Thomas More was born on 7 February 1478. He was one of the great European scholars of his age, and he served Henry VIII both loyally and well. More was also the reluctant Chancellor of England until being relieved of the office on March 16, 1532 due to the fact that he could not swear… Read more Saint Thomas More Was Only Human
King Ferdinand II of Aragon, one of the worst royal father’s in history, passed away on 23 January 1516 and was (oddly enough) lamented by his surviving children. His son-in-law, Henry VIII, whom he had betrayed more often than once, was so worried about distressing the heavily pregnant Katherina of Aragon that he waited until… Read more The Death of King Ferdinand II of Aragon
On 22 January 1552, Edward Seymour, the eldest brother of Henry VIII’s third queen Jane Seymour and uncle of King Edward VI, was beheaded on Tower Hill. I’m not particularly sorry for him. I’m schooled in postmodernism enough to assume everyone studying history develops partialities whether they admit it or not. One of the people… Read more Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Fratricidal Monster
The newly ascendant King Henry VII of England, having won the crown by ‘right of conquest’ wed Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of King Edward IV and his queen, Elizabeth Woodville, on 18 January 1486 in Westminster Abbey. He had pledged to marry Elizabeth of York the Christmas before his invasion of England, a union… Read more A Loving Couple, A Genetic Curse
There was a fascinating study about Bombus terrestris — European buff-tailed bumblebees — that was recently published in Royal Society Open Science: Social insects are well known for their high level of cooperation. Workers of the primitively eusocial bumblebee Bombus terrestris are able to produce male offspring in the presence of a queen. Nonetheless, they… Read more Circumstances of Usurpation
On New Year’s Day of 1511, Queen Katherina of Aragon gave birth to the son she and King Henry VIII had been yearning for. The newborn was named Henry after his father and he appears to have been a normal and healthy baby, prompting widespread and prolonged celebration. Henry and Katherina were thrilled with their new son, whom… Read more The New Year’s Day Prince
In the Tudor era the New Year began at sunset on December 31, and it was customary to give a gift then, rather on Christmas Day as many do in modern times. Happily for the historical record, in the early 1540s John Leland gave King Henry VIII a present that has been a cause for… Read more John Leland’s New Year’s Gift to the King
The 28th of December is the 4th Day of Christmas, and the Feast of the Holy Innocents, or Childermas. It is the commemoration of a terribly sad event. According to an account in the Gospel of Matthew, the Roman puppet-king of Judea, Herod the Great, “ordered the execution of all young male children in the… Read more The Boy Bishop on Childermas
There are some historical figures that the more one reads about them, the more one loathes them. For me, one of those figures is Thomas Wriothesley, who was born on 21 December 1505 to upper-middle-class family in London but would claw his way up to becoming Lord Chancellor for King Henry VIII by having the morals and… Read more Thomas Wriothesley Becomes Chancellor
Catalina de Aragón, who signed her name Katherina in England but is usually called Catherine of Aragon in English histories, was born on 16 December 1485, the youngest child of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. There is a persistent myth that Katherina was born in the midst of a combat zone,… Read more Katherina of Aragon