On this day in Tudor history, 20th March 1549, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron of Sudeley, was executed by beheading on Tower Hill.
In today’s video, I talk about his execution and share the poem he wrote in his last days. I also give details of how some of Seymour’s contemporaries viewed him.
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On this day in Tudor history, 16th March 1589, two Roman Catholic priests, Robert Dalby and John Amias, were executed as traitors at York.
Let me tell you about these men and what led to their very brutal executions. I also give an eye-witness account of their executions – sorry!
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Thank you to Ella Baker for sending me this press release on “The Many Faces of Tudor England” exhibition which starts at the Mary Rose Museum on 18th March. It sounds like a wonderful exhibition and well worth going to.
The Many Faces of Tudor England
18th March – 31st December 2019
The Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth, UK.
On this day in Tudor history, 8th March 1539, former royal favourite Sir Nicholas Carew was beheaded for treason at Tower Hill.
How did a man who was once Henry VIII’s good friend and Master of the Horse end his days on the scaffold? I give an overview of Carew’s life, rise and fall, and his part in Anne Boleyn’s fall, in today’s video.
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3rd March 1515 is one of the dates given in the French contemporary sources for the secret marriage of Mary Tudor, Queen of France, and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, but did the couple really marry on this date?
In today’s “on this day in Tudor history”, I examine the English and French sources, such as letters and chronicles, to see which date they support for the couple’s secret marriage.
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On this day in Tudor history, 21st February 1595, Jesuit pries, poet and writer Robert Southwell was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn.
Who was he? Why was he executed? And why did Elizabeth I eventually move against Catholics? I explain in today’s video.
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In today’s “On this Day in Tudor History”, I give the background to Mary, Queen of Scots’ execution on this day in 1587 and also share part of an eye-witness account.
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In today’s video, I read an excerpt from my book “On This Day in Tudor History” about an event which happened on 3rd February 1587 and which was connected to Mary, Queen of Scots.
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On this day in Tudor history, 1st February 1554, Queen Mary I gave a rousing speech to the citizens of London. In this video, I explain what why she did and what she said.
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On this day in Tudor history, Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was buried at Peterborough Abbey.
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24th December:
1545 – King Henry VIII made his final speech to Parliament. Historian Robert Hutchinson describes it as “both measured and compelling”, and writes of how Henry wanted “to impart a stern message” to all of his subjects.
1604 – Death of Sir Thomas Cornwallis, Comptroller of the household of Mary I and member of Parliament, at the age of eighty-six. He was buried at Brome in Suffolk. Cornwallis was active in putting down Kett’s Rebellion in 1549 and in 1553, after originally proclaiming Lady Jane Grey as Queen in Ipswich, he swapped sides and swore allegiance to Mary I.
17th December:
1538 – Pope Paul III announced the excommunication of Henry VIII.
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 the care of 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. Parker obviously came to be important to Elizabeth, because she made him her Archbishop of Canterbury in 1559. It was a post which Parker admitted to Lord Burghley, he would not have accepted if he “had not been so much bound to the mother”. Parker was Archbishop until his death in 1575.
10th December:
1541 – Thomas Culpeper, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, and Francis Dereham, a member of Queen Catherine Howard’s household, were executed at Tyburn. Culpeper and Dereham were tried on 1st December 1541 at the Guildhall, and convicted of treason. Both were executed on 10th December 1541, but Culpeper was beheaded while Dereham had to face the brutal traitor’s death of being hanged, drawn and quartered. Culpeper was buried at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate (Holborn).
1591 – Executions of Edmund Gennings, Roman Catholic priest, and Swithin Wells, Roman Catholic, on a scaffold set up outside Wells’ house at Holborn. They were hanged, drawn and quartered for treason due to their Catholic faith and for celebrating the mass.
3rd December:
1536 – A proclamation was made to the rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace offering them a pardon. The rebellion dispersed, but was followed by another rebellion, Bigod’s Rebellion, in early 1537. Click here to read more.
1577 – Death or burial of William Downham, Bishop of Chester and former
Chaplain of Elizabeth I before her accession. He was buried in the choir of Chester Cathedral.
1600 – Death of Roger North, 2nd Baron North, peer and politician in Elizabeth I’s reign, at his London home in Charterhouse Square. He was given a funeral service at St Paul’s, followed by a burial at Kirtling in Cambridgeshire. North was a friend of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and served Elizabeth I as Privy Councillor and Treasurer of the Household.
As today is the anniversary of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey’s death on 29th November 1530, I thought today’s “Throwback Thursday” treat could be Conor Byrne’s article on the life of Wolsey…
Thomas Wolsey was born between 1470 and 1473 in Ipswich, Suffolk. He was the son of Robert and Joan Wolsey. Robert owned a tavern in the parish of St. Mary at the Elms in Ipswich. Traditionally, Wolsey’s father has been identified as a butcher and cattle dealer. Thomas Wolsey’s humble origins proved a source of mirth to his critics during his long career. During his childhood and adolescence, Wolsey attended school in Ipswich and later studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with BA in 1486 when he was about fifteen years old. A decade later, he was ordained as a priest in the parish church of St. Peter in Marlborough. The year before, he graduated with MA. For a short period, Wolsey served as master of Magdalen School and, later, as dean of divinity.
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26th November:
1533 – Henry Fitzroy, the Duke of Richmond and Somerset, married Lady Mary Howard at Hampton Court Palace. Fitzroy was the illegitimate son of Henry VIII by his mistress Elizabeth (Bessie Blount) and Mary was the daughter of Thomas Howard, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and the cousin of Anne Boleyn.
1542 (26th or 27th November) – Death of Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex, courtier, soldier and Lord Great Chamberlain of England. He was buried at St Laurence Pountney Church in London, but then moved to Boreham in Essex. Radcliffe was made Lord Great Chamberlain of England for life on 3rd May 1540 for his loyal service to Henry VIII.
1546 – Baptism of Sir Giles Fletcher the Elder, diplomat, member of Parliament and author, in Watford, Hertfordshire. Fletcher was the son of Richard Fletcher, Church of England clergyman, and his wife, Joan. Fletcher is known for his poetical work, “Licia” (1593), but his other works included the Latin pastorals Poemata varii argumenti, the poem De literis antiquae Britanniae and the account of his travels as diplomat, “Of the Russe Common Wealth. Or, Maner of gouernement of the Russe emperour, (commonly called the Emperour of Moskouia) with the manners, and fashions of the people of that countrey”. He was the father of the poet Sir Giles Fletcher the Younger.
1585 – Executions of Hugh Taylor, Catholic priest, and his friend Marmaduke Bowes at York. They were both hanged, and were the first men executed under the 1585 statute which made it treason to be a Jesuit or seminary priest in England, or to harbour such a priest. Both men were beatified in 1987.
1612 – Death of Sir Thomas Walmsley, Judge and Justice of the Common Pleas, at his home at Dunkenhalgh in Lancashire. He was buried at Blackburn.
12th November:
1532 – Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn finally left Calais after being delayed by a Channel fog. They landed at Dover on Thursday 14th November. They had been visiting Calais to meet with the French king, Francis I.
1537 – Jane Seymour’s body was taken by chariot from Hampton Court Palace to Windsor Castle.
1554 – The opening of Mary I’s third Parliament. At this Parliament, a bill was passed allowing the exiled Cardinal Reginald Pole to return to England as papal legate.
1555 – Mary I’s Parliament re-established Catholicism in England.
1555 – Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and Mary I’s Lord Chancellor, died. Gardiner crowned Mary I Queen of England at her coronation at Westminster Abbey on the 1st October 1553, and helped Mary to restore Catholicism and overturn the annulment of her parents’ marriage, making her legitimate. He was also instrumental in the marriage negotiations between Mary and Philip II of Spain, and married the couple at Winchester Cathedral on the 25th July 1554. He was laid to rest at Winchester Cathedral in what is now known as the Bishop Gardiner Chantry Chapel.
1576 – Death of Sir Edward Saunders, judge. He was buried at Weston under Wetherley, Warwickshire. Saunders’ offices included Serjeant-at-Law, Recorder of Coventry, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench and Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
1586 – A delegation of forty MPs and twenty peers presented Elizabeth I with a petition demanding that “a just sentence might be followed by as just an execution” in the case of Mary, Queen of Scots.
1595 – Death of Sir John Hawkins, merchant, shipbuilder, navigator, explorer, slave trader and naval commander, at Puerto Rico on a voyage, with Sir Francis Drake, which aimed to capture Panama. He was buried at sea. Hawkins is known for being the chief architect of Elizabeth I’s navy, and he was knighted for gallantry after serving as Vice-Admiral during the Spanish Armada.
22nd October:
1521 – Death of Sir Edward Poynings, soldier, administrator and diplomat at his manor of Westenhanger in Kent. Poynings served Henry VII as Lord Deputy of Ireland and Henry VIII as an ambassador, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Chancellor of the Order of the Garter,
1554 (22nd or 23rd) – Death of John Veysey/Vesey (born John Harman), Bishop of Exeter, at Moor Hall, Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire.
1577 – Death of Henry Parker, 11th Baron Morley and Roman Catholic exile, in Paris. Morley had fled abroad after refusing to subscribe to Elizabeth I’s “Act of Uniformity” and after being implicated in the 1569 Rising of the North.
Lord Edmund Howard was born in around 1478 as the third son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey. Edmund came from a successful family; his father having served under four monarchs. During the tumultuous Wars of the Roses period, Edmund’s father supported the Yorkists, serving both Edward IV and Richard III. Thomas Howard was awarded the Earldom of Surrey in 1483, alongside being appointed to the Privy Council and becoming an invested member of the exclusive Order of the Garter. Upon Richard III’s defeat at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the Earl of Surrey was imprisoned for a period and stripped of his honours as a result of his treasonous actions against the newly established Tudor throne. The now King Henry VII was discerning in his prevention of Surrey’s execution; intent on proving himself a merciful monarch in the wake of decades of factional brutality. Henry was later reassured that Surrey was a loyal servant and restored his earldom in May 1489. Similarly, the earl regained his position in society, taking up the role of Lieutenant of the North until 1499. From this point onwards, Surrey became a valued, trusted and loyal man to the Tudor crown; with his forces decimating the Scottish forces at Flodden in 1513. A year later, he was granted the title of Duke of Norfolk, one of England’s preeminent titles; which came with significant lands and annuities. When the duke died in 1524, his funeral was attended by a significant number of exclusive guests who congregated at Framingham Castle to pay their respects to a hugely influential figure at the Henrician court.
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15th October:
1536 – Henry VIII wrote to the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Duke of Suffolk “and others” with instructions on handling the rebellion which we now know as the Pilgrimage of Grace. The King also wrote to the rebels in Lincolnshire promising “to show them mercy if they leave all their harness and weapons in the market-place of Lincoln”.
1537 – Christening of Henry VIII’s son, the future Edward VI, in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court. Edward’s half-sister Mary stood as godmother, while his other half-sister, the four year-old Elizabeth, bore the chrisom cloth, helped by Edward’s uncle, Edward Seymour. Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, and Archbishop Cranmer stood as godfathers.
1542 – Death of William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton, courtier, diplomat and naval commander, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It is thought that he was buried in Newcastle. Southampton’s offices included Vice Admiral, Treasurer of the Household and Lord Privy Seal. He died while leading troops to Scotland under the command of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.
1582 – The first day of the Gregorian calendar following the last day of the Julian calendar, 4th October 1582, meaning that the 5th-14th October did not exist in the year 1582. Many countries ignored Pope Gregory XIII’s papal bull and carried on using the Julian Calendar. England, for example, did not introduce the Gregorian calendar until 1752.
1584 – Execution of Richard Gwyn (White), martyr, schoolteacher and Welsh language poet, at Wrexham in Wales. He was hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason because of his Catholic faith.
1590 – Death of William Bleddyn (Blethin), Bishop of Llandaff. He was buried in Matharn Church, in the chancel.
1595 – Death of Philip Howard, 13th Earl of Arundel, in the Tower of London. It was rumoured that his cook had poisoned him. Arundel had been imprisoned for high treason, because of his Catholic faith and for fleeing England without Elizabeth I’s permission. He was buried in the Tower chapel, St Peter ad Vincula.
Lady Alice More was born the daughter of Sir Richard Harpur and his wife, Elizabeth Ardern. Little is known of Alice’s early life, including her year of birth, but historian Retha Warnicke has dated it to in or after 1474. Alice’s first husband was John Middleton; however, the date of their wedding ceremony is unknown. Warnicke has put forward the argument that Alice was likely already married to John by the year 1492, as her father had failed to mention her in his will of the same year. This is a convincing argument; it was not particularly unusual for a fifteenth-century father to exclude his daughter from his will if she was an established member of another household. Alice’s marriage to John represented the customary ambitions of the late medieval gentry: securing wealth, status and property. The Middleton and Ardern families were related by kinship, with John being Alice’s cousin; with both parties owning a significant number of properties in Yorkshire. Additionally, Alice’s husband was a wealthy silk merchant and a member of the Mercers’ Company (a successful trade association) and the Staple of Calais (a mercantile corporation). The couple had three children: a son and two daughters, Alice and Helen, but only Alice survived infancy.
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8th October:
1515 – Birth of Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. Margaret was the daughter of Margaret Tudor, Queen Dowager of Scotland and sister of Henry VIII, and Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus.
1536 – The commons, i.e. the people, approved the petition of grievances drawn up by the rebels of Horncastle, Lincolnshire.
1549 – Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector, was proclaimed a traitor by the King’s Privy Council.
1561 – Baptism of Edward Wright, mathematician and cartographer, at Garveston in Norfolk. Wright is known for his treatise “Certaine Errors in Navigation” (1599), his work on Mercator’s map projection and his translation of John Napier’s 1614 Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio into English.
1594 – Death of Ellis Price (Prys), scholar and administrator. Price served Henry VIII as a Monastic Visitor in Wales 1535, Commissary-General and Chancellor of the diocese of St Asaph, and as an administrator in Wales after the “Acts of Union”. He also later served as Sheriff of Merioneth, Anglesey, Caernarfon, and Denbigh, and a member of the council in the Marches of Wales.
1st October:
1500 – Death of John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, scholar and Royal Tutor, at Wisbech Castle. He was buried at Ely Cathedral, in the chantry chapel he had designed. Alcock had acted as tutor to Prince Edward, son of Edward IV, and had also been president of the Prince’s Council at Ludlow. He was also Henry VII’s first Chancellor and opened his first Parliament.
1505 – Death of Sir Henry Colet, merchant and Lord Mayor of London, at Stepney. He was buried there.
1526 – Birth of Dorothy Stafford, Lady Stafford, daughter of Henry Stafford, 10th Baron Stafford, and his wife, Ursula (née Pole). Dorothy married Sir William Stafford, widower of Mary Boleyn, in 1545. She served Elizabeth I as a gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber.
1553 – Mary I was crowned Queen at Westminster Abbey by Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester.
24th September:
1486 – Arthur, Prince of Wales and son of Henry VII, was christened at a lavish ceremony at Winchester Cathedral.
1516 – Birth of Richard Pate, lawyer, member of Parliament and refounder of Cheltenham Grammar School, now known as Pate’s Grammar School.
1526 – Sometime before 24th September 1526, Marmaduke Huby, Abbot of Fountains since 1495, died at around the age of 87. It is thought that he was buried under the floor of the chapter house.
1561 – Birth of Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp, son of Katherine Grey (sister of Lady Jane Grey) and Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, in the Tower of London. He was born in the Tower because his parents had been imprisoned for marrying without the Queen’s permission.
1589 – Executions of William Spenser, Roman Catholic priest and martyr, and layman Robert Hardesty at York. Spenser was executed for being a priest, and Hardesty for sheltering Spenser.
17th September:
1558 – Death of Walter Devereux, 1st Viscount Hereford, at the Devereux seat at Chartley in Staffordshire. He was buried in Stowe church. Devereux served Henry VIII as joint Constable of Warwick Castle, as a member of the jury at the trial of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, in 1521, in the government of the Welsh Marches, as Steward in Princess Mary’s household at Ludlow and Chamberlain of the Court of General Surveyors. He also served Edward VI as a Privy Councillor.
1563 – Death of Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, courtier and soldier, during an outbreak of the plague. He was buried at Bottesford parish church in Leicestershire. Manners served Edward VI as Warden of the East and Middle Marches on the Scottish borders, joint Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, and Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire. He was imprisoned when Mary I came to the throne for his support of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, but was released into house arrest and then pardoned. He served Mary I as Captain-General of Horsemen and Lieutenant and Captain-General in Calais. During Elizabeth I’s reign, he served as Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire and Rutland, and President of the Council of the North.
1575 – Death of Heinrich (Henry) Bullinger, the Swiss reformer and theologian, in Zurich. Bullinger succeeded Huldrych Zwingli as pastor at Grossmünster and head of the church in Zurich. His main work was “The Decades”, a theological work, but his sermons were also translated and published, and he wrote historical works.
1577 – The Edict of Poitiers ratified the Treaty of Bergerac, which had been signed between Henry III of France and the Huguenot princes.
Anne Parr was born on 15th June 1515, in the early years of Henry VIII’s reign. Her parents were Sir Thomas Parr and Maud Green. Thomas was an English knight, courtier, and Lord of the Manor of Kendal in Westmorland (current day Cumbria). Perhaps more famously known in contemporary historiography as the younger sister of Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII, Anne Parr has remained a particularly elusive character in terms of research, when compared to her fashionable contemporaries. However, she led an equally interesting and eventful life. Despite the Parr daughters having a northern-born father, they grew up in the south of England. Their father’s seat at Kendal castle was, during their childhood, falling into disrepair, and living in the south was more practical in terms of their father’s role at court; Westmorland simply being too far from the centre of government and monarchy. In a manner more cosmopolitan, the Parr family resided at their modest house in Blackfriars, where Anne and Katherine were likely born and raised. This relative closeness to the court was convenient for Maud Parr, who was one of Queen Catherine of Aragon’s primary ladies in waiting.
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10th September:
1515 – Thomas Wolsey was made Cardinal.
1533 – Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was christened at the Church of Observant Friars in Greenwich.
1543 – Death of Sir Edward Chamberlayne, Oxfordshire gentleman and soldier. He was buried at Woodstock.
1547 – The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, part of the War of the Rough Wooing between England and Scotland. Click here to read more.
1549 – Death of Sir Anthony Denny, Henry VIII’s great friend and groom of the stool, at Cheshunt. He was buried in St Mary’s Church, Cheshunt.
1557 – Execution of Joyce Lewis (née Curson and other married name Appleby, Lady Appleby), Protestant martyr, at Lichfield. She was burned at the stake for her Protestant beliefs.
1569 – Death of Gilbert Bourne, Bishop of Bath and Wells, at Silverton in Devon. Bourne was deprived of his see in Elizabeth I’s reign after refusing to take the “Oath of Supremacy”. He was buried in Silverton Church.
1604 – Death of William Morgan, Bishop of St Asaph and Bible translator, at the Bishop’s Palace at St Asaph. He was buried there in the cathedral church.
3rd September:
1553 – Edward Courtenay was created Earl of Devon. He had been imprisoned in 1538, at the age of twelve, due to his family’s links with the Poles and Nevilles, but was released shortly after the accession of Mary I.
1557 – News reached London that the English and Imperial troops had been successful in storming St Quentin, and there were widespread celebrations; bonfires were lit, bells were rung and there was singing. The good news was marred, however, by news of the death of Henry Dudley.
1588 (3rd or 5th September) – Death of Richard Tarlton, actor and famous clown, in Shoreditch. He was buried in St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch. Tarlton was a member of the Queen’s Men, but is famed for his post-play jigs as a clown.
1592 – Death of writer and playwright Robert Greene in Dowgate. He died from a fever and was buried in a churchyard near Bedlam. Greene was a prolific writer, writing autobiographical works, plays and romances, but is best known for his pamphlet “Greene’s Groats-worth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance”, which is the first contemporary reference to William Shakespeare. It was actually an attack on Shakespeare, whom Greene accused of plagiarism, and of being uneducated.
1597 – Death of Sir John Norreys (Norris), military commander, at his brother Thomas’s home, Norris Castle in Mallow, co. Cork. He died in his brother’s arms, and it is thought that his death was due to trouble from old wounds, perhaps gangrene. Norris served as a soldier in France, the Low Countries and Ireland.
27th August:
1549 – The Battle of Dussindale took place, ending Kett’s Rebellion in Norfolk.
1557 – The storming of St Quentin by English and Imperial forces. Admiral de Coligny and his French troops, numbering only a thousand, were overcome by around 60,000 soldiers, and St Quentin fell. Henry Dudley, the youngest son of the late John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was killed by a cannonball during the storming.
1590 – Death of Pope Sixtus V at Rome.
1610 – Funeral of Lady Anne Bacon (née Cooke), mother of Sir Francis Bacon, at St Michael’s Church, near St Albans. Anne was the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, and was known for her translation of John Jewel’s “Apologie of the Church of England”.
13 August:
1514 – Princess Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII, married King Louis XII by proxy at Greenwich Palace. Mary was present at the ceremony, but the Duke of Longueville stood in for the groom.
1566 – Death of Sir Humphrey Radcliffe, member of Parliament, at his manor of Elstow. He was buried in Elstow Church. Radcliffe served as a member of Parliament during the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I, and then as a JP and Sheriff in Elizabeth I’s reign.
1568 – Death of William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester. He was buried in Chichester Cathedral.
1579 – Executions of Roman Catholic martyrs Friar Conn O’Rourke and Patrick O’Healy, Bishop of Mayo. They were hanged just outside Kilmallock, co. Limerick. O’Healy was tortured before his death, by having spikes driven through his hands, in the hope that he would give Sir William Drury, Lord President of Munster, details on James fitz Maurice Fitzgerald’s plans to lead a Catholic crusade to Ireland. He would not talk. O’Healy was beatified in 1992.