Isabella I of Castile, co-ruler of Aragon and queen of most of the Iberian peninsula, one of the strongest monarchs of the Medieval period, was born on 22 April 1451 in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Ávila. She was the eldest child of John II of Castile and his second wife, Isabella of Portugal. Her… Read more Isabella I, Strong and Devout and Cruel
Elizabeth Barton, known as the “Holy Maid of Kent” or the “ Nun of Kent”, was executed on 20 April 1534 along with a handful of her followers, for the ‘crime’ that she predicted a bad end for King Henry VIII if he continued to flout the will of Rome and separate his kingdom from… Read more The Nun of Kent
Anne Stanhope Seymour Newdigate, Dowager Duchess of Somerset, former wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and once the most powerful woman in Britain, died in Hanworth, Middlesex, on 16 April 1587, the comparatively lowly widow of her first husband’s steward. She was born Anne Stanhope, the daughter Sir Edward Stanhope, sometime in 1510.… Read more Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset
The Battle of Barnet was fought on 14 April 1471, and it was during this engagement that Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known as the Warwick the Kingmaker, was slain while retreating before the victorious Yorkists commanded by King Edward IV. Neville was the 16th Earl of Warwick and the most powerful nobleman in the… Read more A Kingmaker Dies
Although I think Katherina of Aragon was daffy to risk so much just to fight her divorce from Henry VIII so long, I have all kinds of respect and admiration for the strength and smarts it took to do so. Occasionally I stumble onto things that remind me of how effect her tactics were –… Read more Weak as Steel
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
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