The Tudor Society

#OTD in Tudor history – 12 August

On this day in Tudor history, 12th August, translator, lawyer, physician and paediatrician Thomas Phaer made his will; Lady Ursula Stafford, daughter of Margaret Pole and wife of Henry Stafford, 10th Baron Stafford, died; and Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon and son of Mary Boleyn, was buried in Westminster Abbey...

  • 1557 – Death of Sir John Pollard, judge, Speaker of the House of Commons (1553 and 1555) and Second Justice of Chester. He was buried in London.
  • 1560 - The translator, lawyer, physician and paediatrician Thomas Phaer made his will after suffering an accident which made his right hand completely useless. His date of death is unknown, but he died at his Cilgerran estate in Pembrokeshire, Wales, within weeks of his will being drawn up. See video below for more on Phaer and to hear some of his interesting remedies!
  • 1570 – Death of Lady Ursula Stafford (née Pole), daughter of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, and wife of Henry Stafford, 10th Baron Stafford. See video below.
  • 1573 – Death of nobleman and rebel Leonard Dacre from a fever while in exile in Brussels. He was buried in St Nicolas Church in the city. Dacre is known for his participation in the 1569 Rising of the North, a rebellion seeking to remove Elizabeth I and to replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.

  • 1577 – Death of Sir Thomas Smith, humanist scholar and diplomat, at Hill Hall in Essex. He was buried in St Michael's Church, Theydon Mount. Smith served Elizabeth I as Chancellor of the Order of the Garter and as Secretary of State, but is known for his political books “The Discourse of the Commonweal” and “De Republica Anglorum; the Manner of Government or Policie of the Realme of England”.
  • 1596 – Burial of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, in Westminster Abbey at the expense of his cousin Elizabeth I. Click here to find out more about Hunsdon, his life and career.

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#OTD in Tudor history – 12 August