This week in history 28 May – 3 June

28 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. Click here to read more about that.
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.

29 May

1500 – Death of Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York, at Cawood Castle, Yorkshire. He was buried in York Minster.
1533 - Anne Boleyn's coronation pageantry began with a river procession. Click here to read more.
1542 – Death of Sir Thomas Neville, lawyer and Speaker of the House of Commons, county commissioner in Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Middlesex, and Knight of St John. He was the fifth son of George Neville, 2nd Baron Bergavenny. Neville was buried in Mereworth church in Kent.
1546 – Murder of David Beaton, Cardinal and Archbishop of St Andrews, at the castle in St Andrews. He was killed by a small group of Fife lairds. One motive was their outrage at the recent trial and execution of Protestant preacher George Wishart at St Andrews.
1555 – Birth of George Carew, Earl of Totnes, soldier, administrator and Lord President of Munster. He was a member of James I's Privy Council and his council of war. He was also a friend of Sir Walter Ralegh, and pleaded unsuccessfully for his life.
1593 – Hanging of religious controversialist John Penry at St Thomas-a-Watering in Surrey. Penry had been found guilty of "publishing scandalous writings against the church" after having been linked to the “Marprelate religious tracts.”
1623 – Burial of Francis Anthony, alchemist and physician, in the church of St Bartholomew-the-Great.

30 May

Jane Seymour

1472 – Death of Jacquetta de Luxembourg, Duchess of Bedford, Countess Rivers and mother of Elizabeth Woodville. Her resting place is not known.
1525 – Wolsey proclaimed the King's pardon for the rebels involved in the Amicable Grant Rebellion.
1533 – Order of the Bath ceremony during the celebrations for Anne Boleyn's coronation. Click here to read more.
1536 - Henry VIII married Jane Seymour in the Queen’s Closet at York Place (Whitehall). Click here to read more.
1555 – Burnings of Protestant martyrs John Cardmaker (clergyman) and John Warne (upholsterer) at Smithfield
1582 – Executions of Jesuit priest Thomas Cottam at Tyburn. He was hanged, drawn and quartered along with priests William Filbie, Luke Kirby, and Laurence Richardson. He refused the offer of a pardon, as it would have involved him acknowledging Queen Elizabeth I as Supreme Head of the Church.
1593 – Death of Christopher Marlowe, playwright and poet. He was stabbed to death at a house in Deptford Strand, near London, in what has been described as a "tavern brawl". However, he was killed in a private room of a house, not a tavern. Some believe that he was assassinated.
1630 – Death of Emanuel Scrope, Earl of Sunderland. He was buried at Langar in Nottinghamshire. Scrope was married to Philadelphia Carey, granddaughter of Mary Boleyn.
1640 – Death of Sir Peter Paul Rubens, painter, in Antwerp. It is thought that he died of complications caused by gout. He was buried in the family vault at St Jacob's Church, Antwerp.

31 May

Margaret Beaufort

1443 - Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, and matriarch of the Tudor dynasty, was born at Bletsoe Castle in Bedfordshire. Click here to read about her life.
1516 – Birth of John Harpsfield, religious writer and Catholic priest. He was born in the parish of St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street, London. His brother was Nicholas Harpsfield, later Archdeacon of Canterbury. Nine of his sermons were published in Bonner's 1555 "Homilies", and he was a well-known spokesman for Catholicism, even preaching before Philip of Spain.
1529 – Opening of the Legatine Court at Blackfriars, presided over by Cardinal Campeggio. This court's purpose was to hear the evidence with regards to Henry VIII's demand for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Click here to read more.
1533 – Anne Boleyn's coronation procession through the streets of London, from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey. Click here to read more.
1545 – Burial of Agnes Howard (née Tilney), Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, at Thetford Abbey. She was the widow of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk.
1578 – Sir Martin Frobisher set sail with his fleet from Harwich, England to Frobisher Bay, Canada. By 31st August, he and his men had mined 1370 tons of ore, which was loaded onto the ships to take back to England. Unfortunately, no gold or other precious metal was found in the ore.
1589 – Death of Sir Walter Mildmay, administrator and founder of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, at his home in Smithfield.

1 June

Coronation of Anne Boleyn

1451 or 1452 – Birth of Giles Daubenay, administrator, soldier, and diplomat. He was influential in Henry VII's reign, and Catherine of Aragon wrote that "he was the man who could do most in private with the king".
1563 – Birth of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, politician and courtier. Cecil was the son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, and his second wife, Mildred. It was Cecil who proclaimed the accession of King James I after Elizabeth I's death.
1533 - Coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn at Westminster Abbey. Click here to read more about it.
1571 – Execution of Catholic martyr and civil lawyer John Story, at Tyburn.
1573 – Birth of explorer James Rosier in Suffolk. Rosier went on the 1605 voyage to explore the fishing grounds off the Maine coast as "cape merchant, observer, and reporter", and recorded the voyage in a journal.
1579 – Death of Robert Horne, Bishop of Winchester, at Winchester Place, Southwark. He was buried at Winchester.
1583 – Death of George Carew, Dean of Exeter and Dean of the Chapel Royal. He was buried at St Giles-in-the-Fields, London.
1593 – Inquest into the death of Christopher Marlowe after he was stabbed on the 30th May. The coroner ruled that Ingram Frizer had killed Marlowe in self-defence after a fight over a bill.
1598 – Death of Thomas Preston, playwright and Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was buried in Trinity Hall Chapel. He is best known for his play "Cambises".
1616 – Burial of Sir Thomas Parry, MP and administrator, at Westminster Abbey. His father was the Thomas Parry who was Comptroller and Treasurer of Elizabeth I's household.

2 June

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk

1535 – Death of Sir Humphrey Coningsby, Judge.
1536 – Death of John Stewart (Stuart), 2nd Duke of Albany, at his château of Mirefleur in the Auvergne.
1536 – Jane Seymour's first appearance as Queen.
1537 – Executions of rebels Sir Francis Bigod, George Lumley and Sir Thomas Percy after Bigod's Rebellion in the aftermath of the Pilgrimage of Grace.
1567 – Death of Shane O'Neill, Irish chieftain. He was killed by the Scots who cut his throat.
1572 – Execution of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk. He was buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London.
1581 – Execution of James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton and former regent of Scotland, for treason. He was executed in Edinburgh, at the cross, by the "maiden", a type of guillotine.
1595 – Death of William Wickham, Bishop of Winchester, at Winchester House, Southwark - either this date or 12th June.
1609 – Burial of Elizabeth Russell (née Cooke), Lady Russell, linguist and courtier. She was buried at Bisham Church. She was the daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke and wife of Sir Thomas Hoby and then, after his death, Lord John Russell.
1626 – Death of Sir Edward Bromley, Judge.
1636 – Death of Theophilus Field, Bishop of Hereford. He was buried at Hereford Cathedral.

3 June

1535 - The King's former Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, was interrogated in the Tower of London by Thomas Boleyn, Thomas Audley, Thomas Cromwell and the Duke of Suffolk regarding the royal supremacy. They tried to make him give them an answer as to whether the statute of supremacy was lawful. He would not give them a straight answer. Click here for more on this.
1535 – Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's Vicar-General, ordered all bishops to preach in support of the royal supremacy and to remove all references to the Pope from mass books and other church books.
1536 – Richard Sampson was nominated as Bishop of Chichester by Henry VIII.
1594 – Death of John Aylmer, Bishop of London, at Fulham Palace. He was buried at St Paul's Cathedral.