Although Henry VIII’s marriage to Jane Seymour would transform the fortunes of her oldest brother, Edward Seymour was a rising man before his sister caught the eye of the king. Edward was born around 1500 to John and Margery Seymour, whose chief residence was Wolf Hall in Wiltshire. He was his parents’ second son; his …
Into nearly every novel about Lady Jane Grey must fall this scene: Jane and her parents, Henry and Frances Grey, Duke and Duchess of Suffolk, are strolling around their home at Sheen when a hand, wielding a bloody axe or sword, suddenly pops out of the wall, giving the family the fright of their lives …
Good morning! I wanted to start out by mentioning that Leanda de Lisle’s excellent nonfiction book, Tudor: Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of England’s Most Notorious Royal Family is now on sale, both here in the United States and in the UK (under the title Tudor: The Family Story). I was fortunate enough to read it a …
Cecily, the third daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville and the second to survive adolescence, was born at Westminster on 20 March 1469. It seems likely that one of her godmothers was her grandmother, Cecily, Duchess of York. Young Cecily was less than a month old when she became the topic of international gossip: …
Recently, historian John Ashdown-Hill published a book called Royal Marriage Secrets, in which he purports to uncover evidence that Edmund Tudor, father of Henry VII, was not the son of Owen Tudor but of Edmund Beaufort—evidence, in short, that would entail renaming an entire dynasty. The speculation does have some basis in fact. Following the …
Arms and the Man: Was Edmund Tudor Illegitimate? Read More »
My, this blog has been quiet lately! I’ve been busy with the page proofs for The Woodvilles (due out in October in the UK and January in the US), but now that things are quieter I hope to be blogging more. Now that I’ve made my excuses, I’m pleased to be hosting a guest post …
Guest Post by Sarah: The Martyrdoms of Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley Read More »
A while back, I wrote a blog post about the christening of Bridget, Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville’s youngest child. Here are a few more details about her life. Bridget, as my post indicated, was born on November 10, 1480, and was christened the next day at Eltham. Her paternal grandmother, Cecily, Duchess of York, …
Lately online, I’ve seen people here and there complaining that they’re tired of the Tudors, or simply don’t like them. Some people simply can’t forgive the Tudors for supplanting the gentle, peace-loving, Maypole-dancing Plantagenets (particularly the saintly Richard III), while others are just sick of the Tudors because they’ve been such an enduringly popular subject …
On November 21, 1559, Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, died, age 42. (Strype gives the date as November 20.) An account of her death and her burial can be found here. When I was doing my blog tour for Her Highness, the Traitor, I did a guest post for Claire Ridgway over at the Anne Boleyn …
Happy Halloween! For Lord Thomas Howard, however, All Hallow’s Eve was not a happy day. Since I shared his story on Facebook, I thought I’d post it here as well. On October 31, 1537, Lord Thomas Howard died in the Tower of an ague. Thomas, a younger half-brother of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, had …
