Anne Boleyn was crowned queen on 1 June 1533. It was a day of many mixed blessings for the new queen. She was publically acknowledged as Henry VIII’s wife, adored by her husband, and she was heavily pregnant with the baby she felt sure would be a boy. On the other hand, supporters of the Henry’s… Read more Anne Boleyn Crowned Queen of England
Lady Margaret Beaufort, the sole living child and heir of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset and his wife, Margaret Beauchamp of Bletsoe was born on 31 May 1443. Through her father she was the great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster through the legitimized eldest son of his third wife, Katherine Swynford. Thus… Read more The Lancastrian Heir is Born
On 30 May 1536, only ll days after the judicial murder of his second wife, Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII married Jane Seymour. I In spite of the fact none of his former wives were alive, and he could indisputably wed again, Henry married Jane quietly in the Queen’s Closet of York Place. Archbishop Cranmer,… Read more Third Weddings and a Funeral
On 27 May 1541 the Countess of Salisbury, Lady Margaret Pole, was executed by order of Henry VIII. This was shocking, even for a populace who had become accustomed to the murder of famous and popular people by their increasingly despotic king. First and foremost it was shocking because of her social status and royal… Read more The Beheading of Margaret Pole
Lady Jane Grey, who was briefly Queen of England before being deposed by her cousin, Mary I, married Guildford Dudley, the youngest surviving son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, on 25 May 1553. Why did Jane, great-granddaughter of King Henry VII, marry a relative nobody like a recently made duke’s youngest boy? Because… Read more Jane Grey Weds Guilford Dudley
Henry VIII became engaged to Jane Seymour on 20 May 1536, one day after beheading his second wife, Anne Boleyn. On the morning of Anne’s death, he had a barge waiting for him in order to whisk him downriver to Jane as soon as the former queen’s head was off, and while Anne’s body cooled… Read more Funeral Food and Wedding Feasts
It’s May 19th, the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s execution, so let’s talk about Anne’s enduring and unjustified reputation as a home-wrecking whore. Bearing the historical facts in mind, what exactly did Anne do to be slut shamed for more than five centuries? She refused to date a married man until she knew he was getting… Read more For Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn was beheaded on 19 May 1536. When this maligned and falsely accused queen walked her last steps to the scaffold where a swordsman waited to take her head, four ladies accompanied her. I agree with historian Eric Ives (no surprise there) that the ladies with her were probably the ones assigned to spy on… Read more The Ladies Upon the Scaffold
Anne Boleyn spent 18 May 1536 preparing for death. Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys, a man who hated her and refered to her as ‘the concubine’ and worse, reported one of the ladies who attended Anne in the Tower had sent him, “word, in great secrecy, that before and after [Anne] receiving the Holy Sacrament, she… Read more Anne Boleyn’s Final Sacrament
The five men accused of adultery with Queen Anne Boleyn — Henry Norris, Francis Weston, William Brereton, Mark Smeaton, and her brother, George Boleyn – were beheaded on 17 May 1536 in the Tower yard. Apparently the execution of Francis Weston caused some of the most brouhaha. The only son and heir of the former… Read more The Deaths of Five Innocent Men