#OTD in Tudor history – 27 July

On this day in Tudor history, 27th July, former royal tutor and secretary John Cheke was imprisoned; Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, sent Elizabeth I an invitation to try and keep her from harm; and Catholic priest William Davies was executed on Anglesey...

• 1534 – Murder of John Alen, Archbishop of Dublin, in Artane. Alen, his chaplains and servants, were murdered by the men of Thomas Fitzgerald, Baron Offaly, after their ship ran aground near Clontarf and they were taken prisoner. He was buried in a pauper's grave.
• 1550 – Baptism of George Whetstone, writer, at St Lawrence, Old Jewry. His works included “The Rocke of Regarde”, “The Honorable Reputation of a Soldier”, “Heptameron of Civill Discourses” and the two-part play “ Promos and Cassandra”, which was a source for Shakespeare's “Measure to Measure”.
• 1553 – Edward VI's former tutor and principal secretary, Sir John Cheke, was apprehended and put under house arrest before being sent to the Tower of London on 27/28th July for his part in putting Lady Jane Grey on the throne. He was released in spring 1554. See video below.
• 1578 – Death of Jane Lumley (née Fitzalan), Lady Lumley, translator, at Arundel Place in London. She was buried at St Clement Danes, the Strand, but later moved to a tomb in Cheam, Surrey. Jane is known as the first person to translate Euripides's “Iphigeneia at Aulis” into English, and she also translated various orations of Isocrates from Greek to Latin. Her work can be found in the British Library.
• 1588 - Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, invited Elizabeth I to come and comfort the troops at Tilbury in an effort to keep her out of harm's way. See video below.

• 1593 – Execution of William Davies, Roman Catholic priest and martyr, at Beaumaris Castle on the Island of Anglesey. He was hanged, drawn and quartered. Davies was beatified in 1987 by Pope John Paul II. See video below.
• 1622 – Death of Thomas Knyvett, Baron Knyvett and Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I and James I, at his home in King Street, Westminster. He was buried in Stanwell Church in Middlesex.