The Tudor Minute

Today in 1578 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, married Lettice Knollys. Ever since the death of his wife, Amy Robsart, under suspicious circumstances a decade and a half earlier, Dudley had been trying to convince Queen Elizabeth to marry him. He even staged the two week long series of pageants and parties at Kenilworth in 1575 to try one last time to convince her. And though they were likely deeply in love with each other, she never did marry him.

Today in 1535 Charles Brandon and his wife, his ward Katherine Willoughby, had a son called Henry. Charles Brandon was famous for having married Henry VIII’s sister Mary without permission after she had extracted an agreement from her brother that she would marry the ancient French king in exchange for being able to marry anyone she wanted after he died.

Today we mark the death, in 1575, of Heinrich Bullinger, one of the leading Swiss Protestant Reformers. He was born in 1504, and interestingly, his story overlapped with that of the Tudors in that, when he was 12, he was sent to school in Cleves. In 1519 he went to university in Cologne, just as Martin Luther’s protests against the church were becoming popular.

Today in 1541 Henry VIII was on his famous Progress to the North, and entered the city of York where the most important people in the city begged forgiveness for the Pilgrimage of Grace, which had happened half a decade earlier. His wife, Katherine Howard, was there as well, receiving a gold cup full of coins from those same city officials.

Today in 1514 Thomas Wolsey was appointed Archbishop of York after he was elected in August. He was rising quickly and by 1515 he was a Cardinal, which made him the highest ranking church official in England, even higher than the archbishop of Canterbury.

Today in 1585 Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth for what would be called The Caribbean Raid. The pseudo-war between England and Spain had been heating up, and much of that had to do with piracy of Spanish ports and it would culminate in 1587 when Drake raided Spanish mainland in the Singeing of the King’s Beard in Cadiz.

Today in 1572 Pope Gregory XIII ordered a commemoration both for the defeat of the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in October 1571, and the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in France over the summer of 1572.

Today in 1533 the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth, was christened at the church of observant friars in Greenwich. She was three days old.

Today in 1560 Amy Dudley, also known as Amy Robsart died in her home, found at the bottom of a flight of steps in her home in Oxfordshire. She was the wife of Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, who was also Elizabeth I’s … well, at the very least her closest companion. Perhaps (likely) more. The death of Amy is a mystery even now

Today in 1533 a little girl was born in Greenwich, less than two weeks after her mother had gone into confinement. The parents were so sure that she would be a boy that they already had the announcements made up, and had to change them, adding in an extra S to the word Prince, after she was born. Celebratory jousts were cancelled, because this little girl wasn’t the prince that her father had risked excommunication for.