In this month’s Tudor Life magazine we are focussing on the wide-ranging impact of the Tudors on religion. It was a time of great upheaval throughout the country and we look into some of the major changes that took place during the Tudor period.
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Alice was the youngest of eight daughters of Sir John Spencer (d.1586) and Katherine Kyston. She was born at Althorp, the seat of the Spencer family in Northamptonshire. Sir John was a prominent English gentleman, landowner, sheriff and Member of Parliament. John’s family would continue a dynasty that would grow throughout the seventeenth/eighteenth century as one of the country’s foremost aristocratic families. John’s motivation enabled the family to acquire great wealth through skilful land management and sheep farming, with all the Spencer daughters provided for in their marriages.
Alice married twice, with her first husband being Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange, heir to the earldom of Derby. His mother was Margaret Clifford, Countess of Derby, a claimant to the English throne through her maternal grandmother, Mary Tudor, Queen of France and sister to the former king, Henry VIII. This placed Ferdinando in a precarious situation, as his existence would be viewed with suspicion by the queen. This sense of Queen Elizabeth’s anxiety is evident from her treatment of Lady Katherine Grey, who was placed under house arrest several times (sister of Lady Jane Grey, another potential claimant to the throne through Mary Tudor). Alice and Lord Strange had a reportedly affectionate marriage that produced three daughters: Anne, Frances and Elizabeth.
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Frances (née Brandon) was the eldest daughter of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and his third wife, Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII and widow of Louis XII of France. It is worth examining Frances’s parents and their significance within Tudor society before moving onto her life. Her father was an extraordinary character: magnate, courtier, and soldier, he exemplified the ideal qualities associated with being a male sixteenth-century courtier. Having been a close confidant to Henry VIII throughout his childhood, Suffolk found military fame in 1512 as a result of his involvement with the Anglo-French war. This war led to a successful siege of the French town of Tournai, with the inhabitants essentially forced to surrender to the invasion of the English king. As a result, Henry passed the keys of the city to Suffolk as a result of his honour and bravery.
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Happy birthday to the man who has the honour of being both my favourite and least favourite king! I find him fascinating but also love to hate him.
I thought I’d celebrate the anniversary of his birth on 28th June 1491 by sharing some of the Henry VIII resources we have here for members at the Tudor Society:
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Mildred Cooke came from the influential Cooke family of Gidea Hall, Essex, a household renowned for its links with Renaissance humanism and reformist sympathies. Her father, Sir Anthony Cooke, was a royal tutor to King Edward VI; shaping the boy king’s interest in classical learning and Protestantism. Mildred’s sisters: Anne, Catherine and Elizabeth became renowned female scholars, with Anne famously translating from Latin John Jewel’s Apologie of the Anglican Church (1564). While the Cooke women were in the minority in terms of female education, (Thomas More’s daughter Margaret, and his wards, received humanist educations) their education did not mirror their male contemporaries. Sixteenth-century European scholars and clergyman dictated that women were naturally defective and immoral in comparison with virtuous, honourable men. However Humanist educators, such as Juan Luis Vives, understood the importance of educating women. He stressed that their curriculum should avoid ‘masculine’ studies such as mathematics, science and government. Rather, he recommended studying theological translations, languages and the moral philosophers of antiquity such as Plato and Cicero; topics that would not ‘corrupt’ the innate weakness of the female sex.
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Honor Grenville was born around c.1493-95; the daughter of Sir Thomas Grenville and his wife, Isabella Gilbert. Thomas was of Cornish origin, from the parish of Stowe in Kilkhampton, Cornwall. Honor was first married to Sir John Basset (1462-1528) of Umberleigh in the Parish of Atherington in Devon. The marriage was fairly ideal for the daughter of a gentry family. Her father was a well-respected Lord of the Manor of Stowe and Bideford in Devon. Additionally, he was a renowned Lancastrian supporter during the Wars of the Roses period, appointed one of the Esquires of the Body to Henry VII. Honor’s husband was Sherriff of Devon in the years 1497, 1517 and 1522, respectively and an important figure in West country politics. The couple produced seven surviving children, who entered a variety of careers. These children shall be explored later in the article.
While the marriage was ideal in terms of production of children, Honor’s second marriage would propel her into more discernible society. Her husband, John Basset, died in 1528, with Honor soon after marrying Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, thus becoming Lady Lisle. Her husband was later given the office of Lord Deputy of Calais. Most significantly about Arthur was his lineage, being the illegitimate son of King Edward IV and therefore having Plantagenet blood. He was the half-brother of Queen Elizabeth of York and uncle of the current king of this period, Henry VIII – an uneasy connection.
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28th May:
1509 – Death of Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon. He was buried at Tiverton.
1533 – Archbishop Thomas Cranmer proclaimed the validity of Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn.
1535 – Birth of Sir Thomas North, translator, in London.
1582 – Executions of Roman Catholic priests Thomas Forde, John Shert and Robert Johnson at Tyburn. They were hanged, drawn and quartered.
1611 – Funeral of Thomas Sutton, founder of the London Charterhouse.
Congratulations to Mary, the winner of our competition to win a copy of Gareth Russell’s “Young and Damned and Fair”.
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In this week’s Claire Chat’s video talk, I look at one of my very favourite sources for primary sources and old books, and show you how to use it.
I hope you find it helpful!
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Sir Anthony Denny was born in Cheshunt on 16th January 1501. He was the second son of Sir Edmund Denny and his second wife, Mary Troutbeck. Edmund was a Hertfordshire landowner who went on to become Baron of the Exchequer in the early years of Henry VIII’s reign.
Anthony Denny educated at St Paul’s School in London and then at St John’s College, Cambridge. Among his contemporaries at St Paul’s were John Leland, William Paget and Thomas Wriothesley. Although he attended St John’s, there is no record of his graduation.
Denny’s early public career began in the service of Sir Francis Bryan who was a favourite of King Henry VIII. Denny assisted Bryan on diplomatic missions to France. In the 1520s, he served the king in the royal household.
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On this day in history, fourteen-year-old King Edward VI fell ill. His journal entry for 2nd April 1552 reads “I fell sike of the mesels [measles] and the small pokkes [smallpox]”, but he doesn’t mention it again in the entries for that month and he was still able to write entries.
In a letter to his friend Barnaby Fitzpatrick written on 3 May 1552, Edward mentions his recent illness:
“We have a little been troubled with the smallpox, which hath letted us to write hitherto; but now we have shaken that quite away.”
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On this day in history, 24th March 1603, Queen Elizabeth I died at Richmond Palace. She was sixty-nine years old and had ruled for over forty-four years.
You can click here to read more about her death, but I thought it would be useful to list some Elizabeth I resources for you here:
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As today is the anniversary of the burning of Thomas Cranmer, former Archbishop of Canterbury, on 21st March 1556 in Oxford, I thought I’d list some resources for you to find out more about this fascinating Tudor man.
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Thank you to Teri Fitgerald for writing this biography of Frances Murfyn, a little know Tudor woman, for us.
Frances Murfyn (c.1519–c.1543) was the daughter of Sir Thomas Murfyn, an alderman and former lord mayor of London, and his second wife Elizabeth Donne, daughter, and heir, of Sir Angel Donne, alderman of London and Anne Hawardine of Cheshire.
Her father died in 1523 and her mother subsequently married Sir Thomas Denys in 1524. Her older sister Mary had married, in 1523, Andrew Judde, a successful merchant and future lord mayor of London. In early 1534, her stepfather successfully negotiated a marriage between Frances and Richard Cromwell (c.1510–1544), the nephew of Thomas Cromwell. The couple were married by 8th March 1534 and they would have two sons: Henry (c.1537–1604) and Francis (c.1541–1598).
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On this day in history, 19th March 1568, Elizabeth Seymour, the wife of John Paulet, Lord St John died. She was laid to rest on 5th April in the Paulet family church of St Mary at Basing, Hampshire.1 She was around fifty years of age.
The undated inscription on the wall of the vault in the church (as transcribed by Lord Bolton, 16th Dec. 1903) reads:
“Hic jacet D[omina] Cromwell, quondam conjux Johis, Marchionis Winton.”2
Known by her superior title of Lady Cromwell, Elizabeth was never a Marchioness – her husband succeeded his father as 2nd Marquess of Winchester after her death.
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King Edward IV married the Lancastrian widow Elizabeth Wydeville [Woodville] in the spring or summer of 1464. In nineteen years of marriage, Elizabeth gave birth to ten children, seven of whom were daughters. The eldest daughter Elizabeth, born in 1466, remains the most well known in popular and scholarly circles and Edward IV’s other four daughters are significantly neglected both in factual and fictional accounts of their lives. The emphasis on Elizabeth and the neglect of her sisters are perhaps understandable, in that Elizabeth married Henry Tudor in 1485 and gave birth to Henry VIII in 1491. A queen of England undoubtedly attracts more attention than a countess or viscountess. Yet the lives of Elizabeth of York’s younger sisters are interesting in shedding light on the marriage policies of the houses of York and Tudor in an era of intermittent dynastic and political conflict. They also illuminate the contrasting fortunes of members of a side-lined royal dynasty.
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Happy St David’s Day to all those in Wales or with Welsh blood. Are you wearing a leek or a daffodil today? I’d love to know if you are.
Here is an extract from our Tudor Feast Days e-book on St David’s Day…
1st March is the feast day of St David (Dewi Sant), patron saint of Wales. According to Rhigyfarch’s Life of Saint David, David lived in the 6th century and founded religious centres including Glastonbury and Croyland. He then travelled to the Holy Land and was made archbishop at Jerusalem before travelling back to Wales and settling at Glyn Rhosyn (Rose Vale), or St David’s, in Pembrokeshire, Wales. There, he founded a monastery whose site is now marked by St David’s Cathedral.
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Thank you so much to Tudor Society member Mary for asking this question. Mary’s full question was “I’ve often wondered why certain old texts/manuscripts are only handled with gloved hands, while others are not. Can someone explain?”
This is something I can explain as I researched it a couple of years ago because I had comments when I shared a video of a historian touching a medieval manuscript without gloves. Those who viewed it were horrified, but archives’ policies have changed and it’s all for the best, to keep these precious manuscripts safe from harm so that they can be enjoyed by many more generations to come.
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Today is the anniversary of the death of Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, Master of the Ordnance, Privy Councillor and fourth son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, at Bedford House on the Strand in 1590. He was laid to rest in the Beauchamp Chapel of the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick. You can read more about Ambrose in my bio of him – Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick.
I have a real fondness for the Dudley family and was very moved when I visited the tombs of Ambrose, his brother Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and Robert’s wife, Lettice, and Robert’s little boy, Robert Dudley, Lord Denbigh, “the noble imp” as his tomb says.
Here are some photos I took at the church in Warwick. By the way, the crowns are earls’ coronets rather than royal crowns.
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Thank you to Tudor Society member Denis for asking the question “Was Elizabeth I as awful a person as Philippa Gregory paints her in her novel The Last Tudor?” I haven’t read the novel, so can’t share any views, but I know that Philippa Gregory used Leanda de Lisle’s book The Sisters Who Would be Queen for research so I asked Leanda. Leanda said:
“Elizabeth I had good reason to be frightened of the Grey sisters as her possible heirs. She had already seen the eldest, Jane, supplant her in the line of succession and was very frightened that a married Katherine – with a son – could replace her on the throne. She had far less reason to fear Mary Grey, but her harsh treatment of Thomas Keyes sent a message to all – do not cross the queen on the matter of marriage to members of the royal family. If you read my Tudor: The Family Story, you will discover that the Grey sisters and Mary, Queen of Scots were not the only heirs she imprisoned, and it also explains the importance of these issues throughout the story of the dynasty.”
Thank you to Tudor Society member Denis for asking the question “Was Elizabeth I as awful a person as Philippa Gregory paints her in her novel The Last Tudor?” I haven’t read the novel, so can’t share any views, but I know that Philippa Gregory used Leanda de Lisle’s book The Sisters Who Would be Queen for research so I asked Leanda. Leanda said:
“Elizabeth I had good reason to be frightened of the Grey sisters as her possible heirs. She had already seen the eldest, Jane, supplant her in the line of succession and was very frightened that a married Katherine – with a son – could replace her on the throne. She had far less reason to fear Mary Grey…
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On this day in history, 12th February 1554, Lord Guildford Dudley, son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was executed on Tower Hill. Not long after, Guildford’s wife, Queen Jane, or Lady Jane Grey as she is more commonly known, great-granddaughter of King Henry VII, was executed at the Tower of London.
You can find out more about Jane and Guildford’s executions in the following articles:
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Today, I am concluding my examination of Catherine of Aragon’s pregnancies and what evidence we have for them from the primary sources.
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As this week was the anniversary of Queen Catherine of Aragon giving birth to a still-born daughter in 1510, I thought I’d look at the primary source accounts we have of Catherine’s pregnancies.
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Charles Brandon was one of King Henry VIII’s most trusted advisors and friends. He married the king’s sister, even when he had been trusted not too, and eventually married a lady thirty-five years younger than him.
Being someone who was so close to Henry VIII, what was Brandon’s real purpose? What did he achieve in his lifetime? And, how did he rise so high?
Charles Brandon was born around 1484 and was one of two sons born to Sir William Brandon and Elizabeth Bruyn of South Ockendon. His father was Henry VII’s standard-bearer at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, which is where he is said to have been killed by Richard III himself. King Henry VII saw how loyal William had been to him, so, therefore, chose to repay this debt by having his son, Charles, brought up at his court. Charles was just two years older than Henry VII’s eldest child, Prince Arthur, but when Arthur married the Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon, in 1502, Charles did not join them at Ludlow Castle. Instead, he stayed in London and got to know Arthur’s younger brother, Henry, Duke of York.
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On 27th January 1606, the eight surviving conspirators of the November 1605 Gunpowder Plot were tried at Westminster for high treason. Those tried were Guy Fawkes, Robert and Thomas Wintour (Winter), John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, Thomas Bates and Sir Everard Digby. Jesuits Henry Garnet, Oswald Tesmond (Tesimond) and John Gerard were said to have “traitorously move[d] and persuade[d]” the conspirators. The other conspirators had died shortly after the plot had been discovered; John Wright, Christopher Wright, Thomas Percy and Robert Catesby were shot dead at Holbeche House in a siege on 8th November, and Francis Tresham died in the Tower of London on 23rd December 1605.
[Read More...]Lady Jane Grey is a hot topic at the moment with Helen Castor’s programme having recently aired in the UK. I thought it would be useful for members if I created this list of useful resources to find out more about Queen Jane, who was a fascinating Tudor woman.
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Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week were treats for us Tudor history lovers with access to British TV because BBC Four was airing “England’s Forgotten Queen: The Life and Death of Lady Jane Grey” followed by Lucy Worsley’s “Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness changed History”. I think “Fit to Rule” had been on before, but I’d missed it and so enjoyed catching up on that. Two hours of history for three nights – bliss!
So what was “England’s Forgotten Queen: The Life and Death of Lady Jane Grey” like and would I recommend it?
The simple answer is yes, but let me tell you a bit more about it.
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Thomas Howard was a politician, English nobleman and lived to a ripe old age of 81! For someone who spent a lot of time in the English court, he also had very stable connections which kept him in his position, especially since he was the grandfather of two queens of England, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, making him the great-grandfather to Queen Elizabeth I. Serving four monarchs as both statesmen and solider, who was Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Surrey?
Thomas Howard was born in 1443; he was the only son of Sir John Howard and Catherine Howard, daughter of Lord William Moleyns. Having been educated in Thetford school as he got older Surrey started a career as a henchman in court. In the service of Edward IV, Thomas, who was still a young man, took the king’s side when war began in 1469 and having taken the Kings side took sanctuary in 1470 when the king fled to Holland. After he sustained an injury in 1471, he was appointed as a knight in 1478 at the marriage of the king’s son. In the same year, he was appointed as a Knight of the Garter and became appointed to the privy council.
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I am so looking forward to this 3-part TV programme from the BBC presented by historian Helen Castor. It’s on in the UK on BBC Four at 9pm on 9th, 10th and 11th January and as well as Helen Castor, it features historians like John Guy, Leanda de Lisle, J Stephan Edwards and Anna Whitelock.
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Today, 28th December, is Childermas or Holy Innocents’ Day. It was part of the Twelve Days of Christmas in Tudor times and is a feast day that remembers the slaughter of the baby boys ordered by King Herod in Bethlehem when he heard of the birth of the Christ Child, “the Massacre of the Innocents”.
The apostle Matthew told of the atrocity:
“16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
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