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
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
Mary Tudor, who was most likely born sometime in March of 1496, was approximately 18 years old when she married the 52-year-old King Louis XII of France on 9 October 1514. She was not only young enough to be the groom’s granddaughter, she was acclaimed as one of the most beautiful women in Europe. King… Read more The Autonomy of Mary Tudor, Queen of France
Rhys ap Thomas was born the third son of Thomas ap Gruffydd, and would die the most powerful man in Wales. Neither birth order nor family would have predicted Rhys’s rise to greatness. His paternal grandfather, Gruffydd ap Nicolas, had earned the family fortune, but the family was made more respectable by marriage when Rhys’s… Read more The Descendants of Rhys ap Thomas
King Henry VIII married his sixth and final wife, Kateryn Parr, on 12 July 1543. The widowed Lady Latimer was well known for her piety and virtue at court. Her mother had been a lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherina of Aragon, and as fate would have it, Henry’s last wife was probably his first wife’s goddaughter… Read more The 6th Time is the Charm?
Contrary to popular belief, Henry VIII wasn’t a tyrannical monster who chopped off heads willy-nilly … until 1535. Prior to that year, Henry was reluctant to use the axe when other solutions were possible and the worst thing he had done was separate Katherina of Aragon from their daughter, Mary. Even that wasn’t just being… Read more The Bloodbath Begins: Henry VIII Turns to the Axe
Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547, but the time needed to have his body lavishly embalmed and his funeral procession planned meant that the king was not actually buried in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor until almost three weeks later. On 14 February the king’s funeral procession began its journey from Whitehall, where the… Read more Bluff King Hal is Laid to Rest