On this day in Tudor history, 17th December, Pope Paul III announced the excommunication of King Henry VIII (1538), and Anne Boleyn's former chaplain, Matthew Parker, was consecrated as Elizabeth I's Archbishop of Canterbury (1559)...
- 1538 – Pope Paul III announced the excommunication of Henry VIII. Henry VIII had been threatened with excommunication several times, but his desecration of one of the holiest shrines in Europe was the final straw for the pope. See video.
- 1550 – Birth of Henry Cavendish, soldier, traveller and son of Bess of Hardwick and Sir William Cavendish. He was married to Grace Talbot, daughter of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. This match was arranged by his mother who had married the Earl of Shrewsbury.
- 1559 – Matthew Parker was consecrated as Elizabeth I's Archbishop of Canterbury. According to “The Correspondence of Matthew Parker”, Anne Boleyn charged him with a duty concerning Elizabeth when she saw him in April 1536, "not six days before her apprehension". Historian Eric Ives writes that this was a request that Parker never forgot, and something which stayed with him for ever. It was the reason why he agreed to be archbishop. See video.
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