On this day in Tudor history, 14th March 1555, courtier, envoy and landowner, Sir John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, died at his London residence on the Strand aged around 70.
Russell was an important Tudor man who served four Tudor monarchs – Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I – AND he managed to keep his head, dying a natural death at a good age.
Find out more about this Earl of Bedford, his life, his rise and his career at the royal court, in today’s talk.
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On this day in Tudor history, 13th March 1540, sixty-eight-year-old Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex, died after suffering a broken neck in a horse-riding accident. Chronicler Charles Wriothesley recorded: “the Earl of Essex, riding a young horse, by misfortune cast him and brake his neck at his place in Essex, which was great pity.”
Henry Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Essex, was related to the royal family and served both Henry VII and Henry VIII. Find out more about this Tudor man in today’s talk.
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On this day in Tudor history, 12th March 1537, Cistercian monk William Haydock of Whalley Abbey, Lancashire, was hanged for treason at Whalley.
Haydock’s abbey had been implicated in the 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace Rebellion, so Henry VIII wanted the abbey punished. Find out more about Whalley Abbey’s part in the rebellion, how Haydock and several other monks were punished, and what exactly happened to William Haydock’s remains, in today’s talk.
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How much do you know about King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, something that had a major impact on the country’s landscape and the lives of the people?
Find out with this fun crossword puzzle. Good luck!
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On this day in Tudor history, 6th March 1536, King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries began when the “Act for the Suppression (or Dissolution) of the Lesser Monasteries” was introduced into the Reformation Parliament.
The Dissolution of the Monasteries had a major impact on England and her people, but was of great benefit to the king, his nobles and the gentry. Find out what happened, why and its impact in this talk.
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Philippa Brewell, our roving reporter, has been to Hampton Court Palace. This palace belonged to Thomas Wolsey, who then gave it to Henry VIII.
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On this day in Tudor history, 3rd March 1542, Arthur Plantagenet, Lord Lisle, courtier, soldier, diplomat, administrator and illegitimate son of Edward IV, died of a heart attack after being informed of his release from the Tower of London. How very sad!
Find out all about Lord Lisle’s background, his career in Henry VII and Henry VIII’s reign, and how he came to imprisoned in the Tower of London, when he was probably innocent, in today’s talk.
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This week’s Sunday fun is a true or false quiz testing your knowledge on Henry VIII’s six wives. Part 2 focuses on Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr.
Good luck!
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This week’s Sunday fun is a true or false quiz testing your knowledge on Henry VIII’s six wives. Part 1 focuses on Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.
Good luck!
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On this day in Tudor history, 11 February 1531, the ecclesiastical assembly known as convocation granted King Henry VIII the title of “singular protector, supreme lord, and even, so far as the law of Christ allows, supreme head of the English church and clergy”.
The person responsible for persuading convocation to grant the king this title was Anne Boleyn’s brother, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford. It was a big responsibility for the young diplomat and courtier.
Find out more about what happened in today’s talk.
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On this day in Tudor history, 10th February 1542, Catherine Howard, King Henry VIII’s fifth wife, was escorted by barge from Syon House, where she’d been kept since November 1541, to the Tower of London in preparation for her execution.
Sadly, the queen would have seen the heads of her former lover, Francis Dereham, and her sweetheart, Thomas Culpeper, as she made her way to the Tower – a reminder of her own fate.
Find out more in today’s talk.
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On this day in history, 7th February 1477 or 1478, Sir Thomas More, Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor, was born in London.
More had once wanted to be a monk but ended up being one of the most well-known statesmen of the Tudor period. Unfortunately, Sir Thomas More came to a sticky end after refusing to sign the oath recognising Henry VIII as the supreme head of the church in England, and was executed in 1535 as a traitor.
Find out all about More’s rise to power, how he fell, and what he told his son-in-law about the king, in today’s talk.
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On this day in Tudor history, Saturday 4th February 1520, Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn, got married to William Carey in the Chapel Royal at Greenwich Palace, in a service attended by King Henry VIII.
Find out more about Mary Boleyn and William Carey in today’s talk.
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On this day in Tudor history, 29th January 1536, the same day that Catherine of Aragon was buried at Peterborough Abbey, Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII suffered a miscarriage.
Contemporary accounts state that she was around 3 1/2 months pregnant and that it was a boy.
In today’s talk, I share information given by the imperial ambassador on Anne Boleyn’s miscarriage, including the gossip concerning the king and a certain Jane Seymour.
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On this day in history, 28th January 1547, nine-year-old Edward, son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, became King Edward VI, succeeding his father, King Henry VIII, who died on this day at Whitehall Palace. Edward didn’t hear the news of his father’s death until the next day, when he was told of it by Edward Seymour and Anthony Denny.
Here are some resources on this young Tudor king…
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On this day in Tudor history, 17th January 1541, courtier, diplomat and poet, Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, was arrested and sent to the Tower of London after being accused of corresponding with Cardinal Reginald Pole, and referring to the prospect of Henry VIII’s death.
Wyatt was taken to the Tower and it looked like he’d be executed, but he was saved by Queen Catherine Howard, but at a huge cost.
Find out more about what Wyatt was accused of, how he escaped execution and what he had to agree to, in today’s talk.
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Today’s Claire Chats talk was inspired by my recent “on this day in Tudor history” video on rebel Sir William Pickering. In his will, Pickering left instructions for a jewel worth 200 marks to be given to Queen Elizabeth I by his executors, and I just became curious as to how much 200 marks was. This sent me on a research journey which also involved looking at the spending of Henry VII and Henry VIII.
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On this day in Tudor history, 8th January 1571, Mary Shelton (married names: Heveningham and Appleyard) was buried at Heveningham Church, Suffolk.
Mary Shelton was Queen Anne Boleyn’s cousin and lady-in-waiting, and may also have been King Henry VIII’s mistress. She also contributed to the Devonshire Manuscript with the likes of Mary Howard, Lady Margaret Douglas and Lord Thomas Howard.
Find out more about Mary Shelton in today’s talk.
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On this day in Tudor history, 5th January 1546, in the reign of King Henry VIII, geographer and poet, Richard Willes, was born in Pulham, Dorset.
Richard Willes has been described as “One of the quirkier figures in the literary history not only of the college but of the Elizabethan period as a whole”, and he certainly was an interesting Tudor man. Find out about his literary accomplishments, and what exactly made him so “quirky”, in today’s talk.
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On this day in Tudor history, 2nd January 1536, imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, visited his good friend, Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII and a woman who was now officially called the Dowager Princess of Wales.
Catherine was seriously ill, in fact, she was dying, and this would be the last time that Chapuys saw her.
Find out from Chapuys’ own account what happened in the four days he spent with Catherine of Aragon.
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This month we have a fascinating and educational talk from author Tony Riches, taking us into the world of Katherine Willoughby, a woman who knew all of Henry VIII’s six wives.
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On this day in Tudor history, 27th December 1539, Anne of Cleves landed at Deal in Kent in preparation for her forthcoming marriage to King Henry VIII. Anne of Cleves would be King Henry VIII’s fourth wife.
Find out more about her journey, the background to it, and what happened next, in today’s talk.
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On this day in Tudor history, 24th December 1545, Christmas Eve, King Henry VIII made his final speech to Parliament.
The king was concerned about the religious divisions in his realm and so chastised the Lords and Commons for their disagreements, and also the clergy for provoking this discord.
In today’s talk, I share some of the king’s compelling speech from that day in 1545.
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On this day in Tudor history, 22nd December 1534, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who was a prisoner in the Tower of London, wrote to Thomas Cromwell.
In his letter to Cromwell, the poor bishop begged him for a shirt, sheet, food and books, as well as asking him to intercede with King Henry VIII on his behalf.
It is so sad that a man who had served the king so loyally in the past had come to this, and, of course, the king’s mercy would only stretch to commuting his method of execution to beheading.
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On this day in Tudor history, 20th December 1541, a “very sickly” Agnes Tilney, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, begged King Henry VIII for forgiveness.
The dowager duchess had been arrested and taken to the Tower accused of misprision of treason for hiding her stepgranddaughter Catherine Howard’s past relationship with Francis Dereham.
In today’s talk, I share what the dowager duchess wrote to the king and also what happened to this sickly woman.
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Teasel made sure that the topic turned back to dogs today!
In today’s edition of Teasel’s Tudor Trivia, Teasel and I introduce Hatch, the Mary Rose’s dog, and explain what is known about him and what he was doing on board Henry VIII’s favourite flagship.
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Happy birthday to Catherine of Aragon! Yes, this first wife of King Henry VIII and Spanish princess was born on this day in Tudor history, 16th December 1485.
In today’s talk, I explain Catherine of Aragon’s background, give some insights into her early life, and talk about how she ended up leaving her homeland of Spain and eventually becoming queen consort to Henry VIII.
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In today’s Teasel’s Tudor Trivia, Teasel the rescue dog talks about a tradition today that goes back to Cardinal Wolsey’s time, in the reign of King Henry VIII, and which concerns cats.
Hopefully, this video will please Maj the cat!
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Today, 6th December is the Feast of St Nicholas, or St Nicholas of Myra, the 4th century Bishop of Myra. In medieval and Tudor times, it was the traditional day for the election of a boy bishop would undertake all of the duties of a bishop from the 6th December until 28th December, Childermas (Holy Innocents’ Day).
You can find out about the tradition of Boy Bishop, and how and why Henry VIII put an end to it, and how it’s been revived today, in today’s talk from Claire Ridgway, founder of the Tudor Society.
[Read More...]Teasel the dog just loves King Henry VIII. He may have been a tyrant in many ways, but he does seem to have have been a dog-lover and that makes him ok to Teasel.
Teasel has been engrossed in Henry VIII’s inventory, carefully supervised, and has found out so much about the king and his belongings. Today’s advent treat is about what Henry VIII used to help him read.
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