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On 9th August 1588, the fifty-four-year-old Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn gave a rousing speech. She gave it to the English troops that had been gathered at Tilbury Fort by her good friend, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in anticipation of the expected invasion by the Spanish Armada. Of course, the Spanish Armada wouldn’t get that far, but nobody knew that at this time.
Elizabeth I had always had a way with words, and words did not fail her at Tilbury. She was the iconic Gloriana.
There are several versions of her speech and you can read my article about them over on the Tudor Society – click here – but here is actress Anne-Marie Duff giving this speech in the BBC’s “The Virgin Queen”:
On this day in history, 8th August 1553, fifteen-year-old King Edward VI was laid to rest at Westminster Abbey.
The boy-king was buried in a white marble vault beneath the altar of Henry VII’s Lady Chapel and his grave was left unmarked until a memorial stone was placed in front of the altar in 1966. The stone reads:
“IN MEMORY OF KING EDWARD VI BURIED IN THIS CHAPEL THIS STONE WAS PLACED HERE BY CHRIST’S HOSPITAL IN THANKSGIVING FOR THEIR FOUNDER 7 OCTOBER 1966.”
Edward had died on 6th July 1553 but the struggle for the throne, between the heir he had appointed, Lady Jane Grey, and his half-sister, Mary, plus discussions between Mary I and her ministers over his funeral rites, had led to a delay in burial. It was finally decided that Edward would be buried with Protestant rites, the first use of the English Book of Common Prayer for the funeral of a monarch, and it was Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, who performed the service. The Catholic Queen Mary I held a private mass at the Tower of London, instead, and ordered three days of Catholic requiem masses for his soul.
On this day in history, 6th August 1504, Matthew Parker, a man who served as chaplain to Queen Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII, and as Archbishop of Canterbury to Queen Elizabeth I, was born in the parish of St Saviour, Norwich, East Anglia, to a worsted weaver and his wife. His loyalty to his […]
On this day in history, 4th August 1557, there was a requiem mass for Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of the late King Henry VIII, at Westminster Abbey. After the mass and a “godly sermon”, Anne was buried in a tomb at the abbey. Her tomb is decorated with carvings of a crown and her […]
On this day in history, 3rd August 1557, the remains of forty-one-year-old Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of the late King Henry VIII, were processed from Chelsea Old Manor to Westminster Abbey for burial. Anne had died at her home, Chelsea Old Manor, on 16th July 1557 following a few months of illness. She had […]
On this day in history, 31st July 1544, ten-year-old Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, wrote a letter to her stepmother, Catherine Parr, Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife. It’s the earliest surviving letter written by the future Queen Elizabeth I, and Mary Anne Everett Green, editor of Letters of […]
On this day in history, 28th July 1540, forty-nine-year-old King Henry VIII married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, who was about seventeen years old, at Oatlands Palace. The groom’s fourth marriage, to Anne of Cleves, had only been annulled on 9th July, so Henry’s fifth wedding was a low-key, private affair and news of the […]
Get ready for a shameless plug… If you have some spare time this summer to get lost in Tudor history – and is there really anything better than that (the beach, cocktails….no, we want Tudor history!)? – then here are my very biased recommendations for Tudor things to do: Enrol yourself on a history course […]
On 9th August 1588, the fifty-four-year-old Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn gave a rousing speech. She gave it to the English troops that had been gathered at Tilbury Fort by her good friend, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in anticipation of the expected invasion by the Spanish Armada. Of course, the Spanish Armada wouldn’t get that far, but nobody knew that at this time.
