Today is a seldom remarked-upon but important date in English history, resulting in the return of the monarchy. On 4 April 1660 Charles II of Great Britain issued the Declaration of Breda, promising a general pardon for crimes committed against royalist forces and the crown during the English Civil War and the Interregnum. Since one of… Read more The Merry Monarch Returns
Lady Elizabeth Howard Boleyn, the Countess of Wiltshire, died on 3 April 1538 … having lived long enough to see two of her three adult children murders by King Henry VIII. The Anne Boleyn Files did an excellent post on the potential cause of her death, and I cannot help but think she was grateful… Read more RIP Elizabeth Boleyn
Arthur Tudor died at the young age of 15 on 2 April 1502 at Ludlow Castle, on what was considered the Welsh boarder at the time. It is springtime here in south Wales, and hills are covered with wildflowers and fields full of woolly little lambs. It seems exceptionally sad that Arthur died at this… Read more The Death of Arthur Tudor
On 2 April 1536, Passion Sunday, Anne Boleyn’s almoner, John Skip (Skyppe), fired a broadside at Thomas Cromwell from the pulpit of the king’s chapel. His sermon “on the text Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato?” was a strong defense of the clergy from the attacks of “their defamers and from the immoderate zeal… Read more A Warning for Haman
Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, the only daughter of King George I of Britain, was born on 16 March 1687, a date that was changed to the 26 March after the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750. She was treated dismissively by her father, and loathed by her brother, due to suspicions she was actually the biological… Read more The Admirable Sophia Dorothea of Hanover
Queen Elizabeth I was a charismatic leader who inspired a cult around her unmarried status and continues to fascinate historians and history buffs to the the present day. She was often associated with the virginal Roman goddess of the moon and hunting, Diana, and was often called by one of Diana’s more celestial alternate titles, Cynthia,… Read more Moonset: The Death of Cynthia
Lady Catherine Willoughby, the only surviving child of Maria de Salinas, Lady Willoughby, and William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, was born 22 March 1519. Catherine’s father died when she was seven, and King Henry VIII gave wardship over the rich young orphan to his best friend and brother-in-law, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. A… Read more Catherine Willoughby
Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury under King Edward VI and Queen Jane, was a brilliant writer and theologian, finishing the Book of Common Prayer in 1549, revising it again in 1552, and basically creating the Anglican church. On March 21, 1556 the elderly prelate was burned at the stake on the ordered of… Read more Cranmer’s Coerced Confessions
Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and 1st Viscount Rochford, passed away on 12 March 1539 at his family home of family home, Hever Castle, Kent, where he had been born some 61 years before. The only members of his family to survive him were his eldest daughter, Mary Boleyn, and his three grandchildren, Catherine… Read more Thomas Boleyn, Villain or Victim?
Jousting was a dangerous sport, and on 10 March 1524 King Henry VIII was very nearly maimed — or killed — during a tournament. Edward Hall’s Chronicle recounts: “Then [Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk] set forward and charged with his spear, and the king likewise unadvisedly set off towards the duke. The people, seeing… Read more Justly Jousting in 1524