9 June – The Book of Common Prayer

This day in Tudor history, 9th June 1549, was a big day for the English Reformation. It was on this day, at Whitsun services all around England, that Archbishop Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer was used for the very first time. A service in English!

In today's video, I explain a bit more about this book and why this day was so important.

Recommended reading: http://getbook.at/cranmer

Also on this day in history:

• 1511 – Death of William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, at Greenwich. He died of pleurisy and was buried at Blackfriars, London, with the honours due an earl, even though he hadn't been officially invested yet. Courtenay was Henry VIII's uncle, having married Katherine, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.
• 1563 – (or 10th June) Death of William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, diplomat and administrator, probably at his estate of West Drayton in Middlesex. Paget's career included serving as an ambassador to the French court, being a member of Henry VIII's Privy Council, sitting on the commission which tried the Earl of Surrey and serving on Mary I's Privy Council.
• 1573 – Death of William Maitland of Lethington, Scottish courtier, politician, reformer and diplomat. He died in prison in Leith, in suspicious circumstances, though it was said to be suicide. Maitland supported the restoration of Mary, Queen of Scots, and was imprisoned as a result.
• 1583 – Death of Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and President of the Council of the North, at Bermondsey. His body was buried at Boreham in Essex, but his innards were buried at the church in Bermondsey.