Claire | May 14, 2022
On this day in 1536, 14th May, while her predecessor and former mistress was in the Tower of London waiting for her trial, Jane Seymour was moved to be closer to the king and was treated like a queen. Find out more about this, and hear Eustace Chapuys’ rather unflattering description of Jane… Also on […]
Joel Ridgway | April 1, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 1st April 1578, English physician William Harvey, was born in Folkestone, Kent. Harvey has gone down in history as being the man who discovered the circulation of blood, and he was also physician extraordinary to King James I and King Charles I. How did Harvey work out that the […]
Joel Ridgway | October 24, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 24th October 1590, John White, the governor of the Roanoke Colony, returned to England after failing to find the lost colonists, which included his daughter, Ellinor (Elenora), his son-in-law, Ananias Dare, and his granddaughter, Virginia Dare. But what happened to these colonists and what did the word CROATOAN carved […]
Claire | June 4, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 4th June 1536, Whitsun, Jane Seymour was officially proclaimed queen at Greenwich. Jane was Henry VIII’s third wife and this proclamation took place just over two weeks after the execution of her predecessor, Anne Boleyn. Find out more about what happened on this day in 1536 in this video: […]
Claire | May 20, 2021
No matter how many times I read and write about it, Henry VIII’s behaviour in 1536 always disgusts me. Obviously, the whole fall of Anne Boleyn and those five courtiers is terrible, a real miscarriage of justice, but then it’s made worse by Henry VIII moving on with his life with unseemly haste. The very […]
Claire | April 17, 2021
Jane Seymour was the third wife of King Henry VIII, the mother of King Edward VI and the sister of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector, and Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley. Even though she was queen for a relatively short period, Jane Seymour is still an interesting Tudor lady, and in […]
Claire | October 24, 2019
On this day in history, 24th October 1537, Henry VIII’s third wife, Jane Seymour, died at Hampton Court Palace. The couple had only been married since 30th May 1536 and Jane had died twelve days after giving the king the gift of a healthy baby boy, the future King Edward VI. I talk about Jane’s […]
Claire | June 7, 2019
On 7th June 1536, less than three weeks after the execution of Henry VIII’s second wife, Queen Anne Boleyn, his new marriage was celebrated with a water pageant or procession along the River Thames. This river pageant from Greenwich to Whitehall (formerly York Place) was in honour of Queen Jane Seymour, daughter of Sir John […]
