On this day in Tudor history, Elizabethan actor and famous clown Richard Tarlton died; and writer and playwright Robert Greene, who dubbed Shakespeare an “upstart crow”, died…

On this day in history, 6th August 1623, Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, died.

Anne married Shakespeare in 1582 when she was pregnant with their first child. They had three children, Susanna, and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet died young.

Anne was buried next to Shakespeare at Holy Trinity Church.

On this day in Tudor history, 27th November 1582, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the famous playwright William Shakespeare married Anne (also known as Agnes) Hathaway at Temple Grafton, near Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire.

Shakespeare was eighteen years old when he married his twenty-six-year-old bride, who was pregnant at the time of their marriage. Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susannah, the following May. The couple went on to have twins, Hamnet and Judith, in 1585.

Find out more about William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, and their marriage, and also what happened to them…

On this day in Tudor history, 8th September 1601, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, John Shakespeare, father of playwright William Shakespeare, was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon.

John Shakespeare was a glover and whittawer from Stratford, and he was also an important man in the town. He’d served as high bailiff, chief alderman and deputy bailiff, and had been given the right to educate his children at the local grammar school for free.

He wasn’t just an upstanding member of the town, though, he also ran into trouble at times…

On this day in Tudor history, 3rd September 1592, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Elizabethan writer and playwright Robert Greene died in London.

Robert Greene was a prolific writer, but he is best known for the pamphlet “Greene’s Groats-worth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance”. It was said that he wrote the pamphlet on his deathbed.

On this day in Tudor history, 27th November 1531, former Benedictine monk and reformist, Richard Bayfield, was burnt at the stake at Smithfield for heresy after Sir Thomas More had caught him importing heretical books into England.

It wasn’t Bayfield’s first brush with the authorities. He’d been in trouble for heresy previously so was now deemed a “relapsed heretic”. This time, penance wasn’t enough, he was condemned to death.

Find out more about Richard Bayfield, how he went from being a monk to a reformer, and how he ended up at the stake as a Protestant martyr in this video…

On this day in Tudor history, 3rd September 1588, or possibly the 5th September, actor and clown, Richard Tarlton, died in Shoreditch. He was buried in St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch.

Tarlton was a member of the Queen’s Men acting company, but is famed for his post-play jigs as a clown. He was also known for being able to cheer up Queen Elizabeth I – how wonderful.

Find out more about Tudor clown Richard Tarlton, his life and career…

On this day in history, 6th August 1623, Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, the famous playwright, died.

Find out a bit more about Anne Hathaway, and hear the tomb inscription written about her by her son in law, in this edition of #TudorHistoryShorts…

On this day in Tudor history, 26th April 1564, the Bard, William Shakespeare, was baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. This was just three months before the plague hit the town, wiping out a fifth of its population. Fortunately for him, and us, Shakespeare didn’t catch it – phew!

Find out more about the plague and its outbreak in Stratford-upon-Avon in today’s talk.

On this day in Tudor history, 4th April 1572, William Strachey (and who knows if Claire pronounces his name right!), writer and historian of Virginia, was born in Saffron Walden in Essex, England.

Strachey’s account of the 1609 shipwreck of the Sea Venture in a hurricane was used as a source for William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”.

Find out more about Strachey, how he was marooned for a year, and why he died in poverty, in today’s talk.

On this day in Tudor history, 27th November 1582, eighteen year-old William Shakespeare, the famous playwright and a man known as the Bard, married twenty-six year-old Anne (also known as Agnes) Hathaway, at Temple Grafton, near Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire.

Anne Hathaway was pregnant at the time of their marriage and went on to give birth to a daughter, Susannah, the following May. The couple went on to have twins, Hamnet and Judith, in 1585.

Find out more about William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, and their marriage, and also what happened to them, in today’s talk:

On this day in Tudor history, 3rd September 1592, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Elizabethan writer and playwright Robert Greene died in London.

Greene was a prolific writer, but he is best known for a pamphlet “Greene’s Groats-worth of Wit bought with a Million of Repentance” which it was claimed he wrote on his deathbed. It is an important work because it is the first known contemporary reference to William Shakespeare as a playwright, although the reference to Shakespeare is actually an attack on the actor/playwright, who Greene saw as an “upstart crow”.

Find out more about the pamphlet and why Greene, or whoever wrote it, launched an attack of the Bard, in today’s talk.

On this day in Tudor history, 19th March 1563, Arthur Brooke, the man who wrote the very first version of the story of Romeo and Juliet in English, died in a shipwreck off the coast of Sussex.

Find out more about Arthur Brooke and his version of Romeo and Juliet in today’s video.