1523 August Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, leads a 10,000-strong English army in a second invasion of northern France but bad weather disrupts his advance on Paris and he retreats to Flanders.
1524 Henry stops sleeping regularly with his wife Katherine of Aragon.
1524 10 March Henry is injured whilst jousting against Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
1525 Henry nearly drowns in a hunting accident near Hitchen, Hertfordshire.
1525 24 February Richard de la Pole killed fighting on the French side at Battle of Pavia in Italy.
1525 18 June Henry VIII’s bastard son, Henry Fitzroy, created Duke of Richmond at Bridewell.
1525 July Sir Thomas More appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
1525 October Princess Mary separated from her mother and sent to Ludlow Castle.
1527 17 May Wolsey’s legatine court sits to try Henry’s marriage but fails to make a pronouncement on its validity.
1527 May Sack of Rome by German mercenaries serving with Imperial forces in Italy.
1527 22 June Henry VIII tells his wife he plans to divorce her as they have been ‘living in mortal sin’ for eighteen years.
1527 3 August John Rut writes to Henry VIII from St John’s harbour, Newfoundland – the earliest surviving letter from North America.
1528 May Fourth pandemic of sweating sickness in England.
1529 21 June – 23 July Legatine court sits at Blackfriars on the marriage of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon but is adjourned without making a judgement.
1529 18 October Wolsey delivers Great Seal of England to Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk at York Place.
1529 26 October Sir Thomas More takes oath of fidelity as Lord Chancellor in Westminster Hall.
1530 4 November Wolsey arrested on treason charges and dies (29 November ) at Leicester, probably from dysentery.
1531 8 March Convocation of bishops recognises Henry VIII as Head of the Church of England ‘as far as the law of God allows’.
1531 July Henry separates from Katherine of Aragon.
1532 16 May Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor.
1533 25 January Henry secretly (and bigamously) marries the pregnant Anne Boleyn in a chamber above the Holbein Gate in the Palace of Westminster.
1533 23 May Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, divorces Henry VIII from Katherine at an ecclesiastical court at Dunstable, Bedfordshire.
1533 1 June Anne is crowned queen by Cranmer at Westminster Abbey.
1533 7 September A baby daughter, subsequently christened Elizabeth, is born to Anne at Greenwich Palace.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
ENGLISH ROYALTY
Richard III (1452 – 85). Eighth and youngest child of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, who was killed at Battle of Wakefield, 30 December 1460. Created Duke of Gloucester at age of eight. In 1472 he married the Prince of Wales’ widow, Anne, younger daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, ‘the Kingmaker’. Edward IV died on 9 April 1483 and Richard was appointed Lord Protector to the heir to the throne, twelve-year-old Edward V, who disappeared after entering the Tower of London with his younger brother Richard, Duke of York. Seized power and was crowned 6 July 1483 in Westminster Abbey. His army was defeated and he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485 by invading forces commanded by Henry VII. Richard was the last reigning English monarch to be killed in battle.
Henry VII (1457 – 1509). Born to Margaret Beaufort, wife of Edmund Tudor, First Earl of Richmond, who died from the plague three months before in Carmarthen Castle, south Wales, where he was imprisoned by Yorkists. Exiled in 1471 after the defeat of the Lancastrian cause in the Wars of the Roses and spent fourteen years under the protection of Francis II, Duke of Brittany. Snatched the throne of England after his defeat of Richard III at Bosworth, 22 August 1485. Crowned as first Tudor monarch at Westminster that October and married Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, in 1486.
Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond (1443 – 1509). Daughter of John Beaufort, First Duke of Somerset. She was aged twelve when she married Edmund Tudor, First Earl of Richmond on 1 November 1455. She gave birth to their only child, later Henry VII, on 28 January 1457, three months after the death of her husband whilst incarcerated. On 3 January 1462 Margaret married her cousin, Henry Stafford, son of Humphrey Stafford, First Duke of Buckingham, who had died in 1471. In June 1473 she married for the third time to Thomas Stanley, Second Baron Stanley, who with his brother William, decisively changed sides at Bosworth to hand victory to Henry VII. Now known as ‘the King’s Mother’, Margaret was not only was the richest woman in England but also one of the most pious. In 1499, after securing her husband’s permission, she took a vow of chastity and lived apart from Stanley. In 1505 she refounded the impoverished Godshouse in Cambridge as Christ’s College and six years later her executors founded St John’s College in the same university. After being regent to Henry VIII for a few weeks after his accession, she died at Westminster on 29 June 1509.
Elizabeth of York (1466 – 1503). Eldest child of Edward IV (died 1483) and his queen Elizabeth Woodville. This marriage was declared invalid by Richard III’s Titulus Regius in 1483, making the couple’s children illegitimate and ineligible for the succession to the crown. After Henry VII snatched the throne at Bosworth, the Titulus Regius was repealed and he married Elizabeth on 18 January 1486. She was crowned queen consort on 25 November 1487. The couple had eight children: Arthur, Prince of Wales; a boy reputedly named Edward who died shortly after birth; Margaret, later queen consort of Scotland; Henry, later Henry VIII; Elizabeth (died 1495); Mary, later queen consort of France; Edmund, Duke of Somerset (died 1500) and Katherine (died a few days after her birth, 1503). Elizabeth herself died after delivering her last child.
Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales (1486 – 1502). First child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, born a month prematurely at Winchester. Created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester at the age of three. Married Katherine of Aragon on 14 November 1501 in St Paul’s Cathedral and the couple moved to Ludlow Castle, Shropshire in Arthur’s role as Prince of Wales and president of the Council of Wales and the Marches. Died, probably of tuberculosis, on 2 April 1502 and buried in Worcester Cathedral.
Henry VIII (1491 – 1547): Second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. After his father’s death, his accession to the throne was proclaimed on 24 April 1509. Only a daughter, Princess Mary, survived as issue of his marriage with Katherine of Aragon, whom he sought to divorce because of his claim that their union was against the law of God and the church. At least one illegitimate child: Henry Fitzroy, born to Henry’s mistress, Elizabeth Blount on 15 June 1519. Awarded the title ‘Defender of the Faith’ by Pope Leo X but later became Supreme Head of the Church of England after his break with Rome. Married his mistress Anne Boleyn who was beheaded for adultery and incest (one child – Elizabeth); Jane Seymour (one child – Edward) and Catherine Howard (beheaded), Anne of Cleves (annulled) and Katherine Parr who outlived him.
Katherine of Aragon (1485 – 1536). Henry’s first queen. Youngest surviving child of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile and aunt to Charles V of Spain, the Holy Roman Emperor. Married Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, on 14 November 1501 but left a widow after his death on 2 April 1502. Married Henry on 11 June 1509 and had six pregnancies but only Princess Mary survived birth. Died at Kimbolton Castle, Huntingdonshire, of cancer of the heart, 7 January 1536.
Anne Boleyn (c.1501 – 36) second daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond and second wife of Henry VIII, secretly marrying the king on 25 January 1533. Gave birth to Elizabeth, her only child, on 7 September 1533 at Greenwich. Arrested on charges of adultery and incest and executed at the Tower, 19 May 1536.
Princess Mary, later Queen Mary I (1516 – 58). Only surviving child of Henry VIII and his first wife Katherine of Aragon. Proclaimed queen on 19 July 1553. Re-introduced Catholicism to England. Married Philip, son of Charles V of Spain at
Winchester, 25 July 1554. Died, childless, from ovarian or stomach cancer, St James’ Palace, London, 17 November 1558.
Princess Elizabeth, later Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603). Daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn. Succeeded Mary I as queen 17 November 1558. Secured Protestantism as state religion. Died, unmarried, from pneumonia and dental sepsis, Richmond, 24 March 1603.
Prince Edward later Edward VI (1537 – 53). Legitimate son of Henry VIII and his third wife Jane Seymour. Proclaimed king 31 January 1547 at the Tower of London. Died of tuberculosis, complicated by measles and sundry unorthodox medicines, Greenwich Palace, 6 July 1553.
Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond (1519 – 36). Bastard son of Henry VIII and Elizabeth Blount, a maid of honour to Katherine of Aragon. Created Duke of Richmond at Bridewell on 18 June 1525. Under care of Thomas Howard, Third Duke of Norfolk. Married, on 26 November 1533, Mary Howard, daughter of Norfolk. Died 23 July 1536 of a pulmonary infection. The marriage was never consummated.
Margaret Tudor, queen consort of Scotland (1489 – 1541). Elder daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Married James IV of Scotland in Edinburgh on 8 August 1503 and was crowned in March 1504. In 1512 she gave birth to a son who succeeded as James V after his father was killed at Flodden in 1513. The following year, Margaret bore a posthumous son, Alexander, Duke of Ross, who died in 1515. She married Archibald Douglas, Sixth Earl of Angus, on 6 August 1514 and lost the regency and guardianship of her sons by James IV. After divorcing Douglas in 1527, Margaret married Henry Stewart, created Lord Methven, and died at Methven Castle on 18 October 1541.
Mary Tudor, queen consort of France (1496 – 1533). Second daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York and Henry VIII’s younger sister. In 1508 she was betrothed to Charles of Castile, afterwards Charles V but the marriage plans were scrapped and instead, she married the aging Louis XII of France on 9 October 1514 and was crowned queen of France in November. He died on 1 January 1515 and Mary secretly married Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, much to Henry VIII’s anger. After the couple agreed to pay back Mary’s dowry and hand over her plate and jewels, the king’s indignation was mollified and their marriage was publicly solemnised at Greenwich in May 1515. They had four children: Henry, who died young; Frances, later the wife of Henry Grey, Marquis of Northampton and mother of Lady Jane Grey, Eleanor, and a second son, also called Henry who died about the age of twelve. Mary died at Westhorpe, Suffolk and was buried in the abbey at Bury St Edmund’s but after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, her body was moved into the parish church there.
PRETENDERS TO THE CROWN OF ENGLAND
Edward Plantagenet, Seventeenth Earl of Warwick (1475 – 99). Son of George, First Duke of Clarence, and younger brother of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (governess to Princess Mary but executed by Henry VIII on 27 May 1541 when she was aged sixty-seven). After the death of Richard III’s son Edward in 1484, Warwick was named heir to the throne, but this was overtaken by the later declaration of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln as his heir. After Henry VIII seized the throne at Bosworth, Warwick was imprisoned in the Tower as a dangerous potential claimant. Contemporaries described him as simple-minded, ‘not able to tell a goose from a capon’. The last of the male Plantagenet line, he was executed on 28 November 1499 at Tower Hill.
Lambert Simnel (c.1477 – c.1525). Son of an Oxford joiner or organ-maker. Because of his physical resemblance to the ten-year-old Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, Richard Simons, an Oxford-trained priest, took the boy to Ireland, claiming that he was the true Warwick. He was crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin on 24 May 1487 as ‘Richard IV’ and with Irish troops mustered by Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, and German mercenaries under another pretender, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, the rebel force landed in Cumbria that June. They were defeated by royalist forces at Stoke Field on 16 June, but Simnel was spared and sent to the royal kitchens as a scullion and turnspit, later progressing to the post of falconer.
John de la Pole, First Earl of Lincoln (1464 – 87). Eldest son of John de la Pole, Second Duke of Suffolk and Elizabeth Plantagenet. Served Richard III as Lieutenant in Ireland and president of the Council of the North in England. After Bosworth, he was reconciled with Henry VIII but tried to seize power, allying himself with the pretender, Lambert Simnel. Killed at the Battle of Stoke Field on 16 June 1487. His younger brother Edmund de la Pole, Sixth Earl of Suffolk, became the leading Yorkist claimant but was executed by Henry VIII on 4 May 1513. Their brother Richard continued the de la Pole claim until his death at the Battle of Pavia on 24 February 1525.
Edmund de la Pole, Sixth Earl of Suffolk (?1472 – 1513). Second son of John de la Pole, Second Duke of Suffolk, and younger brother to John, First Earl of Lincoln, and elder brother to Richard de la Pole. In 1499, he was indicted for murder and fled England in July but was persuaded to return. Having heard that the Emperor Maximilian was no friend of Henry VIII’s he went to the continent again in August 1501 with his brother Richard. Three years later he was attainted and Archduke Philip of Burgundy agreed to return him to England and he was imprisoned in the Tower on 24 April 1506. He was beheaded on Henry VIII’s orders on 4 May 1513, before the king left for the invasion of France.
Richard de la Pole (d.1525). Fifth son of John de la Pole (1442 – 91), Second Duke of Suffolk, and younger brother to John and Edmund. Fled England with his brother and remained at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1504 as surety for Edmund’s mounting debts. He escaped and when Louis XII was fighting English forces in France, he recognised Richard’s claims to the throne and appointed him a commander in the French army. In 1514 he was given 12,000 German mercenaries for an invasion attempt which was stymied by a peace treaty. Under Francis I, he also planned a further invasion in 1523 but this also proved abortive. He was killed fighting for the French at the Battle of Pavia in February 1525.
Perkin Warbeck (c.1474 – 99). Born in Tournai, the son of a French official John de Werbecque (or Osbek), comptroller of the city, but claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, one of the missing ‘Princes in the Tower’. Landed in Ireland in November 1491 in the hopes of winning support and was later recognised by Margaret of York, protector of Burgundy, sister to Edward IV. Funded by Burgundian cash, he landed at Deal on 3 July 1495 but some of his troops were killed or captured and he ended up at the court of James IV of Scotland who gave him shelter. There he married James’ cousin, Lady Catherine Gordon, and launched an abortive invasion of England across the Scottish border. The remnants of his fleet landed in Cornwall in September 1497 and Warbeck rallied 8,000 Cornish malcontents to his cause. After vainly attacking Exeter he fled his forces at the approach of the royalist army and surrendered at Beaulieu Abbey on 5 October 1497. He was hanged at Tyburn on 23 November 1499 after reading out a confession.
Edward Stafford, Third Duke of Buckingham (1478 – 1521). Eldest son of Henry Stafford, the Second Duke, who was attainted and executed for treason by Richard III in 1483. On Henry VII’s accession, the attainder was reversed and the custody of Edward’s lands and his wardship was given to Lady Margaret Beaufort, the new king’s mother. Despite his aspirations for the throne, Buckingham was sworn a Privy Councillor on 20 November 1510. He was a captain in the English army in France in June – October 1513 and attended the Field of the Cloth of Gold in June 1520. He became an enemy of Wolsey and the subject of deep suspicion by Henry VIII. He was tried by his peers for treason and beheaded on Tower Hill on 17 May 1521.
MISTRESSES OF HENRY VIII
Anne Hastings, née Stafford (c.1483 – 1544). Youngest daughter of Henry Stafford, Second Duke of Buckingham and sister to Edward Stafford. Married George Hastings, later Earl of Huntingdon, in December 1509 and had eight children. She had an affair with Henry VIII in 1510 and was sent to a convent by her husband. Anne later lived with Sir William Compton. Her husband also died in 1544, leaving debts of £9,466, mostly incurred by his expensive life at court.
Elizabeth (‘Bessie’) Blount (c.1500-?41). Second daug
hter of Sir John Blount of Kinlet, Shropshire. Appointed maid of honour to Katherine of Aragon. Henry VIII’s mistress from 1514 to 1519, when she gave birth to his illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy. In 1522 she married Gilbert Talboys and was given a generous income by act of Parliament from the properties owned by his mad father, who died in 1517. She had three children by him. Talboys died in April 1530 and some time after 1533 she married her Lincolnshire neighbour, Edward Clinton, Ninth Baron Clinton and Saye (1512 – 85) and had three daughters. Anne was appointed a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves but left court because of her ill-health and died of tuberculosis probably in 1541.
Mary Carey , née Boleyn (?1499 – 1543). Elder daughter of Thomas Boleyn and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Howard, Second Duke of Norfolk, and sister to Anne Boleyn and George, whose career at court began as a royal page. She attended Mary Tudor for her marriage to Louis XII in 1514 and stayed on at the French court where she was notorious for her immorality. She secured a place in Katherine of Aragon’s household and in February 1520 married a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, William Carey, producing a son and daughter. Mary was Henry VIII’s mistress from 1522 to the mid-1520s. Carey died of the sweat in 1528 and she secretly married Sir William Stafford (?1512 – 56), a member of the Calais garrison, in 1534. Her marriage was exposed when she became pregnant and her sister banished her from court. Mary’s daughter Katherine was appointed maid of honour to the ill-fated Anne of Cleves in November 1539.
Anne Boleyn – see English Royalty.
TUDOR GOVERNMENT
Richard Fox (1448 – 1528). Accompanied Henry VII in his invasion and was present at Bosworth Field in 1485. Became secretary to the king and appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal in February 1487 and Bishop of Exeter. Baptised Prince Henry at Greenwich, 1491. Bishop of Winchester 1501. Continued as Lord Privy Seal under Henry VIII and promoted Thomas Wolsey in the king’s favour who, by 1513, had overtaken Fox in importance. Three years later the bishop resigned as Lord Privy Seal and retired from politics. By 1518, he was almost blind.
Young Henry: The Rise of Henry VIII Page 31