On this day in Tudor history, 11th April, Henry VIII ordered his council to recognise Anne Boleyn as queen; Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger was executed by beheading after his failed rebellion against Mary I; and conspirator, patron and collector John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley, died...
- 1492 – Birth of Marguerite de Navarre (also known as Marguerite of Angoulême and Marguerite de France), sister of Francis I of France, daughter of Louise of Savoy and Charles, Count of Angoulême, and author of "Miroir de l'âme pécheresse".
- 1533 – The Royal Council was ordered by Henry VIII to recognise Anne Boleyn as Queen. See video below.
- 1548 – Death of Sir John Welsbourne, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Henry VIII and Justice of the Peace.
- 1554 - Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger was beheaded and then his body quartered for treason, for leading Wyatt's Rebellion against Queen Mary I. See video below.
- 1609 - Death of John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley, conspirator (Ridolfi Plot), patron and collector. His library was said to be one of the largest in England, and he collected manuscripts, books, paintings, sculptures, marble busts and furniture. Lumley was buried at night, probably so that he could be buried with a Catholic service, in the Lumley Chapel of St Dunstan's in Cheam. Click here to find out more about this interesting Tudor man.
Wyatt was a very brave man but foolish, he knew the punishment was to suffer death, why he thought he could win I have no idea, the coup with Jane Grey had failed because the country had taken up arms in Mary’s defence, the fact she was intent on marrying the Spanish king according to court politics must have seemed disastrous to Protestants, but in the end people have an innate sense of right and wrong and Philip would have had to be accepted, he was lucky he died by the axe solely, as the dreadful torture he would have had to endure was horrendous and humiliating to, he was far luckier than most, Mary and her Catholic council wanted Elizabeth’s head and they were annoyed he would not implicate her or anyone else, but Elizabeth was the prize they wanted, I doubt Mary would have executed her sister though, but such was the threat she held to the throne she was sent to the tower and later put under house arrest for a whole year, it was a fraught worrying time for the young girl who amused herself with her books and long walks in the countryside and horse riding, it seemed that following the death of Edward V1 the country was involved in plots, the young boy king created uproar when very naively he over-road his fathers will, Jane Grey herself was very much in the dark about his intentions and admirably the poor girl tried to rule the best she could, her council who had sworn allegiance to her, no doubt by mostly passive aggressive coercion from John Dudley, soon deserted her when Mary rode onto London to claim her capital, her young blood was shed and now it seemed, her cousin Elizabeth may also be sacrificed because of Wyatts ambition, but it was not to be for Anne Boleyn’s daughter was destined for greatness, Wyatts head was pickled and tarred and what an awful sight London Bridge must of looked long ago, with so many rotting heads and corpses swaying in the wind, it then mysteriously vanished which had happened to Thomas Mores head decades before, then his devoted daughter Margaret had stolen it and so maybe one of Wyatts clan had retrieved it, his son was to later write the first every biography of Anne Boleyn which ever since has been a most useful source of information about the dead queen.