The Tudor Society

  • Arthur Bulkeley, Bishop of Bangor

    1 month ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Bangor Cathedral

    On this day in Tudor history, 14th March 1553, during the reign of King Edward VI, Arthur Bulkeley, Bishop of Bangor, died at his home in Bangor.
    His final resting place? The quire of Bangor Cathedral.

    But who was Bishop Bulkeley, and why does his legacy matter?

    Arthur Bulkeley was a Welshman, born around 1495 in Beaumaris, Anglesey. He was a scholar, studying both canon and civil law at Oxford. But his path wasn’t just academic; he found himself serving some of the most powerful figures in Tudor England.

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  • Richard Burbage, the Elizabethan actor

    1 month ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Portrait of Richard Burbage from Dulwich Picture Gallery, London.

    On this day in history, 13th March 1619, the stage lost one of its greatest stars. Richard Burbage, Shakespeare’s leading man, the original Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear, breathed his last at the age of fifty.

    But Burbage wasn’t just an actor. He was a theatre pioneer, a close friend of Shakespeare, and a man whose talent defined the golden age of English drama.
    So, who was he?

    Richard Burbage was born in 1568, baptised in London’s St. Stephen’s Church on 7th July. His father, James Burbage, was an actor and entrepreneur, and young Richard grew up surrounded by the world of performance.

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  • Pope Leo X – The Medici Pope

    1 month ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Raphael's Portrait of Leo X

    On 11th March 1513, Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici was proclaimed Pope Leo X—a man who would leave a lasting mark on the Catholic Church and European history.

    Born into the powerful Medici family, Leo was the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, ruler of Florence and a patron of the arts. From an early age, Giovanni was destined for the Church—he was made a cardinal at just 13 years old! By the time he was elected pope in 1513, he held not just religious power but also political dominance as head of the Papal States and his influential family in Florence.

    But what kind of pope was Leo X? Well, let’s just say he wasn’t your typical, pious, reform-driven leader.

    Leo X was a true Renaissance pope. He transformed Rome into a thriving cultural hub, attracting artists, poets, and scholars to his court. One of his most famous protégés was Raphael, the great painter and architect. Under Leo’s patronage, Raphael worked on St. Peter’s Basilica and painted some of his most stunning works.

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  • William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, a Tudor Survivor

    1 month ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Portrait of William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, holding the white staff of the office of Lord High Treasurer

    William Paulet wasn’t born into the powerful aristocracy. He came from Basing in Hampshire, born sometime between 1474 and 1488—even his birth date is a mystery!

    His family had connections, but nothing close to the powerhouses of the Tudor court. Unlike men like Thomas More or Thomas Cromwell, Paulet didn’t make his name by standing on principle or radical reform. Instead, he mastered something far more valuable in the Tudor world: survival.

    He trained in law at the Inner Temple, which set him up for a career in administration, and he made a very smart marriage—Elizabeth Capell, the daughter of a wealthy Lord Mayor of London. It wasn’t the grandest match, but it gave him financial backing and key city connections.

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  • The Downfall of Germain Gardiner, John Larke & the Prebendaries’ Plot

    1 month ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    A portrait of Thomas Cranmer by Gerlach Flicke.

    By the early 1540s, England’s religious landscape was a minefield. The dissolution of the monasteries had shaken traditional Catholic structures, and Protestant reformers like Archbishop Thomas Cranmer were pushing Henry VIII’s Church further from Rome.

    Not everyone was on board.

    A faction of conservative clergy and laymen began working covertly to stop these changes. This movement, known as the Prebendaries’ Plot, was centred around five prebendary canons of Canterbury Cathedral, including William Hadleigh, a former monk of Christchurch Canterbury.

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  • Thomas Wriothesley’s Fall

    1 month ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, by Hans Holbein the Younger

    6th March 1547 was a day of humiliation for Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton. Once one of the most powerful men in England, he found himself stripped of the Great Seal of office and confined to his home. But how did a man who had been Henry VIII’s trusted Lord Chancellor fall so fast?

    Wriothesley was a rising star of the Tudor court. Born in 1505, he was the son of a herald, educated at Cambridge, and started his career working for none other than Thomas Cromwell. He was ambitious, intelligent, and, according to his friend John Leland, quite good-looking!

    His big break came in the 1530s when he became a key figure in Henry VIII’s government. He played a role in the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Anne of Cleves, helped investigate Catherine Howard, and eventually became Lord Chancellor in 1544. He was trusted, powerful, and wealthy—owning vast estates, including the former Titchfield Abbey, which he transformed into his grand home.

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  • Innovation and Panic at the Siege of Antwerp 1584-5 by Loretta Goldberg

    1 month ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Le pont Farnese

    Thank you to Loretta Goldberg, author of The Reversible Mask: An Elizabethan Spy Novel for joining us today and sharing this excellent guest article on the Siege of Antwerp.

    During World War II, Sir Winston Churchill said, “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” Illusion was a tactic used in 1944 to deceive the Nazis about where the allies would land; many historians believe that the Normandy beachhead held because of the deception. 336 years earlier, in 1588, England faced invasion by Spain with its Armada of 120 ships and 20,000 troops that were meant to be supplemented by comparable forces from Spain’s soldiers and barges in the Netherlands (known as the Army of Flanders.) Illusion then also saved England.

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  • Mathematician and Inventor William Oughtred

    1 month ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Engraving of mathematician William Oughtred

    William Oughtred was baptised on 5th March 1575, at Eton College, where his father worked as a writing master. From a young age, he was immersed in learning, and it wasn’t long before he was off to King’s College, Cambridge, where he earned his BA in 1596 and his MA in 1600.

    But Oughtred wasn’t just a numbers man—he was also a man of faith. In 1603, he became an ordained priest, and by 1610, he was the Rector of Albury in Surrey, a position he would hold for 50 years!

    Now, here’s where things get really interesting. Oughtred wasn’t content just preaching—his real passion was mathematics.

    Ever used the × symbol? Thank Oughtred. He also introduced the abbreviations “sin” and “cos” for sine and cosine, which are still used in trigonometry today!

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  • Christopher Bales, a Catholic Martyr

    1 month ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Gibbet at Caxton

    On this day in Tudor history, the 4th of March 1590, a man named Christopher Bales met a brutal and unjust end on the streets of London. His crime? Simply being a Catholic priest. His fate was sealed by laws that saw his faith and vocation as treason… and his punishment was death.

    But who was Christopher Bales? And why was England so determined to silence men like him?

    Christopher Bales was born in County Durham, the son of John and Catherine Bales. He actually came from a Protestant background, so it’s unclear what led him to convert and enter the English College in Reims, France, in 1581—a Catholic seminary where young men trained to become priests in defiance of English law.

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  • Margaret Tudor marries for the third time

    1 month ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Detail of Margaret Tudor's face from a portrait of her by Daniel Mystens

    On this day in Tudor history, 3rd March 1528, Margaret Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII and widow of King James IV of Scotland, married for the third time.

    Margaret, 38 years old, had already been twice married. Her first husband, King James IV of Scotland, had died at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, leaving her as regent for their young son, James V. However, her controversial second marriage to Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, led to political turmoil. The Scottish nobility opposed the match, and she lost her position as regent. When she returned to Scotland after a brief stay in England, she discovered that Angus had been living openly with a former lover, Lady Jane Stewart. Determined not to remain in an unhappy marriage, Margaret fought for an annulment, despite opposition from none other than her own brother, Henry VIII, who at the time did not believe in divorce.

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