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 | October 7, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 7th October 1529, in the reign of King Henry VIII, the pope wrote to the English king regarding his quest for an annulment of his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. It wasn’t good news for Henry VIII. Pope Clement VII had decided that Henry VIII’s marriage […]
Claire | July 11, 2022
By this day in Tudor history, 11th July 1533, Pope Clement VII had go to the end of his tether with King Henry VIII. But how had Henry VIII gone from being lauded as Defender of the Faith in 1521 to being threatened with excommunication under 12 years later? What on earth had he done […]
Claire | June 21, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 21st June 1529, ten days after her 20th wedding anniversary, Queen Catherine of Aragon appeared at the Legatine Court at Blackfriars and delivered an impassioned speech which stole the show. This court was hearing the case for the annulment of Catherine’s marriage to the king, and Catherine was going […]
Claire | May 23, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 23rd May 1533, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, declared the sentence of the special court that had met at Dunstable Priory in Bedfordshire. The Dunstable Priory court had convened to hear the case for the annulment of King Henry VIII’s marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Predictably, the court […]
Claire | April 9, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 9th April, Catherine of Aragon, who’d been banished from the royal court after opposing her husband King Henry VIII’s plans to annul their marriage, received a visit from a delegation of the king’s councillors. They were there to inform her that she was no longer queen. Catherine was a […]
Claire | April 5, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 5th April 1531, Richard Roose, the cook of Bishop John Fisher’s household, was boiled to death for high treason at Smithfield. He was found guilty of high treason by an act of Parliament, but why? What happened and why did King Henry VIII take a personal interest in this […]
