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Claire | April 28, 2012
On this day in history, 28th April 1603, Elizabeth I’s funeral took place in London. I have written in detail about the funeral before, so here is an extract from my previous article… After her death on 24th March 1603, the body of Queen Elizabeth I was placed inside a lead coffin and carried by
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Claire | April 11, 2012
On this day in history, 11th April 1554, Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger, son of the poet and diplomat Sir Thomas Wyatt, was executed for his part in the recent rebellion which we now know as “Wyatt’s Rebellion”. You can read more about Wyatt and the rebellion in the following articles:- Sir Thomas Wyatt the
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Claire | March 20, 2012
On this day in history, 20th March 1549, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley and Lord High Admiral, was executed on Tower Hill for treason. It was a sad end to a man who had been the brother of one queen, the husband of another (when she was queen dowager), uncle of the King,
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Claire | February 8, 2012
On the morning of the 8th February 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay Castle. It was a brutal death, taking three blows of the axe (some say that it was two blows followed by the executioner sawing her neck!) to decapitate this ill-fated queen. As the executioner held up her head to
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Claire | January 22, 2012
On this day in history, 22nd January 1554, Thomas Wyatt the Younger met with fellow conspirators at his home of Allington Castle in Kent to make final plans for their uprising against Mary I and her decision to marry Philip of Spain. As Ian W Archer explains in his article about Thomas Wyatt, “The anomalous
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Claire | January 22, 2012
Between 8 o’clock and 9 o’clock on the morning of the 22nd January 1552, former Lord Protector of England, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, was executed by beheading on Tower Hill in London. The famous Tudor chronicler Charles Wriothesley recorded his execution:- “Fryday, the 22 of January 1552, Edward Seimer, Duke of Somersett, was beheaded
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Claire | January 16, 2012
In researching my Friday 13th article on superstitions for The Anne Boleyn Files, I came across the tale of Agnes Bowker who went in to labour on the night of the 16th January 1569 and gave birth to a cat on the 17th. In his book, “Travesties and Transgressions in Tudor and Stuart England: Tales
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Claire | January 15, 2012
On the 15th January 1559, a day chosen by her astrologer Dr John Dee, a triumphant Elizabeth Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, processed from Westminster Hall into Westminster Abbey to be crowned queen. She was just 25 years old and was the third child of Henry VIII to become monarch and was
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Claire | January 7, 2012
On this day in history, at 6am on the 7th January 1558, Thomas Wentworth, the Lord Deputy of Calais, was forced to surrender Calais to François de Lorraine-Guise, 2nd Duke of Guise, after a siege of seven days. Barry Denton, in his article on Thomas Wentworth, writes of how “The causes of the fall of
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Claire | December 13, 2011
On this day in history, 13th December 1577, Sir Francis Drake finally left Plymouth with his fleet of five ships on a journey which would see him circumnavigating the Globe. Storm damage to two of his ships had scuppered earlier plans. The purpose of this journey was to sail into the Pacific and raid the
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