Tudor

  • 1491: Henry VIII is born at Greenwich

    Henry Tudor was born at Greenwich on 28 June 1491, the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. He was born into a dynasty that was still finding its footing. Henry VII had won the throne at Bosworth in 1485, ending Richard III’s rule and placing the Tudors at the centre of English…

  • 1500: John Alcock Dies at Wisbech Castle

    John Alcock, Bishop of Ely and a former Lord Chancellor of England, died at Wisbech Castle on 1 October 1500. Born in Beverley, Yorkshire, around 1430, Alcock combined a career in the Church with service to the Crown. Under Edward IV, he joined the royal administration. He was appointed tutor to the king’s eldest son,…

  • 1501: Catherine of Aragon arrives in England

    Catherine of Aragon arrived in Plymouth, England, on 2 October 1501. Nearly sixteen years old, she had come from Spain to marry Arthur, Prince of Wales, the eldest son and heir of Henry VII. Catherine was the youngest surviving daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Her proposed marriage to Arthur formed part…

  • 1502: Arthur, Prince of Wales, dies at Ludlow

    Arthur, Prince of Wales, died on 2 April 1502. Was the wrong brother left in charge? Arthur was fifteen, newly married, and meant to be the Tudor future. Instead, he died at Ludlow Castle, less than five months after his wedding to Catherine of Aragon, and Henry VII’s plan for his dynasty changed at once.…

  • 1513: England defeats Scotland at the Battle of Flodden

    On 9 September 1513, an English army defeated the invading Scots at the Battle of Flodden near Branxton in Northumberland. King James IV of Scotland was killed along with many of the leading men of his kingdom. James had invaded England in support of Scotland’s alliance with France. Henry VIII was campaigning in France, fighting…

  • 1525: England and France agree to the Treaty of the More

    England and France agreed to the Treaty of the More on 30 August 1525, six months after the French army suffered a major defeat at Pavia. The agreement marked a reversal in Henry VIII’s foreign policy. At Pavia, Emperor Charles V’s forces defeated the French. They captured King Francis I. Francis was taken into captivity,…

  • 1525: Stephen Borough is born

    Stephen Borough was born in Devon on 25 September 1525. He became an English navigator involved in Tudor attempts to find a sea route around northern Europe to Asia. In 1553, Borough sailed as master of the Edward Bonaventure on an expedition searching for a north-eastern passage. The ship was commanded by Richard Chancellor and…

  • 1525: Stephen Borough is born in Devon

    Stephen Borough was born in Northam, Devon, on 25 September 1525. He became an English navigator, Arctic explorer and naval administrator closely involved in England’s early attempts to find a north-eastern sea route towards Asia. Borough learned navigation and seamanship from his uncle, John Borough. In 1553, he served as master of the Edward Bonaventure,…

  • 1533: Cranmer declares Henry VIII’s first marriage invalid

    On 23 May 1533, Thomas Cranmer’s court at Dunstable declared Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon invalid. The judgment was brief, but it carried more weight than a private ruling about a failed royal marriage. Henry had already married Anne Boleyn. Catherine was still widely regarded as queen. Anne was pregnant. Henry’s marriage case…

  • 1533: Cranmer declares Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn valid

    On 28 May 1533, Thomas Cranmer declared Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn good and valid. The ruling did not begin the marriage. Henry and Anne had already married. Cranmer’s judgement gave the marriage formal standing in England, at a moment when Henry needed more than private agreement, royal will or court loyalty. Five days…

  • 1533: Anne Boleyn is crowned queen at Westminster Abbey

    Anne Boleyn was crowned queen of England at Westminster Abbey on 1 June 1533. The ceremony followed Henry VIII’s decision to set aside his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, had declared Henry’s marriage to Catherine invalid and had recognised Henry’s marriage to Anne. In England, those rulings gave Anne the…

  • 1533: Elizabeth I is born at Greenwich

    Elizabeth Tudor was born at Greenwich on 7 September 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. The birth came after one of the most dangerous decisions of Henry’s reign. He had set aside Catherine of Aragon, married Anne and forced a break with papal authority in England. The marriage was a matter of…

  • 1533: Elizabeth I Is Born at Greenwich Palace

    Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth I, was born at Greenwich Palace on 7 September 1533. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, who had been crowned queen three months earlier. Henry wanted the pregnancy to produce a son. His marriage to Catherine of Aragon had failed to produce a…

  • 1535: Printing of the Coverdale Bible is completed

    Printing of the Coverdale Bible was completed on 4 October 1535. Compiled and translated by Myles Coverdale, it was the first complete printed English Bible. English translations of the Bible already existed. Versions associated with John Wycliffe and his followers had circulated in manuscript from the late fourteenth century. William Tyndale also printed an English…

  • 1536: Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour

    On 30 May 1536, Henry VIII married Jane Seymour. The wedding came eleven days after the execution of Anne Boleyn. Henry had removed one queen and taken another almost at once. The main issue was succession. Henry still had no legitimate son. Mary, his daughter by Catherine of Aragon, had been pushed out of the…

  • 1536: Lincolnshire Rebels Send Their Grievances to Henry VIII

    On 9 October 1536, rebels in Lincolnshire sent a petition to Henry VIII opposing his government’s religious and political policies. Known as the Lincoln Articles, the document followed more than a week of unrest that had brought thousands of people into Lincoln. The rebellion began at Louth on 1 October. The closure of smaller monasteries…

  • 1537: Edward VI Is Born at Hampton Court Palace

    Edward, the future Edward VI, was born at Hampton Court Palace on 12 October 1537. He was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour. His birth gave Henry the legitimate male heir he had sought through three marriages. Henry already had two surviving daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Edward was baptised at Hampton Court three…

  • 1540: Thomas Cromwell is executed on Henry VIII’s wedding day

    On 28 July 1540, Thomas Cromwell was beheaded on Tower Hill. Later that day, Henry VIII married Catherine Howard at Oatlands Palace in Surrey. Cromwell had been one of the most powerful men in England. As Henry’s chief minister, he had helped establish the king’s authority over the English Church, increased Parliament’s role in carrying…

  • 1542: Sir Thomas Wyatt Dies in Dorset

    Sir Thomas Wyatt, the English poet and diplomat, is commonly recorded as having died on 11 October 1542 in Dorset. The exact date is uncertain. Some accounts place his death on 6 October and his burial at Sherborne Abbey on the 11th. Wyatt had been travelling on royal business to meet an envoy of Emperor…

  • 1543: Henry VIII marries Katherine Parr at Hampton Court

    Henry VIII married Katherine Parr at Hampton Court Palace on 12 July 1543. The private ceremony took place in the Queen’s Closet. It was attended by members of the royal family, including Henry’s daughters Mary and Elizabeth. Parr was Henry’s sixth wife. She was also a twice-widowed woman in her early thirties with experience of…

  • 1548: Catherine Parr dies at Sudeley Castle

    Catherine Parr died at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire on 5 September 1548, six days after giving birth to her only child. She was about 36. Parr was Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife. She survived the king, who died in January 1547, and later that year married Thomas Seymour, brother of Henry’s third wife, Jane…

  • 1553: Mary I is crowned Queen of England

    Mary I was crowned Queen of England at Westminster Abbey on 1 October 1553, less than three months after her half-brother Edward VI died. Her coronation had not been assured. Before his death, Edward had attempted to exclude both Mary and Elizabeth from the succession and place Lady Jane Grey on the throne. Jane was…

  • 1558: Walter Devereux, 1st Viscount Hereford, dies

    Walter Devereux, 1st Viscount Hereford, died at his family seat at Chartley, Staffordshire, on 17 September 1558. He had spent much of his adult life in royal service under Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I. Under Henry VIII, Devereux held several administrative positions and served in the government of the Welsh Marches. In 1544,…

  • 1566: James VI and I is born at Edinburgh Castle

    James VI and I was born at Edinburgh Castle on 19 June 1566, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. His birth gave Scotland a male heir, but it did not give Mary a settled kingdom. Her rule was already under pressure from noble rivalry, religious division and her troubled…

  • 1568: Welsh cartographer Humphrey Llwyd dies

    Welsh antiquary and mapmaker Humphrey Llwyd died at Denbigh in August 1568 after suffering a severe fever. The Dictionary of Welsh Biography gives his death as 21 August, although the date is uncertain. Abraham Ortelius recorded 31 August, and that date also appears in a contemporary note attached to Llwyd’s final surviving letter. Llwyd was…

  • 1578: Martin Frobisher leaves Harwich on his third Arctic voyage

    On 31 May 1578, Martin Frobisher left Harwich with a fleet of 15 ships. It was his third voyage to the Arctic, and it was much larger than his earlier attempts. The voyage still carried the old aim of finding a North-West Passage. English backers hoped the route might open trade with Asia by sailing…

  • 1580: Francis Drake returns to Plymouth after circumnavigating the world

    On 26 September 1580, Francis Drake sailed the Golden Hind into Plymouth, completing a voyage that had taken him around the world and kept him away from England for nearly three years. Drake had left Plymouth in December 1577 with five ships. His expedition was backed by Queen Elizabeth I and other investors. Although the…

  • 1582: George Buchanan dies in Edinburgh

    George Buchanan died in Edinburgh on 28 September 1582, aged 76. A historian, poet and humanist scholar, he was a leading intellectual figure in sixteenth-century Scotland. Buchanan’s career also placed him close to political power. He became tutor to the young James VI and later served as Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland. His…

  • 1587: Virginia Dare is born at Roanoke

    Virginia Dare was born on Roanoke Island on 18 August 1587, the daughter of English colonists Ananias and Eleanor Dare. She was the first English child born in North America. Eleanor was the daughter of John White, governor of the English settlement established at Roanoke that summer. The colonists had crossed the Atlantic as part…

  • 1588: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Dies

    Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, died at Cornbury, Oxfordshire, on 4 September 1588. He was 56 and had been one of the closest figures to Elizabeth I throughout almost her entire reign. His death came only weeks after the defeat of the Spanish Armada. During the crisis, Elizabeth had appointed Dudley Lieutenant and Captain-General of…

  • 1589: William Spenser is executed at York

    William Spenser, an English Roman Catholic priest, was executed at York on 24 September 1589. Robert Hardesty, a layman who had sheltered him, was executed with him. Spenser was born in Yorkshire and studied at Trinity College, Oxford, where he became a fellow and received his MA in 1580. He became increasingly committed to Catholicism…

  • 1593: Christopher Marlowe is killed at Deptford

    On 30 May 1593, Christopher Marlowe was killed at Deptford. The inquest recorded a quarrel at the house of Eleanor Bull. Marlowe had spent the day there with Ingram Frizer, Robert Poley and Nicholas Skeres. The dispute was said to have been over payment. Frizer stabbed Marlowe above the eye, and Marlowe died from the…

  • 1595: Thomas Digges dies in London

    Thomas Digges, an English mathematician and astronomer, died in London on 24 August 1595. He was one of the earliest English supporters of Copernican astronomy. He published the first English account of the Copernican system. Born in Kent around 1546, Digges was the son of the mathematician and surveyor Leonard Digges. After his father’s death,…