Joel Ridgway | January 7, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 7th January 1558, in the reign of Queen Mary I, England lost Calais to the French. It was a devastating blow as Calais had been held by England for over 200 years and was an important port for English wool exports. Mary I was said to have exclaimed ““When […]
Claire | January 7, 2021
On this day in history, 7th January 1536, Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII, died at Kimbolton Castle. It was a sad end to the woman who’d been Henry VIII’s queen consort for well over 20 years. She’d been banished from court, separated from her daughter and demoted to Dowager Princess of […]
Claire | January 7, 2017
On this day in history, 7th January 1536, at two o’clock in the afternoon, Catherine of Aragon died at Kimbolton Castle. Catherine had been ill for several months but felt worse after drinking a draught of Welsh beer in December 1535 and this, combined with the embalmer’s report that all of her organs were healthy […]
Claire | January 7, 2016
On 7th January 1536, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, Henry VIII’s first wife, fifty year-old Catherine of Aragon, died at Kimbolton Castle, in Cambridgeshire, where she had been residing since April 1534. Catherine had been battling ill-health for a few months but had started to go down hill at Christmas 1535. Eustace Chapuys, the […]
Claire | January 2, 2016
On 2nd January 1536, Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, arrived at the dying Catherine of Aragon’s bedside in Kimbolton Castle. He wrote to Emperor Charles V on 9th January of his four-day visit to Catherine: “As I stated in my despatch of the 30th of December ult°., almost immediately after closing it I mounted my […]
Claire | January 8, 2014
According to Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial ambassador, on Sunday 8th January, the day after Catherine of Aragon’s death, Henry VIII “was clad all over in yellow, from top to toe, except the white feather he had in his bonnet” and he paraded the two-year old Princess Elizabeth to mass “with trumpets and other great triumphs”.1 […]
Claire | January 7, 2013
On 7th January 1536, at two o’clock in the afternoon, Catherine of Aragon, first wife of King Henry VIII, died at Kimbolton Castle. You can read all about her death in my article “The Death of Catherine of Aragon”. Catherine of Aragon was laid to rest on the 29th January 1536 at Peterborough Abbey, which […]
Claire | January 8, 2012
As I explained yesterday, Catherine of Aragon died on the 7th January 1536 at Kimbolton Castle. A messenger arrived at Greenwich Palace with the news and when Henry VIII found out he cried “God be praised that we are free from all suspicion of war!”1, as Catherine’s death meant that Henry had no quarrel with […]
