One of my favourite historians, Leanda de Lisle, has just shared details of two talks she’s doing, one at Bosworth Battlefield and one in Yorkshire. Here are the details:
[Read More...]YOUR SEARCH UNCOVERED 2137 RESULTS
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Leanda de Lisle talks Tudor
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17 June 1497 – The Battle of Blackheath (Battle of Deptford Bridge)
On this day in history, 17th June 1497, the Cornish Rebellion was brought to an end by the Battle of Blackheath, which is also known as the Battle of Deptford Bridge, when Henry VII’s forces were triumphant against the rebels.
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Katherine Howard
Like her cousin Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard was a granddaughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and a niece of the third duke. She was born in about 1523, probably at Lambeth, to Edmund and Jocasta Howard. During her infancy, Katherine’s mother died and her father, who seems to have been both irresponsible and financially straitened, remarried twice. In 1531, when she was about eight years old, she departed for the household of her step-grandmother, Agnes, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, at Cheshunt. The dowager duchess, who was one of the premier noblewomen in England, also kept a household at Norfolk House in London and regularly resided at court. Her periods of absence prevented her from supervising her household as closely as she might have liked.
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7 June 1520 – The Field of Cloth of Gold meeting begins
On this day in history, 7th June 1520, the famous Field of Cloth of Gold meeting began.
The meeting was between King Henry VIII of England and King Francis I of France and its aim was to solidify the Treaty of London. It took place between the English stronghold of Guînes and the French town of Ardres, on a piece of land referred to as the Field of Cloth of Gold, and ran from 7th June 1520 until 24th June 1520
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Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves was born on 22nd September 1515 in Dusseldorf to John III, Duke of Cleves, and his wife, Maria. Like Henry VIII’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon, Anne was born into a highly influential and politically active family. Her sister Sybille was married to the Elector of Saxony, and her brother, Wilhelm, became the future Duke of Cleves-Burg, and would be instrumental in negotiations regarding her future marriage.
Anne was born during the volatile reformation period, resulting in reforms against traditionalist Catholicism, which was spreading through western and northern Europe. Her mother has been described as a conservative Catholic, however, her sister Sybille’s husband was a renowned Lutheran, often given the epithet ‘champion of the reformation’, and a good friend of its founder, Martin Luther. Anne was originally intended to be married into the House of Lorraine when she was eleven in 1527. There were numerous negotiations regarding the union, but nothing was cemented, and by 1535 all official wedding discussions had essentially been rejected, leaving the desirable duke’s daughter available on the European marriage market. Henry VIII and his council were searching for a new wife after the death of Queen Jane Seymour in 1536, with rumours of a possible union with the Duchess of Milan. The French had aligned themselves to the Habsburgs and signed a ten-year truce in 1538 (although this never lasted), cementing a union between Europe’s two major Catholic powerhouses. Cromwell, Henry’s leading minister at the time, suggested a counter alliance with a Lutheran house in Germany, even though Anne’s family were relatively mild in their reformist views. Cromwell was aware that England was potentially vulnerable to a Franco-Habsburg invasion, and influenced the king that negotiating with the newly appointed Duke Wilhelm (Anne’s father had died in 1539) would be a successful diplomatic adventure, that would ensure the prosperity of England against foreign invasion.
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6 June 1522 – The grand entry of Emperor Charles V into London
On this day in history, 6th June 1522, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, made a grand entry into London accompanied by King Henry VIII.
You can read two primary source accounts of Charles’s entry, and the pageantry involved, in the chronicles of Edward Hall and Charles Wriothesley at the following links
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Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour was the eldest daughter of Sir John Seymour and his wife, Margery. She was probably born in around 1509 at Wulfhall in Wiltshire. By virtue of her mother, Jane could claim descent from Edward III, and her father’s family were descended from Guy de St Maur, who allegedly accompanied William the Conqueror to England in the eleventh century. Unlike Anne Boleyn, nothing is known of Jane’s childhood and adolescence. An unsubstantiated nineteenth-century tradition claimed that she resided at the French court as a maid of honour, but no contemporary evidence supports the notion. It is likely that Jane was educated in line with the expectations of the sixteenth-century gentry. Her needlework and embroidery were praised during her tenure as queen, and it is also plausible that she received music and dancing lessons, although there is nothing to suggest that she was praised at court for any particular skill in those pursuits. Her family were entirely traditional in their religious sympathies: it was only during the last years of Henry VIII’s reign that her brother Edward espoused the cause of radical reform.
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This week in history 22 – 28 May
On this day in history…
22nd May:
1490 – Death of Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent.
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1537 – Edward Seymour, brother of Jane Seymour, was sworn in as a Privy Councillor.
1538 – The burning of John Forest, Franciscan friar and martyr, at Smithfield for heresy, for his allegiance to Rome.
1539 – Probable birthdate of Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford and son of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset (the Edward mentioned above). Hertford was also the husband of Katherine Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey.
1570 – Death of John Best, Bishop of Carlisle. He was buried in Carlisle Cathedral. -
A Tudor gem that made me dance by Janet Wertman
We have many historians as members of the Tudor Society, and we thought it would be interesting to ask them what they are researching or working on at the moment, and whether they've come across anything of interest from the Tudor Period. Janet Wertman has responded with this wonderful Tudor gem... over to Janet!
What are you researching or working on at the moment? Can you share something of interest about the Tudor period?
Your timing is perfect! I just stumbled upon a gem that made me dance.First, a bit of context.
It will come as no surprise to anyone reading this that the Tudor world is full of wild parallels. Catherine of Aragon spending seven years at the start of her life (relatively) waiting for Henry to marry her, then seven years at the end of her life waiting for him to return to her. The fates of Henry’s wives (divorced-beheaded-died/divorced-beheaded-survived) intertwined with their “types” (foreign princess-Howard family-basic English). Cromwell’s downfall stemming from invented charges and using the Act of Attainder he had popularized. Just to name a few.
I found one I had never noticed before.
I am deep into the first draft of The Path to Somerset, the sequel to Jane the Quene that charts Edward Seymour’s rise to power after her death (during what I lovingly refer to as Henry’s “crazy years”). It is turning out to be far darker than I expected – at least the way the story is revealing itself to me – and I have to say, I am having a blast.
Last week, I sank the Mary Rose (single handedly!). Gardiner was watching the battle with Henry from the shore in Portsmouth, they were right there as the pride of the country foundered (I use two points of view in a book; for Somerset I chose Edward and Gardiner/Protagonist and Antagonist – and Edward was off in Scotland at the time so Gardiner got to be the filter for the event). The scene was intense as it took them through the emotional devastation, the possibility of losing to the French, the fear that God had turned his face from them. But there was something about it that seemed just too pat, too predictable. I wanted a twist.
I got a great one....
Tell us about this "wild parallel"?
The night before the planned French attack, Francis went to dine on his own flagship, the Carraquon, to send off his fleet. Being a king, he brought his own food and chef. The poor man was used to the royal kitchens, not the cramped quarters of a ship’s galley. He was careless with the galley fires, which is not something to do when you’re that close to so much gunpowder. The fire spread quickly and Francis and his family barely made it off the ship before it blew up spectacularly. They had to delay the attack a couple of days to create a new flagship…
That detail changed everything. It allowed me to start the scene with English arrogance and overconfidence. After all, they had the Great Harry and the Mary Rose, the finest warships in the world, and hundreds of cannon whose fine construction was the envy of their enemies. And, of course, they smugly saw the hand of God in the destruction of the Carraquon– a sign that the Almighty was firmly on the English side. Playing up that attitude made the sudden reversal in the tragedy of the Mary Rose all that more poignant and terrible. It also gave my scene the oomph I was after …
Janet Wertman is the author of Jane the Quene (The Seymour Saga), a fantastic novel about a fascinating Tudor queen.
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Dr Thomas Wendy – King’s physician
On this day in history, 11th May 1560, Dr Thomas Wendy, physician to Henry VIII and Queen Catherine Parr, died at Haslingfield in Cambridgeshire. He was sixty-one years old at his death.
Henry Machyn records in his diary that Dr Wendy was buried on 27th May at Cambridge:
“The xxvij day of May was the obseque and fen[eral] of master docthur Wende, fessyssyon [physician] at Cambryge, a penon of armes and a cott armur, and vj dosen and d’ [half] of skochyons of armes, and a harold of armes master Somersett, and . . morners in blake, and he gayff mony gownes to pore men, and ther was a grett dolle, and thether resortyd xx m[iles] off vC. pepull and had grett plente of mett and drynke, boyth hosses [houses] and barnes and feldes, grett store as has bene [seen] for a men [mean] gentyllman, and gret mone mad [moan made].”
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A contemporary image of Anne Boleyn
This week’s Claire Chats video has been inspired by a debate that’s been happening online over an image from The Black Book of the Garter which Roland Hui believes to be of Anne Boleyn.
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Reading and Research by Stephanie A. Mann
We have many historians as members of the Tudor Society, and we thought it would be interesting to ask them what they are researching or working on at the moment, and whether they've come across anything of interest from the Tudor Period.
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Margaret of York
Thank you to Heather R. Darsie, our regular contributor, for writing this article on Margaret of York (1446-1503).
On 3 May 1446, Margaret of York, younger sister of the future Edward IV, was born. The fifth of seven children and the youngest daughter of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, and his wife, Cecily Neville, Margaret of York began her life at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire. Her youngest sibling and the youngest of the seven children, the future Richard III of England, was born at the same castle in 1452. Margaret lived an uneventful life until she was about nineteen years old, when the opportunity to become Duchess of Burgundy presented itself.
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2 May 1550 – The burning of Joan Bocher, Joan of Kent
We don’t usually associate religious persecution with the reign of Edward VI, but people did suffer in his reign.
On this day in history, 2nd May 1550, Joan Bocher (Boucher, Butcher, Knel, Knell), an Anabaptist, was burnt at the stake at Smithfield. Bocher believed that Christ’s flesh was “not incarnate of the Virgin Mary” and so she was convicted of heresy and condemned to death.
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Maypoles and rioting
1st May is May Day, a day to celebrate the start of summer and you can read more about how it was celebrated and see a video of Maypole dancing in my article “May Day”.
However, it wasn’t always a day of fun and dancing, in 1517 there was a riot.
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William Shakespeare
Sunday is the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare in 1616 and possibly his birth in 1564, so is seems fitting for Claire to do a talk on him and to also share other resources on the Bard.
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21 April 1509 – The death of Henry VII
At 11 o’clock on the night of 21st April 1509, King Henry VII died at Richmond Palace. It was not a sudden death, the king had been ill for some time and had shut himself away at Richmond since January.
John Fisher, the future Bishop of Rochester, recorded details of Henry VII’s last days for a sermon. The king died a good Christian death but his last days were far from peaceful, they involved confession, prayer, weeping and a dying man trying to bargain with God, pleading with God that he would be a changed man if God sent him life. Fisher writes of how he received the sacrament of penance “with a marvellous compassion and flow of tears, that at some time he wept and sobbed by the space of three quarters of an hour.”
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21 April 1509 – The accession of Henry VIII
On the 21st April 1509, following the death of his father, Henry VII, seventeen-year-old Henry VIII became king. His accession was greeted with joy. The Spanish envoy Gutierre Gómez de Fuensalida wrote that “The people are very happy and few tears are being shed for Henry VII. Instead, people are as joyful as if they had been released from prison” and William, Lord Mountjoy, wrote to Desiderius Erasmus, the renowned humanist and scholar, saying:
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Polydore Vergil
On this day in history, 18th April 1555, Polidoro Virgili (Polydore Vergil or Virgil), the Italian humanist scholar and historian, died at Urbino. He was buried in the Chapel of St Andrew in the Duomo in Urbino. Virgil has been called the “Father of English History”, and his famous works include De inventoribus rerum and the Anglica Historia.
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Researching Tudor people
In this week’s Claire Chats video, Claire gives some tips on how to go about researching specific Tudor people and what sources you can use.
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Good Friday in my village
Today is Good Friday and I will miss the procession in my village today because we’re off to see the Passion play in another village, but I know that some of you enjoy the photos I share of feast days and processions here so I thought I’d share these photos from a few years ago.
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James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell
James Hepburn, 1st Duke of Orkney, 4th Earl of Bothwell and the third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, was the son of Patrick Hepburn, 3rd Earl of Bothwell and Lord High Admiral, known as the “Fair Earl”, and his wife Agnes Sinclair, daughter of Henry Sinclair, 3rd Lord Sinclair. In 1556, on his father’s death, James became 4th Earl of Bothwell and Lord High Admiral of Scotland.
In 1559/1560 Bothwell visited Denmark on the way to France and met Anna Throndsen (Anne Thorssen). He is alleged to have seduced and even married Anne but deserted her. In 1566, he married Jean Gordon, second eldest daughter of George Gordon, Earl of Huntly, but the marriage was not a happy one, as Jean accused Bothwell of adultery with her maid and seamstress, Bessie Crawford. The marriage was annulled in May 1567 on the grounds of consanguinity. Eight days after the divorce, Bothwell married Mary, Queen of Scots.
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Holy Week and Easter in Tudor times
I often think that living in Spain, a Catholic country, brings me that bit closer to life in Tudor England because their religious calendar – with all of its feast days, fasting, religious processions etc. – is still followed in countries like Spain today and whole villages and towns join in.
I realise that festivals like Holy Week and Easter are still celebrated or commemorated by Christians all over the world, but in countries like the UK Holy Week is no longer a week-long festival celebrated by everyone. Mostly, it’s time to have a holiday and exchange cards and Easter eggs. Here in Spain, there are processions on days like Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday, in every town and village, however small. Everyone gets involved in “Semana Santa”. It’s a big deal! A huge deal! And so it was in Tudor times, where daily life was tied to the religious calendar.
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William Strachey 1572-1621
On this day in history, 4th April 1572, the writer William Strachey was born in Saffron Walden in Essex, England. He was the son of William Strachey and Mary Cooke. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and by 1605 had joined Gray’s Inn in London.
Strachey married his first wife, Frances Forster, in 1595 and had two sons by her, William and Edmund. Frances had died by 1615 and William took a second wife, a widow called Dorothy.
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25 March – Lady Day and the New Year
In Tudor England, the New Year began 25th March, a day known as Lady Day or the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. It was a feast day commemorating the day that the Virgin Mary was first told by the Angel Gabriel that she was carrying Jesus. It is, of course, nine months before Christmas Day, the day in which Christ was born.
Lady Day was the first day of the calendar year in England until 1752, when the first day of the year was changed to 1 January and the Gregorian Calendar replaced the Julian Calendar. Although the calendar year officially started on 25 March in Tudor times, New Year’s gifts were still given on 1 January, which came from the Roman tradition of New Year.
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21 March 1556 – The burning of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury
On this day in history, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake in Oxford. He had recanted his Protestant faith five times, but it didn’t stop his execution from being scheduled.
On the day of his execution, Cranmer was taken to the University Church Oxford to make a final public recantation. He agreed to this, but after praying and exhorting the people to obey the King and Queen, he renounced his recantations and professed his true Protestant faith. He vowed that his right hand, the hand that he had used to write his recantations which were “contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death, and to save my life”, would be the first part of him burned in the fire.
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Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, was born in or before 1509 and was the fourth son of Sir John Seymour and his wife Margery Wentworth. He would have grown up at the Seymour family home of Wolf Hall (also known as Wulfhall) in Wiltshire. He was one of a brood of six sons and four daughters, and his siblings included Edward Seymour, Lord Protector; Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife and queen consort; Elizabeth Seymour, who married three times: Sir Anthony Ughtred, Gregory Cromwell and John Paulet; and Sir Henry Seymour.
Nothing is known of his early life, but Thomas started his court career by serving courtier and diplomat, Sir Francis Bryan, in whose service he was in by 1530. The Seymour family began to rise in favour at Henry VIII’s court as the king started courting Jane Seymour in spring 1536 and then married her on 30th May 1536, following the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn. Thomas joined Henry VIII’s privy chamber in October 1536 and while his sister was queen his rewards included being knighted and being named joint master steward of Chirk and Holt. In 1538, he benefited from the dissolution of the monasteries by receiving land once owned by monasteries in Essex, Hampshire and Berkshire. He was involved in diplomatic missions to France, Vienna and the Low Countries in 1538, 1542 and 1543 respectively.
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Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset
The fifth article in Sarah Bryson’s series on prominent Tudor courtiers…
Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset is one of the most well-known of Henry VIII’s courtiers. Although the duke was most influential under the reign of his nephew, King Edward VI, it was during the reign of Henry VIII that Seymour started his ascent at the Tudor court.
The exact date of Edward’s birth has not been recorded, but it is believed that he was born around 1500 at the family’s home of Wolf Hall, Wiltshire, to Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth. John and Margery had ten children: six sons (John, Edward, Henry, Thomas, John and Anthony) and four daughters (Jane, Elizabeth, Margery and Dorothy). Edward Seymour was descended from the ancient family lines of the Percys and Cliffords, and his father served both King Henry VII and King Henry VIII as Sheriff of Wiltshire and Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, cementing the family’s loyalty to the Tudors.
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Nicholas Carew
The fourth article in Sarah Bryson's series on prominent Tudor courtiers...
Nicholas Carew
In today's article, I will be exploring the life of Nicholas Carew, Master of the Horse and close friend of King Henry VIII. Carew's life was one of prosperity moving from one advantageous position to another until suddenly and unexpectedly his king turned upon him. Carew would prove that not even being a close friend to the king could save you from the executioner's block.
While the exact date of Nicholas Carew’s birth is unknown, it is believed that he was born by 1496 to Sir Richard Carew of Beddington. There is no information regarding Carew’s childhood, however, during his teenage years, he made his first appearance at court, and in May 1511 he was made a groom of the privy chamber. In 1513 he was associated with his father in a grant from the crown for the office of Lieutenant of Calais Castle. After the death of his father, Carew surrendered the association with Lieutenant of Calais yet continued to receive an annuity from Calais of around £100. Despite protests from other courtiers, this annuity continued until 1524 when Carew was granted lands of equal value.
In the autumn of 1513, Henry VIII decided to invade France with an army of 30, 000 men, which included Carew. The English army took the city of Therouanne in Artois without a great deal of difficulty and then went on to besiege Tournai. Nicholas’s father led the artillery at Tournai and for his efforts at Therouanne Nicholas received “a coat of rivet” from the king.
The following year, Carew married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Bryan of Ashridge, vice-chamberlain to Queen Katherine of Aragon. The couple were granted the lands of Wallington, Carshalton, Beddington, Woodmansterne, Woodcote, and Mitcham, in Surrey upon their marriage. Nicholas and Elizabeth had one son, Francis, and four daughters, Elizabeth, Mary, Anne, and Isabel.
By 1515, Nicholas was recorded as being a squire to Henry VIII and one of the king’s cupbearers, being granted 30 marks per year. Sometime between 1515 and 7th July 1517, Nicholas was knighted. On the 7th of July 1517, Nicholas was recorded as a knight who attended the ambassadors of the future Charles V, at a banquet. On 18th December, Carew was also recorded as a knight when he was appointed keeper of the manor of Pleasaunce in East Greenwich, and of the accompanying park. In addition to being knighted, in 1518 Carew had the distinction of being appointed a gentleman of the privy chamber.
Nicholas Carew appears to have been a close friend of Henry VIII, both men similar in age, strong and athletic. They also shared common interests including a love of hunting and jousting. Carew was frequently mentioned in the lists of men participating in jousting events during Henry VIII’s early reign. One such example was on 17th July 1517 when Carew distinguished himself in the jousts in which Henry VIII also participated. After the jousts, Carew entered the lists, and three men carried out a lance nine inches in diameter and twelve feet long! Carew carried the huge lance three-quarters of the way down the lists to the amazement of the crowd!
Sometime between 1514 and 1518, Carew was banished from court. The reason and exact length of the banishment are unknown. By 1519, he had returned. However, in that same year, Carew and a number of men were banished from court partially due to their familiarity and influence upon the king and also in an attempt to save funds. Carew’s punishment was to be appointed as Lieutenant of Rysbank Tower, the tower that guarded the entrance to Calais harbour. Carew’s banishment was short; within six months he was back at court attending festivities. On 19th October 1520, Carew relinquished his post at Calais and in return was granted a pension of £100. A month later he gave up the annuity of 30 marks as the king’s cupbearer.
By 1518-1519, Carew had been appointed as sheriff of Surrey and Sussex. He also attended the Field of Cloth of Gold in June 1520, where Henry VIII met with the French king, Francis I, and participated in the jousting events for the English. Following the Field of the Cloth of Gold, Carew travelled with Henry VIII to Gravelines to meet Charles V.
Carew’s prospects continued to rise when in 1521 he was granted the offices of Constable of Wallingford Castle and Steward of the honour of Wallingford and St. Walric, and land at Chiltern. In Christmas 1521 Carew had the high honour of being appointed as the king’s carver. On 18th July 1522, Carew was appointed as Master of the Horse, one of the three highest positions at court. He was also granted the manor of Brasted in Kent, which had formally belonged to the Duke of Buckingham, and the manor of Bletchingley in Surrey.
Carew also proved to be a capable ambassador to Henry VIII. In late 1520, Carew was sent to Francis I to deliver papers and to persuade the French king not to invade Italy. Although the mission was not completely successful, Carew was granted £100 for his services. In 1527, Carew, Lord Lisle, Dr Taylor, Anthony Browne and Thomas Wriothesley were ordered to bestow the Order of the Garter on Francis I. In the same year, Carew's lands were assessed at around £400, a sizeable sum for the time.
In 1529, Carew continued his ambassadorial duties when he, Dr Sampson and Dr Bennet were sent to Bologna to ratify the Treaty of Cambrai with Charles V. Carew was also tasked with seeking Charles V’s thoughts on Henry VIII’s “Great Matter”, that is the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. When Carew left Bologna on 8th February 1530, he was given a gold chain worth 2000 ducats by Charles V.
In 1532, Carew returned to France to meet with Francis I and to organise a meeting between Henry VIII and Francis. Carew was reported as wishing he did not have to go. However, he was a dutiful servant and followed his king’s wishes. It is highly likely that Carew spoke with Francis I regarding his thoughts on Henry VIII’s “Great Matter” and the king’s possible marriage to Anne Boleyn.
Francis I appeared to have highly favoured Carew as in 1533 and in 1534 he wrote to Henry VIII to ask him to bestow the Order of the Garter, the highest order of chivalry in England, on Carew. As no current positions were available in the order, Henry VIII promised to do so at the next available opening. In April 1536, it was commonly believed that George Boleyn, brother of Anne Boleyn, now second wife to Henry VIII, would receive the appointment to the Order of the Garter. However, on St. George’s day (23rd April) Sir Nicholas Carew was appointed. While a huge honour to Carew, such an appointment was a major blow to the Boleyns.
Carew was no friend of the Boleyns. When Henry VIII’s fool spoke favourably of Queen Katherine of Aragon, Henry VIII was outraged and banished his fool from court for a time. The fool sought refuge with Carew. Carew also aligned himself with Thomas Cromwell and spoke unfavourably of Anne Boleyn to the King. It is believed that Carew was one of the men coaching Jane Seymour on how to behave with the king, even providing Jane lodgings at his house at Beddington so that the king could visit her regularly.
Carew was installed into the Order of the Garter on 21st May 1537, at the order’s feast. He also attended the christening of Henry VIII’s longed-for son and heir, Edward, in October 1537. However, in November 1538, the strings would start to unravel that would lead to Carew’s arrest and his execution.
In November, Henry Pole, Baron Montague, and Henry Courtney, Marquis of Exeter, were arrested and taken to the Tower of London. They were charged with treason for corresponding with Cardinal Reginal Pole, Montague’s brother and an enemy of Henry VIII, and for wishing to see a change in the kingdom. Early the following year, Carew was arrested and then tried on 14th February 1539. At his trial, Carew was accused of corresponding with Montague and hiding Montague’s traitorous plans, as well as wishing for a change in the realm. The letters that passed between Carew and Montague were allegedly burned, and the evidence against Carew was flimsy at best. He was still sentenced to death.Sir Nicholas Carew was beheaded on Tower Hill on 8th March 1539. Upon the scaffold it is reported that Carew “made a goodly confession, both of his folly and superstitious faith, giving God most hearty thanks that ever he came in the prison of the Tower, where he first savoured the life and sweetness of God’s most holy word, meaning the Bible in English.” (Bayley p. 377).
Memorial to Nicholas Carew at St Botolph's.
Carew was buried in St Botolph without Aldgate. When his wife, Elizabeth, died in 1546, her remains were buried with Nicholas. On their deaths, the remains of their daughter Mary and Mary’s husband Sir Arthur Darcy were added to the tomb. As a traitor, Carew’s property and lands reverted to the crown, but an act of Parliament in 1554 granted Carew’s son, Francis, his father’s former property and lands.
Sir Nicholas Carew was a loyal servant and friend of King Henry VIII. He served his king both at court and as an ambassador overseas, as well as participating in court festivities. He shared a love of jousting and hunting with the king and manoeuvred the ever-changing social order of the king’s court. Despite his close friendship with Henry VIII, Carew’s end came swiftly and suddenly, showing that even being a friend of Henry VIII could not save you from the executioner's block.Sarah's other "The King's Men" articles:
Sources
- Bayley, J.W. (1825) The history and antiquities of the Tower of London: with memoirs of royal and distinguished persons, deduced from records, state-papers, and manuscripts, and from other original and authentic sources, T. Cadell, London.
- Doran, Susan (2008) The Tudor Chronicles, Quercus Publishing, London.
- Jokinen, Anniina 2010, Sir Nicholas Carew, Luminarium Encyclopaedia Project, viewed 10 February 2017, http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/carew.htm.
- Lehmberg, S (2007) Carew, Sir Nicholas (b. in or before 1496, d. 1539), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, viewed 18 February, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4633.
- Richardson, Douglas (2011) Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, CreateSpace, USA.
- Ridgway, Claire (2014) "23 April 1536 – Nicholas Carew, George Boleyn and the Order of the Garter", The Anne Boleyn Files, viewed 10 February 2017, http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/23-april-1536-nicholas-carew-george-boleyn-order-garter/.
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Anne Askew by Roland Hui
Today we have a guest post from Roland Hui as part of his book tour for his debut book “The Turbulent Crown: The Story of the Tudor Queens”.
MadeGlobal Publishing is giving away a copy of Roland’s book at each stop and all you need to do at this stop is to leave a comment below saying which queen or queen consort you feel had the most turbulent life. Leave your comment before midnight on 8th March 2017. One comment will be picked at random and the person contacted for their details.
Over to Roland…
When Henry VIII married Katharine Parr in 1543, the general opinion was that the King had chosen most wisely. Unlike his previous wife, Katheryn Howard, this Katharine was no young lady with a sordid past, but a mature, sensible widow. The new Queen was also known for her piety.
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Your timing is perfect! I just stumbled upon a gem that made me dance.
