As today is the anniversary of King Henry VIII abandoning his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, at Hampton Court Palace after allegations had been made against her, I thought I’d share this quiz from our archives.
How much do you know about Catherine Howard’s fall?
Test yourself with this fun quiz.
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On this day in Tudor history, 4th November 1538, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu; his brother-in-law, Sir Edward Neville; Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter; Courtenay’s wife, Gertrude Blount, and the couple’s son, Edward Courtenay, were arrested for treason. They were taken to the Tower of London.
Montagu, Neville and Exeter, along with Montagu’s brother, Geoffrey Pole, were accused of plotting with Montagu’s brother, Cardinal Reginald Pole, against King Henry VIII. Montagu’s mother, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, was also arrested for treason.
Henry VIII had sought Cardinal Pole’s opinion on his marriage and the papacy, so why were members of his family accused of treason for communicating with the cardinal?
Find out what Cardinal Pole had done to upset the king, and what happened to his family and friends…
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On this day in Tudor history, 1st November 1527, in the reign of King Henry VIII, courtier and diplomat William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham was born.
Baron Cobham was close to William Cecil, Baron Burghley. who was Queen Elizabeth’s I’s chief advisor, so Cobham became powerful in Elizabeth’s reign. Cobham served Elziabeth in a number of important offices and was able to escape charges of treason twice thanks to the influence of his friends and patrons.
Find out more about Baron Cobham’s life, career, and brushes with rebellions and plots…
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On this day in Tudor history, 26th October 1529, Sir Thomas More was sworn in as King Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor.
Sir Thomas More replaced Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who had been charged with praemunire.
More, who was described as “an upright and learned man”, could not have known that taking this office would lead to his undoing…
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The Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of King Henry VIII wasn’t fun for those who lived in and depended on these religious institutions, but we can have some fun while testing our knowledge on this topic.
Here’s a crossword puzzle from our archives…
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On this day in Tudor history, 21st October 1536, during the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion in the reign of King Henry VIII, a herald was accosted by some armed peasants.
Lancaster Herald was on his way to Pontefract Castle when he met the peasants. When he got to the castle, he met with Robert Aske, leader of the rebels.
The meeting didn’t go well for the herald. Aske would not allow him to complete his mission.
What was going on? Who was Lancaster Herald? What was his mission?
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On this day in Tudor history, 20th October 1557 (or possibly 21st), in the reign of Queen Mary I, courtier Mary Arundell died at Bath Place in London.
Mary is a very interesting Tudor lady. She served at least two of King Henry VIII’s wives, and she was a countess twice over, having been married to both the Earls of Sussex and Arundel.
Mary Arundell has also been confused with two other Tudor ladies, and we don’t know whether the portrait you see in the thumbnail for the video is really her.
Find out more about Mary Arundell’s life, court career and those of her husbands…
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On this day in history, 19th October 1469, eighteen-year-old Isabella I of Castile married seventeen-year-old Ferdinand II of Aragon.
Their marriage may have happened outside of the Tudor period, and in Spain, but it had an impact on Europe and has links with the Tudors.
The couple became the famous “Reyes Catolicos”, the Catholic monarchs, and brough together two powerful kingdoms, which comprised most of what is modern-day Spain. They were also the parents of Catherine of Aragon, who married Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, and, after his death, King Henry VIII.
Let me tell you more about this powerful couple, their reigns and their legacy…
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On this day in Tudor history, 18th October 1541, Margaret Tudor died of a stroke at Methven Castle, Perthshire, Scotland. She was laid to rest at the Carthusian Priory of St John in Perth, which was later destroyed.
Margaret Tudor was the sister of King Henry VIII and eldest daughter of King Henry VII. At the age of 13, she was sent to Scotland to marry the Scottish king, James IV.
Margaret Tudor had an interesting life. She was widowed, divorced and unhappily married, and she fled to England at one point.
Margaret was the mother of Lady Margaret Douglas, she was the grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots AND Lord Darnley, and she was the great-grandmother of King James VI of Scotland (King James I of England).
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On this day in Tudor history, 11th October 1537, in the reign of King Henry VIII, London was praying for the king’s third wife, Queen Jane Seymour.
Jane was in labour with her first and only child, and the labour was long and difficult. On 11th October 1537, there was a solemn procession in the city of London to pray for her. After about thirty hours, Jane gave birth to a healthy baby boy, who would become King Edward VI.
Let me share some contemporary sources about the procession and Jane’s labour…
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On this day in Tudor history, 8th October 1515, Margaret Tudor, Queen Dowager of Scotland and sister of King Henry VIII, gave birth at Harbottle Castle in Northumberland.
The baby was a little girl, Margaret, and her father was Margaret Tudor’s second husband, Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. Little Margaret was born while her mother was travelling to Henry VIII’s court in London after fleeing Scotland.
Lady Margaret Douglas is a fascinating Tudor lady…
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This day in Tudor history, 6th October 1536, is the traditional date given for the execution of reformer, scholar and Bible translator William Tyndale.
One of Tyndale’s works had helped King Henry VIII while another incurred the king’s wrath and led to Tyndale’s execution.
Why? What happened?
Let me tell you…
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On this day in Tudor history, 3rd October 1518, King Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, sang a mass to the king and the French ambassadors at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Wolsey was celebrating a treaty that had been made between England and France.
The celebrations also included a banquet and a lavish masque of lords and ladies dressed beautifully and disguised with masking hoods. Among those disguised were some well-known courtiers, people like Sir Francis Bryan and Bessie Blount, Henry VIII’s mistress.
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On this day in Tudor history, 25th September 1525, in the reign of King Henry VIII, explorer, navigator and naval administrator Stephen Borough (Burrough) was born at Borough House, Northam Burrows, Northam, in Devon.
Borough was an Arctic explorer who learnt his navigational skills from first his uncle and then Spanish pilots in Seville.
Borough discovered Novaya Zemlya and the Viagatz Strait (Kara Strait), which was named the Burrough Strait until the late 1800s.
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On this day in Tudor history, 23rd September 1571, John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, died at Monkton Farleigh Manor. He was laid to rest in Salisbury Cathedral.
Forty-nine-year-old Jewel had been taken ill while preaching a sermon in Lacock, Wiltshire.
Jewel’s life and career spanned the reigns of King Henry VIII, Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I – a time of huge religious change. He was a clergyman, a Protestant exile, a theologian and bishop, and someone who spoke up for what he believed.
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On this day in Tudor history, 18th September 1556, in the reign of Queen Mary I, Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, died at Padua in Italy.
Courtenay, who died from a fever, had been sent to the Continent after being implicated in Wyatt’s Rebellion. The 1554 rebellion sought to replace Queen Mary I with her half-sister, Elizabeth, who would marry Courtenay.
Let me tell you more about Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, and how he was a prospective bridegroom for both of Henry VIII’s daughters…
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On this day in Tudor history, 17th September 1563, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, died.
The courtier and soldier died during an outbreak of the plague, which was rife in London that year and killed about 24% of London’s citizens.
Manners had served King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I, so had a long and interesting career, which also saw him imprisoned at one point.
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On this day in Tudor history, 16th September 1519, in the reign of King Henry VIII, scholar, humanist, theologian, Dean of St Paul’s and founder of St Paul’s School John Colet died.
Colet had suffered three attacks of sweating sickness between 1517 and 1519, and it was the third one that killed him.
Humanists such as Erasmus were influenced by Colet’s work.
Let me give you an overview of the life of John Colet…
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On this day in Tudor history, 14th September 1540, Sir William Kingston died at his home in Painswick in Gloucestershire.
Sir William Kingston was a Knight of the Garter and comptroller of the king’s household during Henry VIII’s reign. He was also Constable of the Tower of London while Queen Anne Boleyn was imprisoned there in May 1536. His daily letters from the Tower to Thomas Cromwell in May 1536 are a wonderful resource for historians.
Kingston had an impressive career serving Henry VIII and was rewarded for his loyal service.
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On this day in Tudor history, 13th September 1520, in the reign of King Henry VIII, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, was born in Bourne in Lincolnshire.
William Cecil was Queen Elizabeth I’s chief advisor and a man she called her “spirit”.
Cecil is a fascinating man whose court career took him from serving King Edward VI to Queen Elizabeth I.
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On this day in Tudor history, 9th September 1543, nine-month-old Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned queen at the Chapel Royal of Stirling Castle.
It was the 30th anniversary of the Battle of Flodden and the death of Mary’s grandfather, King James IV of Scotland.
Find out more about how Mary came to the throne, her coronation ceremony, in which Mary howled, and how she was already promised in marriage to Henry VIII’s son, the future Edward VI…
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On this day in Tudor history, 5th September 1569, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, died in Marshalsea Prison.
Bonner had started his career in Henry VIII’s reign and was not just a churchman, he was also a diplomat. He’d been nicknamed “Bloody Bonner” in Mary I’s reign from being in charge of burning reformers in London.
Find out about his life, career and how he ended up dying in prison…
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As yesterday was the anniversary of the marriage of Anne of Cleves and Henry VIII being agreed in 1539, I thought I’d test your knowledge of this fourth wife of Henry VIII with a true or false quiz.
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On this day in Tudor history, 17th August 1517, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Italian humanist scholar, cleric and poet Andreas Ammonius died in London. He was laid to rest at St Stephen’s, Westminster.
Ammonius, who had also served Henry VIII as his Latin secretary and was a great friend of the famous humanist scholar, Erasmus, died of sweating sickness.
Find out more about Ammonius and the sweating sickness epidemic which caused his death…
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On this day in Tudor history, 14th August 1513, in the reign of King Henry VIII, William Parr, Marquess of Northampton and brother of Queen Catherine Parr, was born.
William Parr is a fascinating man. He had a wonderful court career, his first wife eloped and left him, his divorce was granted and then rescinded, he was imprisoned in the Tower but then released, his marital happiness was rather shortlived… but he died a natural death!
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On this day in Tudor history, 11th August 1581, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Maurice Berkeley died.
You may not have heard of Sir Maurice Berkeley, but he had a wonderful court career. He served Henry as a gentleman usher of Henry VIII’s Privy Chamber, and also served Edward VI and Elizabeth I. He proved his loyalty to Mary I by arresting rebel leader, Thomas Wyatt the Younger.
Find out more about this lesser-known Tudor man…
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On this day in Tudor history, 30th July 1553, eleven days after her half-sister, Mary, had been proclaimed queen, Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, left her new home, Somerset House, to ride to Wanstead and greet Mary.
Somerset House was Elizabeth’s new London residence and you can find out more about how Elizabeth acquired it and who built it originally in this video:
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On this day Tudor history, 28th July 1540, in the reign of King Henry VIII, on the same day that Thomas Cromwell was executed, a client of his also ended his life on the scaffold.
He was accused of magic and “detestable vice and sin”. What did this refer to?
Find out more about him in this edition of #TudorHistoryShorts…
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On this day in Tudor history, 25 July 1554, on the Feast of St James, Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII by Catherine of Aragon, got married at Winchester Cathedral in a ceremony officiated by Lord Chancellor Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.
The thirty-eight-year-old Mary married twenty-seven-year-old Philip of Spain, son of her cousin, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
Let me share a contemporary account of Mary and Philip’s wedding ceremony…
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How much do you know about the family of Mary Boleyn, sister of Queen Anne Boleyn and mistress to King Henry VIII?
Test yourself with this fun quiz.
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