23rd April is the feast of St George, patron saint of England.

George, who famously saved a princess from a dragon, wasn’t always England’s patron saint. Until the 14th century, it was Edward the Confessor, and George didn’t officially take over until 1552, when all religious flags and banners, except for St George’s red cross, were abolished.

St George’s feast day was celebrated in Tudor England because this warrior saint had been important to the crusaders. His red cross on a white background had been adopted by the crusaders, eventually becoming England’s flag. The Order of the Garter was established under his banner in 1348 by Edward III and an annual chapter meeting always took place on 23rd April.

On this day in history, 22nd April 1451, Isabella I of Castile was born.

She may not have been English and her birth was not in the Tudor period, but she is linked to the Tudors because her daughter, Catalina de Aragón, or Catherine of Aragon, married Henry VII’s eldest son, Arthur, in 1501, and his second son, Henry, in 1509.

On this day in Tudor history, 21st April 1509 fifty-two-year-old Henry VII died, leaving the throne to his seventeen-year-old son, also called Henry.

Henry VII had ruled for over 23 years, since defeating King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

The accession of Henry VIII, who was a good-looking and athletic young man of 6’3, was greeted with rejoicing. He seemed to be the ideal Renaissance Prince.

On this day in Tudor history, 20th April 1534, in the reign of King Henry VIII, prominent citizens of London were required to swear the Oath of the Act of Succession.

Chronicler Charles Wriothesley explained that all the guilds were called to their halls to swear:

To be true to Queen Anne (Anne Boleyn) and to recognise her as Henry VIII’s lawful wife and the rightful Queen of England.
To think of the king’s eldest daughter Mary as illegitimate.

On this day in Tudor history, 16th April 1512, Henry VIII’s warship, The Mary Rose, began her first tour of duty in the English Channel on the hunt for French warships.

Here are some facts about The Mary Rose:

On this day in Tudor history, 14th April 1556, in the reign of Queen Mary I, former Constable of the Tower of London, Sir Anthony Kingston died at Cirencester.

Kingston was on his way to London to London to answer charges of treason when he died.

He’d been sent to the Tower for 2 weeks in December 1555 for “contemptuous behaviour and great disorder” in Parliament, but this time was more serious. He was accused of conspiring to rob the Exchequer for money to support Henry Dudley’s plot for an invasion of English exiles from France to topple Mary I and replace her with Elizabeth.

He was lucky to die a natural death, his fellow conspirators were executed.

On this day in history, 13th April 1630, seventy-three-year-old priest harbourer Anne Howard, Countess of Arundel, died at her home, the manor of Shifnal in Shropshire. She was laid to rest in the Fitzalan Chapel at Arundel Castle.

Here are some facts about this noblewoman…

On this day in history, 11th April 1609, in the reign of King James I, conspirator, patron and collector, John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley, died at his London home.

Lumley made a garden in honour of Elizabeth I, as an apology to her, and is known to have possessed a full-length portrait of Anne Boleyn.

Here are a few more facts about this Tudor baron…

On this day in Tudor history, 10th April 1586, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, sea captain Sir Bernard Drake died in Crediton, Devon, from probable typhus.

It appears that Drake caught the disease from Portuguese prisoners whose ships, laden with Brazilian sugar, he’d captured on his voyage to the West Indies.

But who was Sir Bernard Drake and was he related to the more famous Sir Francis Drake?

On this day in history, 8th April 1608, in the reign of King James I, Magdalen Browne (née Dacre), Viscountess Montagu and patron of Roman Catholics, died at Battle in East Sussex, following a stroke she had suffered in January 1508.

Magdalen was buried at Midhurst.

Here are some facts about this Tudor lady:

On this day in Tudor history, 7th April 1498, King Henry VII’s contemporary, King Charles VIII of France, died.

Charles the Affable, as he was known, died after hitting his head on a lintel at the Chateau d’Amboise while on his way to watch a tennis match. He made it to the match, but after the game, he was taken ill, slipped into a coma and died. He’d been king since 1483.

On this day in Tudor history, 6th April 1523, in the reign of King Henry VIII, nobleman and courtier Henry Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire, died at the age of about 44.

Stafford died without issue so his earldom became extinct until 1529 when Thomas Boleyn, father of Anne Boleyn, was made Earl of Wiltshire.