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Claire | February 25, 2012
On this day in history, the 25th February 1601 at just before 8am on the 25th February 1601, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and former royal favourite, was escorted out of the Tower of London and up on to a scaffold on Tower Green. Unfortunately, it took three blows of the executioner’s axe to
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Claire | January 16, 2012
On this day in history, 16th January 1549, Edward VI’s uncle, Thomas Seymour, was alleged to have broken into the King’s apartments at Hampton Court Palace to kidnap the young King. As he entered the royal residence, it is said that he disturbed the King’s beloved spaniel who started barking at him. In panic, Seymour
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Claire | November 10, 2011
Happy Birthday, Robert Devereux! Yes, on this day in history, 10th November 1565, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, was born at Netherwood, Herefordshire. Devereux was the eldest son of Walter Deverux, 1st Earl of Essex, and Lettice Knollys, granddaughter of Mary Boleyn, and was a favourite of Elizabeth I. Devereux came to a rather
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Claire | September 4, 2011
On the 4th September 1588, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester died at his lodge at Cornbury, near Woodstock in Oxfordshire. He had been ill for some time with a recurring stomach ailment and so had decided to travel to Buxton to take the waters. His journey had started on the 26th August and on the
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Claire | July 9, 2011
Between the 9th and 27th July 1575, the 41 year old Elizabeth I visited the home of her friend and favourite, Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester, Kenilworth Castle. This visit may have been Dudley’s last ditch attempt to woo his Queen and persuade her to marry him, and he pulled out all the stops
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Claire | June 24, 2011
Happy Birthday, Robert Dudley! There is some controversy over his birthday with some of his contemporaries believing that he was born on exactly the same day as Elizabeth I (7th September 1533), but it is now believed that he was born on the 24th June 1532 or 1533, most likely 1532, making him just over
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Claire | March 20, 2011
On this day in history, the 20th March 1549, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron of Sudeley and Lord High Admiral, husband of the late Dowager Queen Catherine Parr and brother of Queen Jane Seymour and Protector Somerset, was executed for treason after being charged with thirty-three counts of treason. He had been causing the King’s Council
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Claire | February 25, 2011
Today marks the 410th anniversary of the execution of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and a favourite of Elizabeth I. At just before 8am on the 25th February 1601, Essex was brought out of the Tower of London and walked to the scaffold. He was wearing a black velvet gown, black satin doublet and
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Claire | February 8, 2011
Today, we have a guest post from C W Gorner, author of “The Last Queen”, “The Confessions of Catherine de Medici” and the recently released “The Tudor Secret”, the first book in a series called the Elizabeth I Spymaster Chronicles. You can read my review of “The Tudor Secret” over at our Tudor Book Review
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Claire | January 27, 2011
I wasn’t able to watch the National Geographic Channel’s “Secrets of the Virgin Queen” but many people have contacted me to let me know what “secrets” it looked at. It sounds like it was a programme concentrating on the salacious rumours and myths that surround Elizabeth and her personal life – can’t they come up
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