The Tudor Society

#OTD in Tudor history – 9 August

On this day in Tudor history, 9th August, composer Nicholas Ludford was buried; Elizabeth I issued a royal mandate that caused concern, and even horror, among some of her clergy; and Elizabeth I gave her famous Tilbury Speech to the troops at Tilbury Fort...

  • 1556 – Funeral of Sir William Laxton, Lord Mayor of London (1544-5) and one of the wealthiest London merchants, at the parish church in St Mary Aldermary. The funeral was followed by a banquet hosted by the Grocers' Company of London and a mass led by John Harpsfield, Archdeacon of London.
  • 1557 – Burial of the composer Nicholas Ludford in St Margaret's Church, Westminster. Ludford is known for his festal masses, which can be found in the Caius and Lambeth choirbooks (1521-27) and the Peterhouse partbooks (1539-40), and has been described as “"one of the last unsung geniuses of Tudor polyphony" (David Skinner).
  • 1561 - Elizabeth I issued a royal mandate “that no manner of person, being either the head or member of any college or cathedral church within this realm, shall, from the time of notification hereof in the same college, have, or be permitted to have, within the precinct of any such college, his wife, or other woman, to abide and dwell in the same, or to frequent and haunt any lodging within the same college, upon pain that whoever shall do to the contrary shall forfeit all ecclesiastical promotions in any cathedral or collegiate church within the realm”. See video below.

  • 1588 – Elizabeth I appeared before her troops at Tilbury and gave her “Tilbury Speech”. See video below.
  • 1611 – Death of John Blagrave, mathematician and land surveyor. He was buried in St Lawrence's Church, Reading. Blagrave's works included “The Mathematical Jewel” (1585), Astrolabium Uranicum generale (1596) and “The Art of Dyalling” (1609). He also designed and made instruments, including sundials and astrolabes.

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#OTD in Tudor history – 9 August