving the throne to Lady Jane Grey; and Margaret Clement, adopted daughter of Sir Thomas More, died in Mechelen…
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