Claire | December 20, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 20th December 1541, in the reign of King Henry VIII, Agnes Tilney, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, begged the king for forgiveness. The dowager duchess, who was described as “very sickly” at this time, was imprisoned in the Tower of London. She’d been arrested and accused of misprision of treason […]
Joel | December 20, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 20th December 1583, the day after his son-in-law, John Somerville, had been found dead in his cell, Warwickshire gentleman Edward Arden was hanged, drawn and quartered at Smithfield. Arden, who was related to William Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden, and married to a member of the Throckmorton family, had been […]
Joel | December 9, 2021
In this day in Tudor history, 9th December 1541, sixty-four-year-old Agnes Tilney, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk and step-grandmother of Queen Catherine Howard, who was being detained at the Lord Chancellor’s home, was questioned regarding the location of her money and jewels. Why? What was all this about? Find out about this, why the dowager […]
Claire | December 22, 2015
On this day in 1541, members of the Howard and Tilney family, plus their staff, were tried for misprision of treason for covering up the “unlawful, carnal, voluptuous, and licentious life” of Queen Catherine Howard while she lived with the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk at Lambeth. The people listed in the trial documents included Lord […]
Claire | December 20, 2013
On this day in 1541, A “very sickly” Agnes Tilney, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London after the fall of her granddaughter, Queen Catherine Howard, begged Henry VIII for forgiveness. She also confessed to having another £800 hidden at Norfolk House. The poor woman must have been terrified, as […]
Claire | December 4, 2013
On 4th December 1541, Thomas Wriothesley and William Fitzwilliam, Earl of Southampton, wrote to Sir Ralph Sadler, Henry VIII’s principal secretary, regarding a visit they had made to Agnes Tilney, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk and step-grandmother of Queen Catherine Howard. They reported that “she was not so sick as she made out, but able enough […]
Claire | September 14, 2012
How very strange that the news item about the Tilney scroll has come up just as I am finishing a short article I thought Claire might be able to use sometime on Elizabeth Tilney, grandmother of both Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard. Thank you, Claire, for bringing this wonderful find to our attention. When The […]
Claire | May 5, 2012
Today, we have a guest article from author and historian Marilyn Roberts who wrote a series of articles on the Howards for us before Christmas. Over to Marilyn… We last met Agnes, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk and the other prisoners on 13th February 1542, pondering their futures on the day of her step-granddaughter Katherine Howard’s […]
