#OTD in Tudor history – 11 May

On this day in Tudor history, 11th May, Henry VIII flung accusations at the clergy; the Grand Jury of Kent met in the fall of Anne Boleyn; two Carthusian monks were hanged in chains; and royal physician Dr Thomas Wendy died...

• 1509 – Henry VII was laid to rest next to his wife, Elizabeth of York, in Westminster Abbey. You can see pictures of their tomb and funeral effigies at http://westminster-abbey.org/our-history/royals/henry-vii-and-elizabeth-of-york
• 1532 – Henry VIII accused the clergy of being “scarce our subjects”, and attacked their oath to the Pope. See video below.
• 1536 – The Grand Jury of Kent met in front of Chief Justice John Baldwin and six of his colleagues at Deptford. They met to rule on the alleged crimes committed at Greenwich Palace, East Greenwich, and Eltham Palace by Queen Anne Boleyn, Sir Henry Norris, Sir William Brereton, Sir Francis Weston, George Boleyn (Lord Rochford) and Mark Smeaton. See video below.
• 1537 - Blessed John Rochester and Blessed James Walworth, Carthusian monks from the London Charterhouse, were hanged in chains from the battlements of York. They had been tried in the city for treason for denying the King's supremacy following the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion. See video below.

• 1560 – Death of Thomas Wendy, physician to Henry VIII and Queen Catherine Parr, at Haslingfield. According to martyrologist John Foxe, Wendy helped to save Catherine Parr from a plot against her. He also attended the dying King in January 1547. See video below.
• 1560 – Burial of John Falconer, physician and botanist, at St Stephen's Church, Coleman Street, London. Falconer. He is known as the first English person to have owned a herbarium.
• 1598 – Death of Edward Drew, lawyer, member of Parliament and Recorder of London, at Broad Clyst in Devon from gaol fever, which he had picked up working on the Northern Circuit. He was buried in Broad Clyst Parish Church.
• 1607 – Burial of Sir Edward Dyer, courtier and poet, at St Saviours, Southwark. With Philip Sidney and Fulke Greville, Dyer made up the “happy blessed Trinitie” that Sidney wrote of. His known works included the poems “The Songe in the Oke”, “The lowest trees have tops” and “He that his mirth hath lost”. He also dabbled in alchemy, studying under John Dee.
• 1610 – Death of Sir Henry Maynard, administrator. He was buried at St Mary the Virgin in Little Easton, Essex. Maynard served William Cecil, Lord Burghley, as his Chief Secretary and then, after Burghley's death, he became Secretary to Lord Admiral Nottingham.