The Tudor Society

  • 1559 Act of Uniformity

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history, 8th May 1559, Queen Elizabeth I gave her approval to the Acts of Uniformity and Supremacy which had been passed by Parliament on the 29th April. The Act of Uniformity made Protestantism England’s official faith, established a form of worship which is still followed in English Parish churches today and showed the country that Elizabeth was bent on following a middle road where religion was concerned. The monarch was Head of the Church again, and still is today.

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  • May Crossword Puzzle

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    This week’s Sunday quiz is a May crossword puzzle, i.e. the clues are all to do with historical events that took place in the month of May. All the events appear somewhere on the site, in articles and “This week in history” posts, so get searching!

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  • The Coverdale Bible

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history, 6th May 1541, Henry VIII issued an injunction ordering “the Byble of the largest and greatest volume, to be had in every churche”. The Bible referred to was “The Great Bible” or “Coverdale Bible”, the first authorised Bible in English. It had been prepared by Miles Coverdale and was based on William Tyndale’s New Testament and Pentateuch, and then Coverdale’s own translations of the other books of the Bible.

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  • A contemporary image of Anne Boleyn

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    This week’s Claire Chats video has been inspired by a debate that’s been happening online over an image from The Black Book of the Garter which Roland Hui believes to be of Anne Boleyn.

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  • Reading and Research by Stephanie A. Mann

    7 years ago Author: ADMIN Tim
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    Stephanie Mann on Thomas More

  • Margaret of York

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Thank you to Heather R. Darsie, our regular contributor, for writing this article on Margaret of York (1446-1503).

    On 3 May 1446, Margaret of York, younger sister of the future Edward IV, was born. The fifth of seven children and the youngest daughter of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, and his wife, Cecily Neville, Margaret of York began her life at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire. Her youngest sibling and the youngest of the seven children, the future Richard III of England, was born at the same castle in 1452. Margaret lived an uneventful life until she was about nineteen years old, when the opportunity to become Duchess of Burgundy presented itself.

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  • Thomas Tusser

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history, 3rd May 1580, Thomas Tusser, poet, farmer and writer on agriculture, died at the age of sixty-five. He was buried at Manningtree in Essex.

    Tusser is known for his “A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie”, a poem recording the country year, and “Five Hundreth Points of Good Husbandry United to as many of Good Huswiferie”, an instructional poem on farming.

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  • 2 May 1550 – The burning of Joan Bocher, Joan of Kent

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    We don’t usually associate religious persecution with the reign of Edward VI, but people did suffer in his reign.

    On this day in history, 2nd May 1550, Joan Bocher (Boucher, Butcher, Knel, Knell), an Anabaptist, was burnt at the stake at Smithfield. Bocher believed that Christ’s flesh was “not incarnate of the Virgin Mary” and so she was convicted of heresy and condemned to death.

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  • Rioghnach O’Geraghty will be at the Gumeracha Medieval Fair

    7 years ago Author: ADMIN Tim
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    Come to the Gumeracha Medieval Fair and you can meet Rioghnach O’Geraghty

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  • William Camden’s works

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history, 2nd May 1551, William Camden, the Tudor historian, headmaster and herald, was born at the Old Bailey, London.

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  • This week in history 1 – 7 May

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history…

    1st May:
    1461 – Execution of James Butler, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and 5th Earl of Ormond, at Newcastle after being captured by the Yorkists.
    1508 – Birth of Sir William Cavendish, administrator. Cavendish was one of Cromwell’s main agents in the dissolution of the monasteries and was appointed Treasurer of the Chamber in February 1546.
    1517 – The Evil May Day Riot. A mob of young apprentices and labourers gathered at St Paul’s and then went on a rampage through the streets of London, causing damage to property and hurting those who stood in their way.

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  • Maypoles and rioting

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    1st May is May Day, a day to celebrate the start of summer and you can read more about how it was celebrated and see a video of Maypole dancing in my article “May Day”.

    However, it wasn’t always a day of fun and dancing, in 1517 there was a riot.

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  • Expert Talk – Michelle Enzinas on Henry Buttes

    7 years ago Author: ADMIN Tim
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    This month we have a wonderful talk from Michelle Enzinas, author of the “Big Buttes Book”. In 1599 Henry Buttes wrote a slightly comical cookbook for the Bacon family, in order to raise funds for the construction of a church. In this talk, we learn all about the book, and also whether it was successful in the end!

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  • 30 April 1532 – The burning of James Bainham, Protestant martyr

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history, 30th April 1532, in the reign of King Henry VIII, lawyer James Bainham was burned at Smithfield.

    Bainham was married to the widow of reformer Simon Fish, a man who had also been charged with heresy…

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  • This week’s quiz

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    This week’s quiz is a general Tudor history quiz and is the perfect way to start your Sunday. Good luck and have fun!

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  • Wimpole History Festival 7-9 July 2017

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Thank you to Teri Fitzgerald for letting me know about this history festival which is taking place from 7th to 9th July 2017 on the Wimpole Estate near Cambridge, in the UK, and has been organised by the Cambridge Literary Festival and the National Trust.

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  • Tudor dogs

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
    3 Comments

    In this week’s Claire Chats, Claire talks about the breeds and categories of dogs that were common in Tudor times.

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  • 28 April 1603 – The funeral of Queen Elizabeth I

    7 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On 28th April 1603, Queen Elizabeth I’s funeral took place in London.

    After her death on 24th March 1603, the body of Queen Elizabeth I was placed inside a lead coffin and carried by night in a torchlit barge along the Thames from Richmond Palace to Whitehall.

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  • May 2017 Tudor Life Magazine

    7 years ago Author: ADMIN Tim
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    Here’s the full edition of our giant 90-page May edition of Tudor Life Magazine. It’s a macabre subject this month … DEATH.

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  • St Mark’s Day

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    25th April is the feast day of St Mark the Evangelist, one of the apostles and the man said to have written the Gospel of Mark. He is known as the founder of Christianity in Alexandria, where a church was founded in his name, and as the founder of the Coptic Orthodox Church. As a result of his Christian work in Alexandria and his attacks on the worship of idols, at Easter 68AD he was dragged through the city by a rope around his neck before being imprisoned, where he is said to have had visions assuring him of eternal life. The next day he was dragged until his head parted from his body. Some say he was tied to a horse’s tail.

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  • A Mask of Almains, Pilgrims and Irishmen for Mary I and Philip of Spain

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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  • Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history, 25th April 1509, the poet Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron Vaux, was born. He was a son of courtier and soldier Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden, and his wife Anne Green.

    Thomas Vaux was just fourteen when he married Elizabeth Cheyne, daughter of Sir Thomas Cheyne and Anne Parr, in 1523. The couple went on to have four children, two sons and two daughters.

    Nothing is known of his early life and education, but in 1527 he went to France as part of Cardinal Wolsey’s retinue, in 1529 he sat in Parliament and in 1532 he was part of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s party when they travelled to Calais to meet Francis I. He was created a Knight of the Bath as part of the celebrations for Anne Boleyn’s coronation in 1533 and he held the office of Governor of Jersey from January to August 1536. His Oxford Dictionary of National Biography biographer, H. R. Woudhuysen, notes that he appears to have retired to his estates in Northamptonshire after this, probably because of his Catholic views.

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  • Psalms or Prayers and Catherine Parr

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Catherine Parr

    On this day in history, 25th April 1544, Queen Catherine Parr, sixth wife of King Henry VIII, had her English translation of Bishop John Fisher’s Latin Psalmi seu Precationes (Psalms or Prayers) published anonymously by Thomas Berthelet, the King’s printer.

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  • 24 April – St Mark’s Eve

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    St Mark’s Eve was all about divining the future, although what on earth that has to do with St Mark is anyone’s guess!

    In Folklore of Lincolnshire, Susanna O’Neill writes of how this was the night for young women to “divine who they were to marry”. Ladies in North Kelsey would visit the Maiden Well, “walking towards it backwards and then circling it three times, still backwards, whilst wishing to see their destined husbands. After the third circling, the girl would kneel and gaze into the spring, where she would supposedly see the face of her lover.”

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  • This week in history 24 – 30 April

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On this day in history…

    24th April:

    1536 – Commissions of oyer and terminer set up by Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor. These particular commissions were for offences committed in the counties of Middlesex and Kent, and covered the crimes of misprision, treason, rebellion, felonies, murder, homicide, rioting, plotting, insurrection, extortion, oppression, contempt, concealment, ignorance, negligence, falsities, deception, conspiracy and being an accessory to these crimes. It is not known whether they were set up specifically to try the men who would later be charged with committing adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn.
    1545 – Baptism of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, at St Andrews, Holborn. He was the son of Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton and 1st Baron Wriothesley, Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor.
    1549 – Death of Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland, English peer, soldier and Privy Councillor. He was buried at Staindrop in County Durham. Neville was one of the peers who sat in judgement on Anne Boleyn in May 1536 and served Henry VIII as a soldier in the North of England and borders, and Edward VI in Scotland.
    1551 – Execution of Dutchman George van Parris, surgeon and religious radical at Smithfield. He was burned at the stake for Arianism (denying the divinity of Christ).

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  • Shakespeare Wordsearch

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    To commemorate William Shakespeare’s death on this day in 1616, and also possibly his birth in 1564, I’ve devised this wordsearch for you to puzzle over and enjoy. Be warned, the words can go any way – across, down, backwards, diagonally… Have fun!

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  • Live chat with Gareth Russell – 29 April

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Just to let you know that this month’s expert live chat will be taking place on 29th April at 11pm UK time

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  • William Shakespeare

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    Sunday is the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare in 1616 and possibly his birth in 1564, so is seems fitting for Claire to do a talk on him and to also share other resources on the Bard.

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  • 21 April 1509 – The death of Henry VII

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    King Henry VII by an unknown artist

    At 11 o’clock on the night of 21st April 1509, King Henry VII died at Richmond Palace. It was not a sudden death, the king had been ill for some time and had shut himself away at Richmond since January.

    John Fisher, the future Bishop of Rochester, recorded details of Henry VII’s last days for a sermon. The king died a good Christian death but his last days were far from peaceful, they involved confession, prayer, weeping and a dying man trying to bargain with God, pleading with God that he would be a changed man if God sent him life. Fisher writes of how he received the sacrament of penance “with a marvellous compassion and flow of tears, that at some time he wept and sobbed by the space of three quarters of an hour.”

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  • 21 April 1509 – The accession of Henry VIII

    8 years ago Author: Claire Ridgway
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    On the 21st April 1509, following the death of his father, Henry VII, seventeen-year-old Henry VIII became king. His accession was greeted with joy. The Spanish envoy Gutierre Gómez de Fuensalida wrote that “The people are very happy and few tears are being shed for Henry VII. Instead, people are as joyful as if they had been released from prison” and William, Lord Mountjoy, wrote to Desiderius Erasmus, the renowned humanist and scholar, saying:

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