On this day in Tudor history, 3rd April 1538, Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire, died at Baynard’s Castle in London, the home of Hugh Faringdon, the Abbot of Reading.

Elizabeth was about sixty-two years of age when she died, and her death came just less than two years after the executions of her daughter and son, Queen Anne Boleyn and George Boleyn, Lord Rochford.

On this day in Tudor history, 2nd April 1568, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Ambrose Cave, member of Parliament, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Knight of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, died at the Savoy. He was buried at Stanford after a funeral at the Savoy Chapel.

On this day in Tudor history, 1st April 1604, author and soldier Thomas Churchyard died in Westminster, London.

Churchyard started writing in the reign of Edward VI and some of his poems were published in “Tottel’s Miscellany”.

Churchyard was also an active soldier, serving with the Duke of Somerset in Scotland and fighting as a mercenary for Protestants in Europe.

Let me share with you a few facts about this man…

On this day in Tudor history, 31st March 1509, the dying Henry VII made his last will and testament at Richmond Palace, three weeks before his death.

The will was based on an earlier draft, with some new provisions added, for example, the addition of Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley to the list of executors.

On 27th March 1539, George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, was laid to rest in the Shrewsbury Chapel of St Peter’s Church, Sheffield.

Talbot is known for his loyalty to the king during the Pilgrimage of Grace uprisings, which was seen as crucial to the failure of the rebellion.

But let me tell you a bit more about this Tudor earl…

On 25th March 1584, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, letters patent were granted to Walter Ralegh giving him “free liberty and licence… to discover, search for, fynde out and view… landes, countries and territories”, for the benefit of himself, “his heyres and assignes forever.”

It went on to describe these territories: “such remote heathen and barbarous lands countries and territories not actually possessed of any Christian Prince and inhabited by Christian people”, and as Nancy Bradley Warren points out in her book “Women of God and Arms”, Elizabeth I and her government were not only granting Ralegh the right to colonise lands owned by the indigenous people, they were also giving him the right to take lands held by Spain, as they didn’t view Catholicism as true Christianity.

On this day in Tudor history, 24th March 1582, , Sir James Dyer, judge, law reporter, Member of Parliament and Speaker of the House of Commons, died at the age of 72. His other offices included King’s Sergeant-at-Law, Judge of the Common Pleas and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. He was buried at Great Staughton Church in Huntingdonshire, next to his wife.

Dyer was Speaker of the House of Commons during the reign of King Edward VI and served as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas from January 1559 until his death.

On this day in Tudor history, 23rd March 1596, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, soldier, member of Parliament and diplomat, Sir Henry Unton, or Umpton, died after being taken ill with “a violent, burning fever”.

Unton had been taken ill after accompanying King Henry IV of France to the siege at La Fère. He was about thirty-eight years of age at his death.

Here are a few facts about this Tudor man…

On this day in Tudor history, 21st March 1555, Kent landowner, Deputy Lieutenant of Kent and Puritan Sir John Leveson was born at Whornes Place in Cuxton, Kent.

His surname was pronounced “Looson”, and we know this  because of letters, such as one by Robert Cecil regarding Sir Richard Leveson where he wrote it as “LUSON”. It obviously comes from Louis or Lewis’s son.

Sir John Leveson was the eldest son of landowner Thomas Leveson and his wife, Ursula Gresham. He was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, and then Gray’s Inn in London.

On this day in Tudor history, 19^th March 1577, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Edmund Harman, former barber, of Henry VIII, died at Burford in Oxfordshire. He had retired there after Henry VIII’s death. Harman was buried at Taynton Church.

Harman, who was originally from Ipswich, had entered the king’s service by 1533 and served him until the king’s death in 1547. His main duty was the daily washing and trimming of the king’s beard and hair, but he also served Henry VIII as keeper of the wardrobe.

On this day in Tudor history, 17th March 1570, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, soldier, courtier and landowner, died at Hampton Court, aged sixty-three.

Here are some facts about this Tudor earl, who was known as Black Will Herbert and had a queen as a sister-in-law…

On this day in Tudor history, 16th March 1533, in the reign of King Henry VIII, soldier, translator and diplomat, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, died at Calais, while serving as Deputy of Calais.

Berners was succeeded as deputy by the king’s uncle, Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle.

On 15th March 1554, in the reign of Queen Mary I, John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, was deprived of his bishopric while imprisoned in Fleet Prison. He had been charged with owing over five hundred pounds in unpaid first fruits, a charge he denied.

Let me tell you a bit more about this man, who ended up being a Marian martyr…

On this day in Tudor history, 14th March 1553, in the reign of King Edward VI, Arthur Bulkeley, Bishop of Bangor, died at his home in Bangor. He was buried in the cathedral quire.

Bulkeley, who was originally from Beaumaris in Anglesey, had been bishop since 1541. He’d previously served as chaplain to Charles Brandon and Thomas Cromwell.

On this day in Tudor history, 11th March 1513, Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici was proclaimed Pope Leo X after being elected on 9th March. He was crowned pope on 19th March and held the office until his death by pneumonia on 1st December 1521. He was one of the leading Renaissance popes.

Giovanni was the second son of Lorenzo de’ Medici, or Lorenzo the Magnificent, a member of the prominent political banking and political Medici family, and ruler of the Republic of Florence.

On this day in Tudor history, 10th March 1572, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, nobleman and administrator William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, died at his home Basing House in Hampshire. He was said to be 97 years of age at his death. He was laid to rest in the parish church at Basing on 28th April.

Paulet’s offices under Henry VIII included Lord Treasurer, Great Master of the Household and Lord Great Chamberlain, and he also served the king’s children, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, in their reigns.

On this day in Tudor history, 8 March 1569, evangelical reformer and Member of Parliament Richard Tracy died at his manor in Stanway, Gloucestershire.

Tracy was the cousin of Protestant martyr James Bainham and his works included the 1543 pamphlet on justification by faith: “Profe and Declaration of thys Proposition: Fayth only iustifieth”, which was dedicated to Henry VIII; the 1544 “‘A Supplycation to our most Soueraigne Lorde, Kynge Henry the Eyght” and “A Bryef and short Declaracyon made wherebye euery Chrysten Man may knowe what is a Sacrament”. In Elizabeth I’s reign, he served as a Commissioner of the Peace and Sheriff in Gloucestershire.