Claire | April 1, 2018
Happy Easter! Today, Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This was a day that was also important in the Tudor church calendar. On Easter Sunday, people would go to church and the church candles and those around the Easter sepulchre were extinguished and then the church candles were re-lit by the […]
Claire | March 30, 2018
As I explained in yesterday’s article on Maundy Thursday, Anne Boleyn owned a copy of William Tyndale’s 1526 English translation of the New Testament. She kept a copy of it open in her apartments and encouraged her ladies to read it. On Good Friday, I am sure that Anne would have sat and read the […]
Claire | March 21, 2018
On this day in history, 21st March 1556, the third of the Oxford Martyrs, Thomas Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the English Reformation and ‘architect’ of the Book of Common Prayer, was burnt at the stake in Oxford. Cranmer had been found guilty of heresy at a trial in September 1555 and […]
Claire | October 2, 2017
On 2nd October 1528 English reformer and Bible translator William Tyndale published his most influential book, The Obedience of the Christian Man and How Christian Rulers Ought to Govern. This book features in a story about Anne Boleyn, which is told by both George Wyatt, grandson of Thomas Wyatt the Poet, and the 17th century […]
Claire | September 12, 2017
On this day in history, Thursday 12th September 1555, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, was tried for heresy at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin at Oxford. The court was presided over by James Brooks, Bishop of Gloucester and the representative of the Pope, and Dr Martin and Dr Storey, Queen Mary I’s […]
Claire | March 9, 2017
Thank you to Lissa Chapman, author of Anne Boleyn in London, for sharing this guest article with us today. Rose Lok lived to be a very old lady. For a Londoner born in the reign of Henry VIII, to attain the age of eighty-six was in itself an extraordinary achievement. And Rose lived an extraordinary […]
Claire | July 4, 2016
On this day in history, 4th July 1533, John Frith, reformer, theologian and martyr, was burnt at the stake at Smithfield for heresy. Frith was charged with heresy because of his religious views, which included his belief that Christ’s words about the sacrament, “This is my body”, were not to be taken literally, and his […]
Claire | June 19, 2016
On 19 June 1535, three monks, Sebastian Newdigate, William Exmew and Humphrey Middlemore, of the Carthusian Order of London Charterhouse, were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Their executions were witnessed by George Boleyn and Thomas Boleyn, Queen Anne Boleyn’s brother and father; Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk; Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, […]
