On this day in Tudor history, 26th November 1585, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Catholic priest Hugh Taylor and his friend Marmaduke Bowes were hanged at York.

Taylor and Bowes were the first Catholics executed under the new law. Elizabeth I’s 1585 statute made it treason to be a Jesuit or seminary priest in England or to harbour such a priest.

In 1987, Pope John Paul II beatified Taylor and Bowes as two of the 85 Martyrs of England, Scotland and Wales.

Find out more about these men and what this 1585 legislation was all about…

On this day in Tudor history, 24th November 1572, John Knox died at his home in Edinburgh.

The Scottish clergyman, famous Reformer, royal chaplain, and founder of Presbyterianism had a peaceful end, dying as his second wife, Margaret, read aloud from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.

John Knox is known for bringing the Protestant reformation to the church in Scotland and for his controversial views about women rulers. Knox was also chaplain to King Edward VI and had a very eventful life, being taken prisoner by the French and being forced into service on the galleys of their fleet at one point.

Find out more about John Knox, his life and career…

On this day in Tudor history, 23rd November 1499, in the reign of King Henry VII, Perkin Warbeck was hanged at Tyburn.

Warbeck was executed for allegedly plotting to help another claimant, Edward, Earl of Warwick, escape from the Tower of London.

Perkin Warbeck had been imprisoned in 1497 after he had raised a rebellion claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the younger of the Princes in the Tower. He had even been proclaimed King Richard IV, but his rebellion and claim had failed.

Let me tell you about Perkin Warbeck’s background, explain how he ended up trying to claim the throne of England, and tell you what happened.

On this day in Tudor history, 22nd November 1594, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Tudor explorer Sir Martin Frobisher died at Plymouth.

The naval commander, privateer and explorer died of gangrene after having been shot in the thigh during hand-to-hand combat during a siege.

Sir Martin Frobisher is famous for the three voyages he undertook in search of the Northwest Passage. He was knighted for his naval service during the 1588 Spanish Armada.

Find out all about the life and career of Sir Martin Frobisher…

On this day in Tudor history, 21st November 1495, John Bale was born in Suffolk.

John Bale was a churchman, Protestant playwright, historian and Bishop of Ossory. He wrote twenty-four plays and “Illustrium majoris Britanniae scriptorum, hoc est, Angliae, Cambriae, ac Scotiae Summarium…”, a book on famous British writers, which is his most well-known work. His work on Protestant martyrs was also used by the famous martyrologist John Foxe.

John Bale spent a fair amount of time in exile due to his faith, and he also courted controversy with his attacks on Catholics.

Find out all about this accomplished Tudor man…

On this day in history, 20th November 1612, in the reign of King James I, Sir John Harington died.

Harington was a courtier and author, and also the late Queen Elizabeth I’s godson.

In Elizabeth I’s reign, he had invented the Ajax, or “jakes”, England’s first flush toilet.

Find out more about Sir John Harington and his invention…

On this day in Tudor history, 19th November 1564, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Lord John Grey died.

He’s not the Lord John Grey of the wonderful Outlander series, but he is just as interesting.

Lord John Grey was the youngest son of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, and in Queen Mary I’s reign, he was involved in a rebellion with his brothers, Lord Thomas Grey and Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk. Henry and Thomas were executed, but John wasn’t.

How did Lord John Grey escape execution? And why did he get into trouble again in Elizabeth I’s reign?

Let me tell you all about Lord John Grey…

On this day in Tudor history, 18th November 1559, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Ralph Baynes (Baines), Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, died.

Baynes had started his career in Henry VIII’s reign and in Mary I’s reign, he had been actively involved in the persecutions of Protestants, examining many well-known martyrs and featuring in John Foxe’s “Book of Martyrs”. He came to a sad end, dying while imprisoned in the home of Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London.

Find out more about Ralph Baynes, his life and career, and how he came to be deprived of his bishopric and die in confinement…

On this day in Tudor history, 17th November 1558, Queen Mary I died at St James’s Palace in London.

The forty-two-year-old daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon passed the throne on to her twenty-five-year-old half-sister, Elizabeth, who became Queen Elizabeth I.

Let me tell you about the accession of Queen Elizabeth I and the traditional story of Elizabeth finding out that she was queen at Hatfield…

On this day in Tudor history, 16th November 1601, Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, died in Nieuwpoort in Flanders.

The nobleman and rebel had fled into exile following the failure of the Northern Rebellion, also known as the Rising of the North or the Revolt of the Northern Earls, a plot to release Mary, Queen of Scots, from prison and to overthrow Elizabeth I.

Unfortunately, Westmorland didn’t learn his lesson and was involved in a further plot. He died in debt and separated from his wife and daughters.

Find out more about Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland…

On this day in Tudor history, 15th November 1527, in the reign of King Henry VIII, a woman who called herself “the excellent Princess Katherine, Countess of Devon, daughter, sister and aunt of kings” died at Tiverton Castle in Devon.

She was Katherine of York, Countess of Devon, and she was the daughter of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, and the sister of Queen Elizabeth of York. Katherine was just forty-nine when she died. She had taken a vow of chastity after her husband’s death.

Let me give an overview of King Henry VIII’s aunt’s life and explain why she took her vow of chastity…

On this day in Tudor history, 13th November 1536, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Robert Packington (Pakington, Pakyngton) was shot to death by an unknown assailant while he was on his way to mass at St Thomas of Acre Chapel. He was shot with a wheellock pistol.

Robert Packington, who was a mercer and member of Parliament, has gone down in history as the first person in England to be killed by a handgun.

But who was the murderer and why was he killed?

Find out about Packington, his murder, and the theories regarding who ordered his murder…

On this day in Tudor history, 12th November 1555, Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, died.

Queen Mary I’s lord chancellor was laid to rest at Winchester Cathedral in what is now known as the Bishop Gardiner Chantry Chapel.

Let me tell you about the life and career of Stephen Gardiner, “Wily Winchester”. He led quite a life – going from being a valued advisor to Henry VIII to being imprisoned, and then rising in favour once and again, crowning a queen and becoming her lord chancellor. An interesting man!

On this day in Tudor history, 10th November 1556, in the reign of Queen Mary I, English explorer and navigator Richard Chancellor died by drowning.

Chancellor, who is known for being the first foreigner to enter the White Sea and to establish relations with Russia and Tsar Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) sadly drowned after saving the life of Osip Napeya, the Russian ambassador, after their ship, The Edward Bonaventure, was wrecked just off the Aberdeenshire coast of Scotland.

Find out about Richard Chancellor’s life, career and sad end…

This day in Tudor history, 9th November 1569, is the traditional date given for the start of the Rising of the North, the only major armed rebellion of Elizabeth I’s reign.

The rising is also known as The Northern Rebellion or Revolt of the Northern Earls.

Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, and Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, led this uprising against Queen Elizabeth I. The rebellion sought to depose her, replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots, and restore Catholicism.

But what happened?

Find out about the 1569 rebellion and the fate of the Northern Earls…

On this day in Tudor history, 8th November 1534, in the reign of King Henry VIII, William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, died at Sutton on the Hill in Derbyshire.

Mountjoy was a courtier, scholar and literary patron, and he had a wonderful court career. He helped organise the young Henry VIII’s education, he served as Master of the Mint and chamberlain to Queen Catherine of Aragon, and he was close friends with the renowned humanist scholar, Erasmus.

In his position as chamberlain to Queen Catherine of Aragon, who had been set aside by Henry VIII, Mountjoy had to break bad news to her.

Find out all about Lord Mountjoy, his career and life…

On this day in Tudor history, 3rd November 1592, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir John Perrot died at the Tower of London.

Sir John Perrot, who was a privy councillor and former Lord Deputy of Ireland, is a fascinating Tudor character. He survived being a Protestant and protecting ‘heretics’ in Mary I’s reign, and he was saved six times from serious punishment by Queen Elizabeth I’s intercession.

Was this favour due to him being the queen’s half-brother? Some people think so.

You can find out more about Perrot and the arguments for and against him being Henry VIII’s son, in this video: