On this day in Tudor history, 14th June 1557, William Peto was made cardinal and papal legate, replacing Reginald Pole.

During Henry VIII’s Great Matter, Friar Peto served Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary as confessor. On Easter Sunday 1531, he angered King Henry VIII when he preached a sermon comparing Henry VIII to King Ahab and Anne Boleyn to Jezebel. He warned the king to act to avoid Ahab’s unhappy end and to avoid the dogs licking up his blood as they had Ahab’s.

In 1547, while Henry VIII’s coffin was resting at Syon, it was said that liquid dripped out of it and that dogs did indeed lick it up.

On this day in Tudor history, 13th June 1535, or possibly 14th, Tudor courtier and nobleman, George Neville, 3rd Baron Bergavenny, died at his home at Eridge in Sussex.
He fell from favour after the fall of his father-in-law, the Duke of Buckingham, in 1521, but managed to rise again.

On this day in Tudor history, 12th June 1567, Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich, died at Rochford.

Rich served Edward VI as Lord Chancellor and Mary I as a privy councillor, but he is mainly known for his involvement in the cases of Sir Thomas More and Protestant martyr Anne Askew.

As solicitor general, in 1535, Rich was involved in prosecuting his former friend and colleague, Sir Thomas More. He interviewed More at the Tower and reported at his trial that More had denied the royal supremacy. This was enough to convict More.

On this day in Tudor history, 11th June 1576, seventy-year-old humanist and educator Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall in Essex died.

Cooke, who served in Henry VIII’s bodyguard and privy chamber, is more known for his role in education. He educated his daughters, who included Mildred Cecil, Anne Bacon, Catherine Killigrew and Elizabeth Hoby, to a high standard, teaching them Latin and Greek, and probably also modern languages and Hebrew. They were all noted for their scholarship.

Although Anthony Cooke doesn’t appear in the records as a formal royal tutor, it does appear that he was involved in the young king’s education, possibly in an advisory or guiding role.

On this day in Tudor history, 9th June 1511, in the reign of Henry VIII, William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, died of pleurisy at Greenwich. He 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 of York, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, and sister of Henry’s mother, Elizabeth of York.

On this day in Tudor history, 7th June 1594, Elizabeth I’s physician, Roderigo Lopez (Lopes), was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn after being accused by the Earl of Essex of conspiring with Spanish officials to poison the queen.

Portuguese Lopez settled in London in 1559. He was a physician at St Bart’s and then to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, before moving into Elizabeth’s employ.

In 1584, a Catholic tract attacking Leicester accused Lopez of poisoning, but it wasn’t true. However, he made an enemy of Essex after he told Spanish officials details of Essex’s health.

The charges against Lopez appear to be false. He maintained his innocence, and the queen seemed unsure of his guilt. It didn’t save him, though.

On this day in Tudor history, 6th June 1597, Tudor musician William Hunnis died.

Hunnis died a natural death, although he had been involved in a plot against the Crown in Mary I’s reign.

Here are some facts about William Hunnis:

On this day in Tudor history, 3rd June 1594, John Aylmer, Bishop of London, died at Fulham Palace. He was buried at St Paul’s Cathedral.

I could tell you about his career as bishop, but I thought I’d share a story about him with you.

On this day in Tudor history, 30th May 1593, the Elizabethan playwright and poet, Christopher Marlowe, was fatally stabbed in a house in Deptford Strand, London.

The coroner ruled that Ingram Frizer, who had stabbed Marlowe, had acted “in the defence and saving of his own life”.

On this day in history, 26th May 1621, Barbara Sidney, Countess of Leicester, first wife of poet Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, was buried at Penshurst.

Barbara was born in around 1559 and was the daughter of John Gamage of Coety Manor, Glamorgan,and his wife Gwenllian. After her father’s death in 1584, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, as master of the wards, her uncles Sir Walter Ralegh and Lord Howard of Effingham, and her guardian Sir Edward Stradling all got involved in trying to arrange a marriage match for her. She married Robert Sidney, son of Sir Henry Sidney, Lord President of the Council, and brother of the famous Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney. Robert was also a gifted poet.

On this day in history, 24th May 1612, courtier and statesman, Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, died at Marlborough in Wiltshire. He had been diagnosed with two large tumours in August 1611 and was on his way home from taking the waters at Bath when he died.

Robert Cecil served Queen Elizabeth I as Secretary of State from 1596 and was retained in that office by James I. He also served James as Lord High Treasurer from 1608. He was still serving in both those offices at his death.