On this day in Tudor history, 18th July 1565, Katherine Ashley, or Astley, close friend and loyal servant of Queen Elizabeth I, died in London.
Katherine was the daughter of Sir Philip Champernowne of Modbury in Devon, and through him and her mother’s Carew family, was related to all the leading gentry in the West Country.
She joined Princess Elizabeth’s household in 1536 and served as governess. She married courtier John Ashley in around 1545. Their marriage was childless.
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This week’s Monday Martyr is John Lascelles (Lassells, Lacels), a courtier who was burnt at the stake for his Protestant faith at Smithfield on 16th July 1546 with priest Nicholas Belenian, tailor John Adams, and famous Protestant martyr Anne Askew.
Here are some facts about this Henrician Protestant martyr
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On this day in history, 17th July 1537, Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis, was burnt to death for treason on the castle hill at Edinburgh.
Janet had been charged with plotting to poison King James V, nephew of King Henry VIII, and assisting and corresponding with her brothers, Sir George Douglas and Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus.
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On this day in Tudor history, 16th July 1517, the feast of St Francis, Frances Brandon was born at Hatfield. She was the eldest daughter of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and Mary Tudor, widow of King Louis XII of France and sister of Henry VIII.
Frances married Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset (later Duke of Suffolk). They had three children: Jane, Katherine, and Mary.
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On this day in Tudor history, 15th July 1573, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, architect and theatre designer Inigo Jones was born in London.
Jones is known for founding, what the Encyclopaedia Britannica describes as the English classical tradition of architecture. He is mainly known for his design of the Banqueting House, which was begun in 1619, the Queen’s House at Greenwich, which was begun in 1616 and was built for Queen Anne, wife of James I, and his stage design work, some of it in collaboration with Ben Jonson.
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On this day in Tudor history, 14th July 1514, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Cardinal Christopher Bainbridge died in Rome of alleged poisoning. He was about 51 years old.
Bainbridge started his church career in Henry VII’s reign and became Archbishop of York in 1508. He was chosen as an executor of the king’s will.
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On this day in Tudor history, 13th July 1527, John Dee, the astrologer, mathematician, alchemist, antiquary, spy, philosopher, geographer and adviser to Elizabeth I and influential statesmen, was born in London.
He had an incredible career
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On this day in Tudor history, 12th July 1555, in the reign of Queen Mary I, preachers John Bland and John Frankesh, rector Nicholas Sheterden and vicar Humphrey Middleton were burned at Canterbury in Kent. They were all Protestants burned for heresy.
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On this day in Tudor history, 11th July 1564, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the first death from plague was recorded in the parish records of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.
John Bretchgirdle, vicar of Holy Trinity, where William Shakespeare had been baptised that very year, on 26th April, recorded the death of Oliver Gunn, an apprentice weaver…
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This week’s Monday Martyr is Catholic martyr John Cornelius, who was executed for treason, for being a priest and returning to England as a priest, on 3rd or 4th July 1594, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
John Cornelius, who had Irish parents, was born in Bodmin in Cornwall in around 1557. Under the patronage of Sir John Arundell of Lanherne, Cornelius was educated at Oxford University, but was expelled due to his Catholic faith in August 1578. In 1579, he travelled to the English College at Rheims, in France, and then on to the English College in Rome, where he was ordained in 1583.
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On this day in Tudor history, 10th July 1561, Queen Elizabeth I visited the Tower of London mint to check on the progress of her new coins.
Debasement of coins had happened between 1544 and 1551, in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, when the government was looking to fund foreign wars. The ratio of precious metal to alloy was reduced, so more coinage could be produced more cheaply, with the government pocketing the profit.
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On this day in Tudor history, 9th July 1575, Elizabeth I began a stay at Kenilworth Castle, home of her favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
Her 19-day-stay was recorded by Robert Langham, a member of Leicester’s household, and by poet and actor George Gascoigne, who was hired by Leicester to provide entertainment.
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On this day in Tudor history, 8th July 1549, in the reign of King Edward VI, Kett’s Rebellion began.
Robert Kett, a Norfolk farmer, agreed to lead a group of protesters who were angry with the enclosure of common land. The protesters marched on Norwich, and by the time they reached the city walls, it is said that they numbered around 16,000.
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On this day in Tudor history, 7th July 1553, the day after the death of King Edward VI, his half-sister, Mary, received news of his death.
Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had left Hunsdon on 3rd July after hearing that Edward was dying and that there was a plot against her. She set off for her estates in East Anglia, where she had support.
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On this day in Tudor history, 6th July 1570, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Margaret Clement (née Giggs), wife of John Clement and adopted daughter of Sir Thomas More, died in Mechelen where she and her husband had gone into exile. Margaret was buried in the Cathedral of St Rumbald.
In 1535, in his final letter, written to his daughter, Margaret Roper, before his execution, Sir Thomas More mentioned Margaret Clement. He wrote “I send now unto my good daughter Clement her algorism stone and I send her and my good son and all hers God’s blessing and mine.” An algorism stone being a devise for helping with arithmetic. It was obviously a keepsake he wanted her to have.
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On this day in Tudor history, 5th July 1583, shoemaker and religious radical John Copping was executed for ‘dispersing’ books by Robert Browne and Richard Harrison, which were viewed as “sundry seditious, schismatical and erroneous printed books”.
Copping had been arrested with his friend Elias Thacker, a tailor, and Thacker was executed the day before. Books were burned at each of their executions.
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On 4th July 1623, Elizabethan composer, William Byrd died at Stondon Massey in Essex.
Byrd served as a gentleman of the Chapel Royal from 1572, and in 1575 he and fellow composer Thomas Tallis were granted a patent for the importing, printing, publishing, and sale of music, and the printing of music paper for a period of twenty-one years. They published a collection of 34 motets – 16 written by Tallis and 18 by Byrd, in 1575 as their first work.
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This week’s Monday Martyr is Franciscan friar Anthony Brookby (Brockby), who was executed on 19th July 1537, in the reign of King Henry VIII.
In her 19th century book “Faithful unto Death”, J M Stone explains that Father Anthony Brookby was a Latin, Greek and Hebrew scholar who was Professor of Divinity at Magdalen College, Oxford, and “celebrated for his eloquence as a scholar”. He got into trouble when, during a sermon at the Church of St Lawrence, Brookby “spoke of Henry’s new marriage, as the cause of the dreadful evils which threatened to overwhelm the country”. He went on to denounce England’s break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries.
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On this day in Tudor history, 3rd July 1557, Mary I bid farewell to her husband, Philip of Spain, at Dover as he set off for war with France.
Philip had only returned to England in March 1557 after an absence of over 18 months and he had only returned then, as historian Anna Whitelock points out, because he needed money and for England to declare war on France, which they did on 7th June 1557.
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On this day in Tudor history, 2nd July 1594, in the reign of Elizabeth I, Robert Scarlett (Old Scarlett), sexton at Peterborough Cathedral, was buried at the cathedral, apparently aged 98, although another source states that he was a bit younger.
A verse accompanying his portrait in the cathedral states that Scarlett buried two queens, Catherine of Aragon and Mary, Queen of Scots , but it is not known whether this is true. He is also said to have buried a court fool known as Edward the Fool.
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On this day in Tudor history, 1st July 1536, Parliament gave the Second Act of Succession its first reading.
This act superseded the 1534 Act of Succession, which had made Mary, Henry VIII’s daughter by Catherine of Aragon, illegitimate and had appointed Elizabeth, his daughter by Anne Boleyn, as heir to the throne.
The new act declared the illegitimacy of both of Henry’s daughters. Both girls were now barred from the line of succession and, Elizabeth, like Mary, now lost her title of “princess”.
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On this day in Tudor history, 30th June 1541, Henry VIII and his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, set off on their royal progress to the North.
The main aims of the progress were to meet Henry’s nephew, King James V of Scotland, at York in September, and to show the king’s authority in the north, following the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion, and to humiliate his subjects with displays of submission from them.
Here is my detailed video on this progress, which lasted from this day until the end of October, and was a huge undertaking with the whole royal court travelling from London as far north as York. It was on this progress that Catherine Howard had secret meetings with a member of her husband’s privy chamber, a certain Thomas Culpeper.
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On this day in history, 29th June 1613, in the reign of King James I, the Elizabethan playhouse, the Globe Theatre burned to the ground.
The Globe, which had been built on Bankside in London in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, William Shakespeare’s playing company, sadly perished due to a cannon misfiring and setting fire to the wooden beams and thatching during a performance of Shakespeare’s “Henry VIII”.
It was rebuilt in 1614 but closed in 1642 and was demolished in 1644/5.
In 1987, American director and actor, Sam Wanamaker, built a replica of the theatre, using records from 1599 and 1614, as a memorial to the original globe. Visitors today can enjoy its exhibition, which brings bring the Elizabethan world of Shakespeare to life, or watch a play there.
Here’s a video from our archives with some photos I took when I visited The Globe a few years ago:
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On this day in Tudor history, 28th June 1497, in the reign of King Henry VII, Sir James Tuchet, 7th Baron Audley, was executed.
Audley was one of the commanders of the Cornish Rebellion, which had been caused by the king’s new legislation regarding tin mining and heavy taxation to fund his Scottish campaign.
The rebellion had been initially led by blacksmith Michael Joseph and lawyer Thomas Flamank. Audley joined them as they marched through Somerset.
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On this day in Tudor history, 27th June 1578, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, seventy-one-year-old William Bradbridge, Bishop of Exeter, died at Newton Ferrers in Devon. He was buried on the north side of Exeter Cathedral choir.
Bradbridge was about sixty-three when he was appointed, making him one of the oldest men to be made a bishop in Elizabeth’s reign.
As well as his religious work, Bradbridge enjoyed farming.
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 26th June 1513, in the reign of King Henry VIII, landowner, administrator and soldier Sir Edmund Carew was buried in the church of St Nicholas in Calais.
Carew, who was about 49, was killed while serving as master of the ordnance in Henry VIII’s 1513 French campaign. The English force had pitched their tents a mile outside the town of Therouanne and chronicler Edward Hall records what happened next…
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On this day in Tudor history, 25th June 1503, seventeen-year old Catherine of Aragon became betrothed to the nearly twelve-year old Prince Henry, second son of King Henry VII.
Catherine had been widowed in April 1502 when her husband, Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII, died. The king was keen to keep hold of her dowry so negotiated with her parents, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, for her to marry his second son.
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On this day in history, 24th June 1604, in the reign of King James I, courtier and poet, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, died at the age of 54.
Here are a few facts about Oxford, and you can view my video on him below:
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 23rd June 1556, mathematician and physician Thomas Hood was baptised at St Leonard Eastcheap.
In 1588, Hood was invited to become Mathematical Lecturer to the City of London after Elizabeth I’s privy council decided, following the Spanish Armada, that military officers and naval commanders should have a better knowledge of mathematics. He lectured until 1592.
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