#OTD in Tudor history – 7 May

On this day in Tudor history, 7th May, an imprisoned Bishop John Fisher was tricked into saying something that would lead to his execution; Queen Anne Boleyn's chaplain was searched; English troops suffered heavy losses at the Siege of Leith; and the Earl of Bothwell got divorced...

• 1535 - After a year of imprisonment in awful conditions at the Tower of London, John Fisher, former Bishop of Rochester, was visited at the Tower of London and tricked into saying something that would lead to his brutal end. See video below.
• 1536 – Queen Anne Boleyn’s chaplain, William Latymer, was searched on his arrival back in England. He was returning from a business visit to Flanders, a visit he had undertaken on behalf of the Queen. See video below.
• 1540 – Death of Sir William Weston, Prior of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in England. He died at the priory on the day that the order to dissolve it was passed through the Commons. He was the uncle of Sir Francis Weston, a man executed in 1536 in the coup against Anne Boleyn.

• 1547 – Death of John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, at Wooburn. He had requested that his body be buried at Eton College and his heart in the cathedral church at Lincoln.
• 1560 – English troops charged the wall of Leith at the siege of Leith. They were unsuccessful and suffered heavy losses. See video below.
• 1567 – Divorce of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, and Jean Gordon. The grounds for divorce were her alleged adultery with her servant, but Bothwell married Mary, Queen of Scots, just eight days later. See video below.
• 1592 – Death of Sir Christopher Wray, judge, Chief Justice of the King's Bench and Speaker of the House of Commons. He was buried at St Michael's Church, Glentworth, Lincolnshire.
• 1594 – Death of Edmund Scambler, Bishop of Peterborough and Norwich, at Norwich. He was buried in the cathedral, but his tomb was destroyed in the Civil War.
• 1603 – James VI/I arrived in London after travelling from Edinburgh to claim the English throne. His predecessor, Elizabeth I, had died on 24th March.