On this day in Tudor history, 13th December 1558, civil lawyer and dean of Chester William Clyffe died.
Clyffe was one of the authors of the 1537 “Bishops’ Book”, and he was consulted by convocation during Henry VIII’s Great Matter. He was thrown into prison for a time for refusing to do a favour for one of the king’s servants – oh dear!
Find out more about William Clyffe’s life and career in this talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 11th December 1539, Anne of Cleves and her retinue were received at Gravelines, just a few miles outside of Calais, by Lord Lisle, Deputy of Calais.
Anne of Cleves was on her way to England to marry King Henry VIII, but her journey had been rather slow and she was about to be delayed even more.
The reception was rather lavish, with everyone dressed up to the nines.
Enjoy a contemporary description in this talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 6th December 1573, soldier and administrator, Sir Hugh Paulet, died at his home in Hinton St George in Somerset.
He distinguished himself as a soldier in Henry VIII’s reign, served as Governor of Jersey in Edward VI’s reign, was a Protestant but survived Mary I’s reign and served as Vice-President of the Welsh marches, and had a successful career in Elizabeth I’s reign. He was an important man and a servant of the Crown, but still managed to die a natural death at his home.
Find out more about Sir Hugh Paulet, his life and career, in this talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 29th November 1528, nobleman and courtier, Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, was born.
Montagu began his court career with the help of his father in Henry VIII’s reign. served as a privy councillor in Mary I’s reign, and died a natural death as a wealthy man in Elizabeth I’s reign. He even survived being implicated in a rebellion!
Who was Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, and just how did he manage to not only have an excellent court career, but leave a fortune to his grandson, when he was a Catholic in Elizabeth I’s reign?
Find out all about him in today’s this talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 25th November 1545, lawyer, member of Parliament, diplomat and ecclesiastical administrator, Sir Thomas Legh (Leigh), died.
Legh was a faithful servant to King Henry VIII, but his work during the dissolution of the monasteries led to complaints against him and even rebellion.
He was a vicious man, known for his harsh treatment of monks, but he also played a key role in protecting Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1543 when his enemies tried to bring him down.
Find out more about this Tudor man in this talk…
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As this week’s Friday video was on Sudeley Castle, home of Catherine Parr and her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, I thought I’d test your knowledge of places linked to Henry VIII’s six wives.
Grab your favourite snack and beverage, make yourself comfortable, and get those little grey cells working with this fun crossword puzzle.
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On this day in Tudor history, 17th November 1558, twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth, daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, became Queen Elizabeth I following the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary I.
In this talk, I look at an alternative account of Elizabeth I’s words on her accession, one recorded by her godson, Sir John Harington. Hear Elizabeth I’s wonderful speech, which she used to motivate her supporters and to reassure those who’d served Mary I.
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On this day in Tudor history, 14th November 1541, an inventory was taken of “the goods and chattels, lands and fees of” Thomas Culpeper, a groom of King Henry VIII’s privy chamber and a man who had been having secret meetings with Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife.
An inventory had also been taken of the possessions of Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, wife of the late George Boleyn, a woman who had allegedly helped the queen meet with Culpeper.
But what was going on in November 1541 and what was listed in these inventories?
Find out more in this talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 4th November 1538, 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 all arrested for treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
Montagu, Neville and Exeter, along with Montagu’s brother, Geoffrey Pole, were accused of plotting with Cardinal Reginald Pole against the king. Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, was also arrested, accused of the same.
But how had it come to this, when Henry VIII had sought Cardinal Pole’s opinion on his marriage and the papacy?
Find out what Cardinal Pole had done to upset the king, and what happened to his family and friends as a result, in this talk…
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On this day in Tudor history, 31st October 1537, Lord Thomas Howard, second son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, died while imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was about twenty-five years of age at his death.
How did this son of the 2nd Duke of Norfolk and brother of the 3rd Duke of Norfolk end up dying in the Tower?
Well, he fell in love with the wrong woman? He had become secretly betrothed to King Henry VIII’s niece, Lady Margaret Douglas.
Find out more about Lord Thomas Howard, his relationship with Lady Margaret Douglas, and what happened to them both, in this talk… Oh, and Margaret really didn’t learn her lesson!
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On this day in Tudor history, 26th October 1536, the rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace halted at Scawsby Leys near Doncaster, where they met crown troops. The rebels were said to number around 30,000 and the crown’s army was only a fifth of the size, but the rebel leader, lawyer Robert Aske, chose to negotiate rather than fight.
Why, when they could well have won?
Well, one Tudor chronicler puts it down to rain. You can find out more about this meeting, how rain put a stop to the rebels’ plans, and what happened next between the Pilgrimage of Grace rebels and Henry VIII, in this video…
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The Pilgrimage of Grace Rebellion broke out in October 1536, in the reign of Henry VIII, but how much do you know about it? Test yourself with this fun word search.
Hint: Check out our video talks and resources on the rebellion for help….
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On this day in Tudor history, 20th October 1557, or possibly 21st, courtier Mary Arundell died at Bath Place in London.
Mary is an interesting Tudor lady. Not only did she serve at least two of Henry VIII’s wives, but she was a countess twice over, having been married to both the Earls of Sussex and Arundel. She has also been confused with two other Tudor ladies, and we don’t know whether the portrait you see in the thumbnail is really her.
Find out more about Mary Arundell’s life, court career and those of her husbands, in today’s talk from Claire Ridgway, founder of the Tudor Society.
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On this day in Tudor history, 18th October 1555, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, finally received permission from her half-sister, Queen Mary I, to leave court and travel to her own estate at Hatfield, rather than return to house arrest in Woodstock.
Poor Elizabeth had spent the last 18 months being watched or imprisoned, so this must have been a huge relief.
But why had Elizabeth been watched and confined? What had she gone through and why?
Find out more about this awful part of Elizabeth I’s life…
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On this day in Tudor history, 3rd October 1536, imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys wrote to Emperor Charles V informing him that Jane Seymour’s coronation was being postponed.
Several dates for Henry VIII’s third wife’s coronation are mentioned in the contemporary sources, but they all passed by without the coronation taking place, and building work on Westminster Palace in preparation for the coronation came to a halt.
Why wasn’t Jane Seymour crowned when her predecessor, Anne Boleyn, had been given a lavish coronation?
Find out more about what happened in 1536 and 1537…
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On this day in Tudor history, 2nd October 1514, eighteen-year-old Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII, set off from Dover to sail to France to marry fifty-two-year-old King Louis XII of France.
Things hadn’t gone to plan with the scheduled sailing, due to bad weather, and Mary encountered rough seas on her journey too.
Find out about the arrangements for the journey, who was at Dover, Mary’s crossing to Boulogne, and what happened next…
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On this day in Tudor history, 29th September 1528, the papal legate, Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio, landed at Dover on the Kent coast.
Campeggio and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who had been appointed the pope’s vice-regent, were given the task of hearing Henry VIII’s case for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
Find out more about what happened when next, what happened at the special legatine court, and how Henry ended up waiting for his annulment for a few more years…
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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 and a man nicknamed “Bloody Bonner”, died in Marshalsea Prison. He had started his career in Henry VIII’s reign and was not just a churchman, he was also a diplomat.
In this video, I flesh out this Tudor bishop who got his nickname 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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On this day in Tudor history, 30th August 1525, the Treaty of the More was agreed between King Henry VIII of England and Louise of Savoy, who was acting as regent for her son, King Francis I of France, while he was imprisoned by imperial forces.
Why was Francis in prison? What were the terms of the Treaty of the More? How did this treaty affect Henry VIII’s daughter, Mary? And what happened next.
Find out all about the Treaty of the More and its consequences…
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On this day in Tudor history, 23rd August 1548, Francis Talbot, 5th Earl of Shrewsbury, arrived at the Siege of Haddington, in East Lothian, Scotland, with a large army. This siege was part of the Anglo-Scottish war known as the War of the Rough Wooing between England and Scotland., regarding Henry VIII’s desire to marry his son, Edward, off to Mary, Queen of Scots.
What happened at this siege and to Haddington after it?
Find out…
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A big thank you to our resident art historian, Roland Hui, for this excellent article on a Tudor miniature by Hans Holbein the Younger which is causing controversy at the moment.
Over to Roland…
In an essay on the portraiture of Henry VIII’s six wives, art historian Brett Dolman offered the depressing, but sobering, opinion that pictures of one of them, Catherine Howard, may not even exist:
“Catherine left no documentary proof that her portrait was ever painted during her lifetime, and perhaps, we are searching for the impossible.”…
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On this day in Tudor history, 17th August 1517, Italian humanist scholar, cleric and poet, Andreas Ammonius died in London from sweating sickness. He was laid to rest at St Stephen’s, Westminster.
Ammonius had also served Henry VIII as his Latin secretary and was a great friend of the famous humanist scholar, Erasmus. Find out more about Ammonius and the sweating sickness epidemic which caused his death…
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On this day Tudor history, 28th July 1540, in the reign of King Henry VIII, a client of Thomas Cromwell, who was also executed that day, ended his life on the scaffold.
What was the magic and “detestable vice and sin” of which he was accused?
Find out more about him in this edition of #TudorHistoryShorts
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On this day in Tudor history, 26th July 1538, in the reign of King Henry VIII, George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, died.
Shrewsbury was a loyal servant of the Crown and a soldier. Find out more about him in this edition of #TudorHistoryShorts…
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Mary Boleyn is known for being Henry VIII’s mistress at one point, and you can find out a bit more about her in this edition of #TudorHistoryShorts…
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Mary I was the daughter of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and she was Queen of England from July 1553 to November 1558, but how much do you know about her?
In this latest edition of my “facts about…” series, I share 21 interesting facts about Mary I.
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On this day in Tudor history, 14th July 1514, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Cardinal Christopher Bainbridge died in Rome.
Who was this cardinal? Who claimed to have poisoned him and why?
Find out more in this edition of #TudorHistoryShorts…
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Today is the anniversary of the birth of John Dee, the astrologer, mathematician, alchemist, antiquary, spy, philosopher, geographer and adviser to Elizabeth I and influential statesmen. He was born on 13th July 1527 in the reign of King Henry VIII.
Hear a few facts about John Dee in this edition of #TudorHistoryShorts…
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On this day in Tudor history, 7th July 1553, in the short reign of Queen Jane (Lady Jane Grey), Mary, eldest daughter of King Henry VIII, received news of her half-brother King Edward VI’s death.
Where was Mary when she received the news? What was she doing and what happened next?
Find out in this latest edition of #TudorHistoryShorts…
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On 26th June 1513, in the reign of King Henry VIII, a loyal soldier lost his life serving the Crown.
What happened to Sir Edmund Carew? How did he die? And how else did his service to the Crown affect him?
Find out in this edition of #TudorHistoryShorts…
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