On this day in Tudor history, 9th May 1509, the remains of King Henry VII were taken to St Paul’s to prepare for his burial at Westminster Abbey.
I share an account of the journey to St Paul’s…
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 9th May 1509, the remains of King Henry VII were taken to St Paul’s to prepare for his burial at Westminster Abbey.
I share an account of the journey to St Paul’s…
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 8th May 1508, herald and chronicler Charles Wriothesley was born in London.
Wriothesley’s chronicle is one of the major primary sources for King Henry VIII’s reign, so let Claire tell you more about its writer, Charles Wriothesley, Windsor Herald, and what heralds actually are.
[Read More...]On 7th May 1567, eight days before James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, married Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic court granted him a divorce from his wife, Lady Jean Gordon.
Who was Jean Gordon? Why did Bothwell divorce her? And what happened to Jean afterwards?
Find out more about Bothwell and Jean’s marriage, and about Jean’s life…
[Read More...]A warm Tudor Society welcome to historian and author Toni Mount and huge congratulations to her on the forthcoming release of her tenth Seb Foxley medieval murder mystery, a series I adore.
Toni is sharing a guest article with us to celebrate the publication of The Colour of Rubies…
In my tenth and latest Seb Foxley medieval murder mystery, The Colour of Rubies, the story requires our hero to go to Westminster Palace in order to discover a dead body – what else! Those familiar with my scribe/artist/sleuth will know that colour means everything to Seb so what better reason could he have for going to the royal palace with his brother, Jude, than to admire the beautiful stained glass in the Chapel of St Stephen?
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 1st May 1517, foreign traders in London had their shops and property vandalised and damaged by a mob of angry apprentices and labourers.
What sparked off this “Evil May Day Riot”? What happened to the troublemakers? And how did Queen Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII’s sisters, Margaret and Mary, get involved? I explain…
[Read More...]We’ve turned the corner and the warmer weather is now coming in! What did the Tudors do in the summer months, and where did they go? Enjoy this bumper magazine edition.
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 26th April 1540, Catherine Carey, daughter of Mary Boleyn and a maid of honour to Queen Anne of Cleves, married Francis Knollys.
The marriage was happy and successful, and resulted in at least 14 children…
[Read More...]On this day in 1545, Sir Robert Dymoke, champion at the coronations of Henry VII and Henry VIII, and a man who served in the households of Queens Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, died.
He had an interesting career and survived being suspected of involvement in the 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion.
Find out more about Sir Robert Dymoke…
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 7th April 1537, Robert Aske and Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy, were sent to the Tower of London.
Both Aske and Darcy had been involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion of 1536, with Aske being “chief captain” of the rebels.
Even though Henry VIII pardoned the rebels after negotiations in 1536, Darcy and Aske were arrested, imprisoned and executed as traitors.
Find out more about what happened and more about Robert Aske, the rebel leader…
[Read More...]Who were the chief ministers in the Tudor period? What influence did they have over the people around them and the country as a whole?
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 23rd March 1540, Waltham Abbey, an Augustinian house in Essex, was surrendered to the Crown.
It was the last abbey to be dissolved in Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell’s dissolution of the monasteries.
Find out more about this historic abbey, its origins and what’s left today, and also who profited from its lands, in this talk…
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 2nd March 1545, scholar, diplomat and founder of the Bodleian Library, Sir Thomas Bodley, was born in Exeter.
Sir Thomas Bodley served as a diplomat in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, but he is most known for his re-founding of Oxford University Library and the Bodleian Library, and all the work he did on it.
Find out all about him and his library in this talk…
[Read More...]Tudor Murders – what an interesting theme we have for you in this month’s magazine. Murder is always a gruesome but fascinating topic and this magazine doesn’t disappoint
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 22nd February 1540, twenty-four-year-old Marie de Guise, or Mary of Guise, queen consort of King James V of Scotland, was crowned queen at Holyrood Abbey.
Did you know that Henry VIII was keen on making Marie de Guise his fourth wife? She declined, saying that her neck was small! Instead, she married James V.
Marie was, of course, the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, and you can find out more about her in this talk…
[Read More...]On this day in history, 13th February 1608, prominent Tudor noblewoman and one of the richest people in England, Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, more commonly known as Bess of Hardwick, died at her home at Hardwick.
Bess of Hardwick is known for her building projects, which included Chatsworth and Hardwick Hall, her beautiful needlework and the fact that she and Shrewsbury were guardians of the captive Mary, Queen of Scots.
Find out more about this fascinating Tudor lady in this talk…
[Read More...]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 this talk…
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 15th January 1569, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Catherine Knollys (née Carey), wife of Sir Francis Knollys, daughter of Mary Boleyn, and cousin of the queen, died at Hampton Court Palace. She was about 45 years old.
Sadly, Queen Elizabeth I had kept Catherine and her beloved husband, Sir Francis Knollys, apart during Catherine’s final day.
Find out more about Catherine’s final days, the queen’s cruelty, Francis’s frustration, and Catherine’s lavish burial, which was paid for by the queen, in this talk…
[Read More...]As it is the end of 2021, we will look back at all the months and highlight the most exciting event, release, article or video. But we will also look forward to next year and update you on all the new things coming.
On this day in Tudor history, 20th December 1583, the day after his son-in-law, John Somerville, had been found dead in his cell, Warwickshire gentleman Edward Arden was hanged, drawn and quartered at Smithfield.
Arden, who was related to William Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden, and married to a member of the Throckmorton family, had been found guilty of treason, after being implicated in Somerville’s plot to kill the queen.
But was Arden actually guilty? Why didn’t others involved end up being executed too?
Find out more about Edward Arden and what happened in 1583, in this talk…
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 7th December 1549, rebel leader Robert Kett was hanged from the walls of Norwich Castle after being found guilty of treason. His brother William was hanged the same day, but from the steeple of Wymondham Church.
In 1549, Kett was seen as a rebel and traitor who endangered the city of Norwich, but today Norwich pays tribute to him as “a notable and courageous leader in the long struggle of the common people of England to escape from a servile life into the freedom of just conditions”.
Find out all about Robert Kett and Kett’s Rebellion in this talk…
[Read More...]We have a wonderful treat for you today on the Tudor Society Advent Calendar – a talk from battlefield historian Julian Humphrys answering the question “Was Henry Tudor a Coward at the Battle of Bosworth?”.
Find out the answer in Julian’s talk.
[Read More...]From books to exhibitions, to new discoveries and more. Every month we (Merel and Emma) will give you an update on all things new and exciting in the Tudor world. Starting with the first blog in which we look back on what has happened in November.
On this day in Tudor history, 26th November 1585, Catholic priest Hugh Taylor and his friend Marmaduke Bowes were hanged at York.
They were the first men executed under Elizabeth I’s 1585 statute which made it treason to be a Jesuit or seminary priest in England or to harbour such a priest.
These two Catholics were beatified in 1987 by Pope John Paul II as two of the 85 Martyrs of England, Scotland and Wales.
Find out more about these men and what this 1585 legislation was all about in this talk…
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 22nd November 1594, naval commander, privateer and explorer, Sir Martin Frobisher, died at Plymouth. He died of gangrene after having been shot in the thigh during hand-to-hand combat during a siege.
Frobisher is best known for his three voyages in search of the Northwest Passage and his naval service during the 1588 Spanish Armada, for which he was knighted.
Find out all about the life and career of this Tudor explorer in this talk…
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 21st November 1495, churchman, Protestant playwright, historian and Bishop of Ossory, John Bale was born in Suffolk.
Bale wrote twenty-four plays, and a book on famous British writers, which is his most well-known work. His work on Protestant martyrs was also used by the famous martyrologist John Foxe.
John Bale also courted controversy with his attacks on Catholics, and he spent a fair amount of time in exile.
Find out all about this accomplished Tudor man in this talk…
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 16th November 1601, nobleman and rebel Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, died while in exile at Nieuwpoort in Flanders.
Westmorland had fled into exile following the failure of the Northern Rebellion, a plot to release Mary, Queen of Scots, from prison and to overthrow Elizabeth I. He didn’t learn his lesson, being involved in a further plot.
The earl died a sad end in debt and separated from his wife and daughters, but it was his own fault.
Find out more about the rebel northern earl in this talk…
[Read More...]This day in Tudor history, 9th November 1569, is the traditional date given for the start of the only major armed rebellion of Elizabeth I’s reign. It’s known as The Northern Rebellion or Rising of the North or Revolt of the Northern Earls.
Northern earls Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland and Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, led this uprising against Elizabeth I, seeking to depose her, replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots, and restore Catholicism.
But what happened?
Find out about the 1569 Northern Rebellion and the fate of the Northern Earls in this talk…
[Read More...]On this day in Tudor history, 22nd October 1537, an examination, or rather interrogation, was carried out regarding an accusation of treasonous words spoken against King Henry VIII.
Further investigations into the matter found that there was no evidence that these words were spoken, and that someone was trying to get another person into trouble.
What was going on? In a time when the punishment for high treason was death, this was very serious.
[Read More...]In the programme, which aired in the UK on BBC One, comedian Josh Widdicombe was having his family tree examined and he had an incredibly interesting one.
If you haven’t watched it yet, and plan to, then don’t read on! Although you can tell from the title and the photo that the Boleyns are involved!
Spoiler alert…
Josh found out first that he was related to the Barings of Barings Bank, and then he was told that he was descended from Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland. Holland served as Groom of the Stool to King Charles I and unfortunately ended his life on the scaffold due to being a Royalist in the Second English Civil War.
[Read More...]To mark the birth of King Edward VI on this day in history, 12th October 1537, I thought I’d share these resources with you…
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