Claire | December 1, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 1st December 1541, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were tried for high treason at Guildhall, London. Both men had been linked romantically with the king’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard. Culpeper, a member of Henry VIII’s privy chamber, and Dereham, a secretary to […]
Claire | November 30, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 30th November 1529, the Feast of St Andrew, Henry VIII received a dressing down from two women: his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and the woman he wanted to make his wife, Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII’s treatment of his first wife was angering her, and Catherine told him so. And […]
Claire | November 15, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 15th November 1532, an exasperated Pope Clement VII threatened King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Marquess of Pembroke, with excommunication. Why would the pope do that when Pope Leo X had granted the king the title of Defender of the Faith in 1521? Well, because Henry VIII had defied […]
Claire | November 14, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 14th November 1501, the Feast of St Erkenwald, Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, married Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. The couple got married at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. And on […]
Claire | November 12, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 12th November 1537, in the reign of King Henry VIII, the remains of the king’s third wife, Jane Seymour, were taken to Windsor Castle in preparation for her funeral. Jane Seymour’s heart and entrails were buried in the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace, where she had died on […]
Claire | November 9, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 9th November 1518, nine years into her marriage to King Henry VIII, Queen Catherine of Aragon gave birth prematurely to a stillborn daughter at Greenwich Palace. Sadly, this sixth pregnancy would be Catherine’s last. Let me explain exactly what happened on this day in 1518 and what we know […]
Claire | November 8, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 8th November 1528, King Henry VIII made a rather strange public oration to “the nobility, judges and councillors and divers other persons” at Bridewell Palace. His speech was regarding his troubled conscience over the lawfulness of his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. In his speech, he […]
Claire | November 7, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, Monday 7th November 1541, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Queen Catherine Howard, received a visit from Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. The king’s fifth wife had been confined to her chambers at Hampton Court Palace after an investigation had been launched into allegations about her past. It […]
