4 April
Sir Francis Drake
1483 – Death of Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex, great-grandson of Edward III and Lord High Treasurer. He was buried in Beeleigh Abbey.
1506 – Birth of Sir Edward Saunders, Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench in Elizabeth I's reign.
1572 – Birth of William Strachey, writer and historian of Virginia. William Shakespeare used Strachey's account of the 1609 shipwreck of the Sea Venture for his play “The Tempest”.
1581 – Francis Drake was awarded a knighthood by Elizabeth I. He was dubbed by Monsieur de Marchaumont on board the Golden Hind at Deptford.
1589 – Death of Mildred Cecil (née Cooke), Lady Burghley, noblewoman, scholar and second wife of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. Mildred was known for her standard of education and the library she built up.
5 April
1478 – Death of John Booth, Bishop of Exeter, at East Horsley. He was buried in the parish church there.
1513 – Treaty of Mechlin signed by Henry VIII, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Pope Leo X against France.
1531 - Richard Roose (or Rouse), Bishop John Fisher’s cook, was boiled to death after confessing to poisoning the soup (or porridge) that was served to the Bishop and his guests. Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, survived, but some of his guests, who’d eaten more of the soup, died.
1532 – Death of William Bolton, royal administrator and Prior of St Bartholomew’s, West Smithfield, London. In Henry VIII's reign, Bolton oversaw works in Henry VII's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, Hampton Court Palace and the rebuilding of New Hall. He died in London and was buried in his priory church, before the altar.
1533 – Convocation ruled on the case of Henry VIII's annulment, ruling that the Pope had no power to dispense in the case of a man marrying his brother's widow, and that it was contrary to God's law.
1559 – Funeral of Sir Anthony St Leger, Lord Deputy of Ireland, at the parish church in Ulcombe in Kent.
1588 – Birth of Thomas Hobbes, philosopher and author of the famous philosophical work, “Leviathan”, in Westport, Malmesbury, Wiltshire.
1605 – Death of Adam Loftus, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, in Dublin at the archbishop's palace of St Sepulchre. He was buried at St Patrick's Cathedral.
6 April
Sir Francis Walsingham
1523 – Death of Henry Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire. Stafford had served Henry VII and was made a Knight of the Garter in his reign, and although he was imprisoned for a time due to his brother's plotting, he was a favourite of Henry VIII.
1523 – Death of Edward Stanley, 1st Baron Monteagle, soldier, peer and Knight of the Garter, at Hornby Castle.
1593 – Hanging of Henry Barrow and John Greenwood, religious separatists, after being condemned to death on 23rd March, for writing and publishing seditious literature.
1582 – Hanging of Nicholas Nugent, Solicitor General for Ireland, Baron of the Irish Court of Exchequer, and Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, for treason after being implicated in the rebellion of his nephew, William Nugent.
1590 - Death of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's principal secretary, at the age of about fifty-eight. Although he had served the Queen for many years, he died in debt, as he had underwritten the debts of Sir Philip Sidney, his son-in-law.
Walsingham was an incredibly important man during Elizabeth I’s reign, being a statesman, private secretary, adviser, diplomat and spymaster, and he probably saved the Queen’s life many times by uncovering various plots against her. Elizabeth called him her “Moor”.
1605 (5th or 6th) – Death of John Stow, historian and antiquary, in London at the age of eighty. He was buried in St Andrew Undershaft Church. Stow's works included his 1561 “The woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer, newly printed with divers additions whiche were never in printe before”, the 1565 “Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles” and his famous “Annales, or a Generale Chronicle of England from Brute until the present yeare of Christ 1580”.
1621 – Death of Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, son of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and Anne Stanhope, and husband of Lady Katherine Grey (Lady Jane Grey's sister). He was aged eighty-one at his death, and had been married three times. His other wives were Frances Howard, gentlewoman of Elizabeth I's Privy Chamber, and widow Frances Prannell, who was the daughter of Thomas Howard, 1st Viscount Howard of Bindon. All three of his marriages were secret ones.
7 April
Louis XII
1498 – Death of Charles VIII of France and accession of Louis XII.
1537 – Robert Aske and Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy, were sent to the Tower of London. Aske was one of the rebel leaders in the 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion, and Darcy became involved with the rebels after yielding Pontefract Castle to them. Darcy was beheaded 30th June 1537, and Aske was hanged in chains on 12th July 1537.
1538 - Elizabeth Boleyn, Lady Wiltshire, wife of Thomas Boleyn and mother of the late Queen Anne Boleyn, was buried in the Howard Chapel of St Mary’s Church, Lambeth.
1571 – Burial of Richard Onslow, lawyer and Speaker of the House of Commons, in St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury.
1589 – Death of Sir Henry Gates, member of Parliament, Gentleman of Edward VI's Privy Chamber, Controller of the Petty Custom at the port of London, Receiver-General of the duchy of Cornwall and member of the Council of the North.
1590 – Burial of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's principal secretary, at St Paul's at 10pm in the same tomb as Sir Philip Sidney. He had died the previous day.
1619 – Burial of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick, at Felsted.
8 April
William Herbert
1554 - A cat dressed as a priest, a symbol of Catholicism, was found hanged on the gallows in Cheapside. Chronicler John Stow describes how the cat's head was shorn, it was dressed in vestments, and a "singing cake" (consecrated wafer) had been placed between its tied feet.
1580 – Birth of William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, courtier, patron of the arts and son of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, and Mary Sidney, sister of Sir Philip Sidney.
1586 – Death of Martin Chemnitz, Lutheran theologian and a man known as "Alter Martinus" or the "Second Martin" after Martin Luther.
1608 – Death of Magdalen Browne (née Dacre), Viscountess Montagu and patron of Roman Catholics, at Battle following a stroke in January 1508. She was buried at Midhurst. Magdalen was the daughter of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre of Gilsland and the second wife of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu. She served as Maid of Honour at Mary I's wedding and was a staunch Catholic. Even though she was Catholic, she had a good relationship with Elizabeth I, following her and her husband's declaration that they would be loyal to the Queen if the Pope invaded or caused trouble. When the Queen visited the Montagus in 1591, they kept their priests hidden.
9 April
Edward IV
1483 – Death of Edward IV at the Palace of Westminster. He was laid to rest in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 20th April. His cause of death is unknown. It may have been caused by a chill, but he was known for overindulging in food and drink, and that would not have helped his health.
1533 - A delegation of the King’s councillors, headed by the Duke of Norfolk, visited Catherine of Aragon and informed her that Henry VIII was now married to Anne Boleyn. After they left, Catherine’s Chamberlain, Sir William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, had to tell her that she had been demoted from Queen to Dowager Princess of Wales.
1557 – Cardinal Reginald Pole's legatine powers were revoked by Pope Paul IV.
1582 – Death of Richard Bertie, evangelical, member of Parliament and second husband of Katherine Willoughby (other married name Brandon), Duchess of Suffolk, at Bourne. He had met Katherine when he became her Gentleman Usher. He was buried with Katherine, who died in 1580, at Spilsby.
1590 – Funeral of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick. He was laid to rest in the Beauchamp Chapel of St Mary's Church, Warwick.
1626 – Death of Francis Bacon, Viscount St Alban, Lord Chancellor, politician and philosopher. It appears that Bacon died from inhaling nitre or opiates in a botched experiment.
10 April
James V
1512 - James V, King of Scotland, was born at Linlithgow Palace. He was the fourth child of James IV and Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII. He was the only one of James and Margaret's children to survive childhood, and so inherited the crown of Scotland when his father was killed at the Battle of Flodden, 9th September 1513.
1550 – Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, was re-admitted into Edward VI's council.
1559 – Death of Sir Rice Mansel, soldier and administrator, at his home in Clerkenwell. He served Henry VIII as Vice-Admiral in 1542, in France and Scotland, and in 1544 as Knight-Marshal. He was also Chamberlain of Chester.
1585 – Death of Pope Gregory XIII, the Pope known for his introduction of the Gregorian Calendar, in Rome. He was succeeded by Pope Sixtus V.
1586 – Death of Sir Bernard Drake, sea captain, in Crediton, Devon, from probable typhus. It appears that he caught the disease from Portuguese prisoners whose ships he had captured, which were laden with Brazilian sugar, on his voyage to the West Indies.
1588 – Death of Robert Glover, herald, genealogist and antiquary in Elizabeth I's reign. He was buried in St Giles-without-Cripplegate.
1605 – Death of John Young, Bishop of Rochester and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, at Bromley Palace. He was seventy-one, and was buried at Bromley Church.
1635 – Death of Lady Helena Gorges (née Snakenborg), previous married name Parr. Helena was Swedish but came to England in 1564 with her mistress, Princess Cecilia, Margravine of Baden, daughter of Gustav Vasa. She fell in love with William Parr, Marquis of Northampton and brother of Catherine Parr, and so remained in England and joined Elizabeth I's household. Helena married Parr in 1571 after the death of his first wife, Lady Anne Bourchier (Parr had actually been divorced from her since 1551). After Parr died, she married courtier Thomas Gorges and had eight children with him. She was laid to rest in Salisbury Cathedral.
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