25 July – Mary I gets married

On this day in Tudor history, 25 July 1554, on the Feast of St James, Queen Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII by Catherine of Aragon, his first wife, married Philip of Spain, son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

The couple got married at Winchester Cathedral and Mary's Lord Chancellor, Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, officiated at the ceremony.

In today's talk, I share a contemporary account of Mary and Philip's wedding ceremony.

Also on this day in history:

• 1535 - Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth are called names by Henry VIII's fool, Will Somer.
• 1538 – Death of John Barnewall, 3rd Baron Trimleston and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
• 1539 – Death of Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio, diplomat, Bishop of Salisbury, Cardinal-Protector and Papal Legate. Campeggio was buried in Santa Maria in Trastevere, but in 1571 his remains were moved to the church of Santi Marta e Bernardino, the church he had built in Bologna.
• 1556 – Baptism of George Peele, poet and playwright, in St James Garlickhythe, London. Peele's works included the pastoral comedy “The Arraignment of Paris”, “The Battle of Alcazar” and “The Love of King David and fair Bethsabe: with the Tragedie of Absalon”.
• 1577 – Death of Nicholas Barham, Sergeant-at-Law and Queen's Sergeant, at Oxford. He was a victim of the Black Assize (gaol fever), a fever which killed around 300 people associated with the trial of Roland Jenkes, a recusant bookseller.
• 1602 – Burial of Salomon Pavy, actor, at the Church of St Mary Somerset, near Blackfriars Theatre. Pavy was just thirteen years-old, and is thought to have been abducted to serve as an actor in the Children of Paul's. He later joined the Children of the Queen's Revels at the Blackfriars Theatre and had parts in Ben Jonson's “Cynthia's Revels” and “The Poetaster”.
• 1603 – Coronation of James I at Westminster Abbey. As Westminster Abbey points out "he was the first Scottish King to be crowned sitting on the Stone of Scone (contained in the Coronation Chair) for over 300 years".