Claire | May 13, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 13th May 1536, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, got rather cross and exasperated with Thomas Cromwell and refused to be bullied in any way. Poor Cromwell, Percy wouldn’t play ball! Find out what Thomas Cromwell was trying to get Percy to do and why, and what it had to […]
Claire | May 13, 2017
On this day in history, 13th May 1536, we have two significant events in the fall of Anne Boleyn. Firstly, we have the breaking up of the queen’s household. Queen Anne Boleyn had not even been tried yet, but four men had been found guilty of high treason for having sexual relations with her and […]
Claire | May 13, 2016
On 13th May 1536, two days before her trial, Queen Anne Boleyn’s household was broken up, and her staff discharged, by Sir William Fitzwilliam, Treasurer of the King’s Household, and Sir William Paulet, Comptroller of the Household.1 Fitzwilliam and Paulet would only have dared to do this on the King’s orders. Of course, Sir Francis […]
Claire | December 8, 2015
On this day in history, 8th December 1538, Sir William Coffin, courtier and Master of the Horse to Queens Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, died at Standon in Hertfordshire. It is thought that he died of the plague because his wife Margaret wrote to Thomas Cromwell saying that Coffin had “died of the great sickness, […]
Claire | May 13, 2015
On 13th May 1536, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Treasurer of the King’s Household, and Sir William Paulet, Comptroller of the Household, broke up the Queen’s household at Greenwich and discharged her staff.1 Anne had not even been tried yet, but four of her alleged lovers and conspirators had been found guilty so her guilt was a […]
Claire | August 6, 2014
On 6th August 1504, Matthew Parker, chaplain to Anne Boleyn and Archbishop of Canterbury in her daughter’s reign, was born in the parish of St Saviour, Norwich. Parker was the son of worsted weaver William Parker and his wife Alice Monings [Monins] from Kent. Parker was educated at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, where he […]
Claire | May 13, 2014
On 13th May 1536, four days before her trial, Queen Anne Boleyn’s royal household at Greenwich Palace was broken up and her servants were discharged. Some of her servants would be back at court in just a few weeks serving the new queen, Jane Seymour. Those who served both Anne and Jane included William Coffin, […]
Claire | May 13, 2013
Anne Boleyn hadn’t even been tried and found guilty yet, but her household was broken up on this day in 1536. Chronicler Charles Wriothesley recorded: “And the morrowe after, beinge Satterdaie, and the thirtenth daie of Maie, Maister Fittes-Williams [Sir William Fitzwilliam], Treasorer of the Kinges howse, and Mr. Controoler [Sir Edward Poynings], deposed and […]
