Joel Ridgway | March 7, 2022
This day in Tudor history, 7th March 1556, was one of the days on which the Great Comet, or the Comet of Charles V, was seen and recorded by Paul Fabricius, mathematician and physician at the court of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Find out all about the Great Comet of 1556, what it looked […]
Joel Ridgway | January 5, 2022
On this day in Tudor history, 5th January 1546, in the reign of King Henry VIII, geographer and poet, Richard Willes, was born in Pulham, Dorset. Richard Willes has been described as “One of the quirkier figures in the literary history not only of the college but of the Elizabethan period as a whole”, and […]
Joel Ridgway | November 15, 2021
On this day in Tudor history, 15th November 1527, a woman who called herself “the excellent Princess Katherine, Countess of Devon, daughter, sister and aunt of kings”, died at Tiverton Castle in Devon. Katherine of York, Countess of Devon, daughter of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, was just forty-nine when she died and had […]
Claire | January 5, 2018
OK, so it wasn’t Gandalf that said this, it was actually the pope – sorry! Yes, on this day in history, 5th January 1531, Pope Clement VII wrote to Henry VIII telling him that he could not remarry while the case for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon was still on-going. If […]
Claire | July 11, 2017
By 11th July 1533, Pope Clement VII had really had enough of King Henry VIII’s behaviour. The king who had been awarded the title “Fidei Defensor” (Defender of the Faith) by Pope Leo X in 1521, for defending the Catholic Church against the works of Martin Luther, had not only abandoned his first wife without […]
Claire | March 23, 2017
On this day in history, 23rd March 1534, Pope Clement VII declared that the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon “always hath stood, and still doth stand, firm and canonical […] and that the aforesaid Henry king of England is and shall be bound and obstrict to the matrimonial society and cohabitation with […]
Claire | March 23, 2016
On 23rd March 1534, Pope Clement VII declared that the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon “always hath stood, and still doth stand, firm and canonical […] and that the aforesaid Henry king of England is and shall be bound and obstrict to the matrimonial society and cohabitation with the said lady Katherine […]
Claire | March 7, 2016
On 7th March 1530, eight months after the Legatine Court was adjourned having failed to come to any conclusion regarding Henry VIII’s case for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Pope Clement VII wrote to Henry VII forbidding him from marrying again and threatening him with excommunication if the king disobeyed. Click […]
