1.
Blickling Hall
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Blickling Hall is a stately home which is part of the Blickling estate. It is located in the village of Blickling north of Aylsham in Norfolk, England and has been in the care of the National Trust since 1940. In the 15th century, Blickling was in the possession of Sir John Fastolf of Caister in Norfolk, who made a fortune in the Hundred Years War, and whose coat of arms is still on display there. Later, the property was in the possession of the Boleyn family, and home to Thomas Boleyn, later Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife Elizabeth between 1499 and 1505. A statue and portrait of Anne may be found at Blickling Estate which carry the inscription, Anna Bolena hic nata 1507, the architect of Hatfield House, Robert Lyminge, is credited with the design of the current structure. The Lord Chief Justice married Dorothy, the daughter of Sir Robert Bell of Beaupre Hall, Outwell/Upwell, Norfolk, a grand display of heraldic material is present throughout the estate. After the death of Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian in December 1940, during World War II the house was requisitioned and served as the Officers Mess of nearby RAF Oulton. It was at time that the house and its estate passed to The National Trust. RAF servicemen and women were billeted within the grounds in Nissen huts, the National Trust has created the RAF Oulton Museum on site in tribute to the RAF pilots and ground crew who served in the Second World War, and this may be visited for no additional entrance fee. At the end of the war, the house was de-requisitioned, the National Trust again let it to tenants until 1960, when the Trust began the work to restore the house to a style reflecting its history. The house and grounds were opened to the public in 1962, in 2015 the National Trust marked the 75th anniversary of Philip Kerrs death with a celebration of his life and times. Work began in October 2015 to introduce a heat pump system, the new system would allow the removal of two oil tanks, and produce an annual saving of more than 25,000 litres of oil, and £16,000. The library at Blickling Estate contains one of the most historically significant collections of manuscripts, the most important manuscript associated with the house is the Blickling Homilies, which is one of the earliest extant examples of English vernacular homiletic writings. The Blickling homilies were first edited and translated in the 19th century by Richard Morris, a more recent translation and edition by Richard J. Kelly was widely panned by scholars and critics upon publication.776. It is said every year, on the anniversary of her execution. But she hasnt lost her completely in the afterlife—she carries it along with her during her hauntings. The exterior of the house was used as Maryiot Cells at Maiden Worthy in Buckinghamshire in the hit 1945 film The Wicked Lady, Blickling is used as Bonos house in the series 2 episode of Im Alan Partridge I Know What Alan Did Last Summer. It is also used in the Charlene music video for Ive Never Been To Me and it was voted the most haunted house in Britain in a National Trust survey in October 2007
2.
Norfolk
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Norfolk /ˈnɔːrfək/ is a county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the west and north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea and, to the north-west, The Wash. With an area of 2,074 square miles and a population of 859,400, of the countys population, 40% live in four major built up areas, Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Kings Lynn and Thetford. The Broads is a network of rivers and lakes in the east of the county, the area is not a National Park although it is marketed as such. It has similar status to a park, and is protected by the Broads Authority. Norfolk was settled in times, with camps along the higher land in the west. A Brythonic tribe, the Iceni, inhabited the county from the 1st century BC to the end of the 1st century AD, the Iceni revolted against the Roman invasion in AD47, and again in 60 led by Boudica. The crushing of the second opened the county to the Romans. During the Roman era roads and ports were constructed throughout the county, situated on the east coast, Norfolk was vulnerable to invasions from Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and forts were built to defend against the Angles and Saxons. Norfolk, Suffolk and several adjacent areas became the kingdom of East Anglia, the influence of the Early English settlers can be seen in the many place names ending in -ton and -ham. Endings such as -by and -thorpe are also common, indicating Danish place names, in the 9th century the region came under attack. In the centuries before the Norman Conquest the wetlands of the east of the county began to be converted to farmland, and settlements grew in these areas. Migration into East Anglia must have high, by the time of the Domesday Book survey it was one of the most densely populated parts of the British Isles. During the high and late Middle Ages the county developed arable agriculture, the economy was in decline by the time of the Black Death, which dramatically reduced the population in 1349. During the English Civil War Norfolk was largely Parliamentarian, the economy and agriculture of the region declined somewhat. During the Industrial Revolution Norfolk developed little industry except in Norwich which was an addition to the railway network. In the 20th century the county developed a role in aviation, during the Second World War agriculture rapidly intensified, and it has remained very intensive since, with the establishment of large fields for growing cereals and oilseed rape. Norfolks low-lying land and easily eroded cliffs, many of which are chalk and clay, make it vulnerable to the sea, the low-lying section of coast between Kelling and Lowestoft Ness in Suffolk is currently managed by the Environment Agency to protect the Broads from sea flooding
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Nobility
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The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be largely honorary, and vary from country to country and era to era. There is often a variety of ranks within the noble class. g, san Marino and the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles often distinguish nobles from non-nobles, although in many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil. The term derives from Latin nobilitas, the noun of the adjective nobilis. In modern usage, nobility is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies and it rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income. Being wealthy or influential cannot, ipso facto, make one noble, various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece, Mexico, and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se, usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate. Most nobles wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small and it also included infrastructure such as castle, well and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although often at a price. Nobles were expected to live nobly, that is, from the proceeds of these possessions, work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. In some countries, the lord could impose restrictions on such a commoners movements. Nobles exclusively enjoyed the privilege of hunting, in France, nobles were exempt from paying the taille, the major direct tax. In some parts of Europe the right of war long remained the privilege of every noble. During the early Renaissance, duelling established the status of a respectable gentleman, Nobility came to be associated with social rather than legal privilege, expressed in a general expectation of deference from those of lower rank. By the 21st century even that deference had become increasingly minimised, in France, a seigneurie might include one or more manors surrounded by land and villages subject to a nobles prerogatives and disposition. Seigneuries could be bought, sold or mortgaged, if erected by the crown into, e. g. a barony or countship, it became legally entailed for a specific family, which could use it as their title. Yet most French nobles were untitled, in other parts of Europe, sovereign rulers arrogated to themselves the exclusive prerogative to act as fons honorum within their realms. Nobility might be inherited or conferred by a fons honorum
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William Carey (courtier)
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William Carey, of Aldenham, in Hertfordshire was a courtier and favourite of King Henry VIII of England. He served the king as a Gentleman of the Privy chamber and his wife, Mary Boleyn, is known to history as a mistress of King Henry VIII and the sister of Henrys second wife, Anne Boleyn. This Cary family were recorded in Devon, and originally held the manors at Cockington. On 4 February 1520, he was married to Mary Boleyn and they resided at Aldenham in Hertfordshire. Shortly after their marriage, Mary became the mistress of King Henry VIII, the Boleyns received grants of land, and Carey himself profited from his wifes unfaithfulness, being granted manors and estates by the King while it was in progress. Carey was also an art collector and he introduced the famed Dutch artist, Lucas Horenbout. Perhaps one of the reasons the athletic King Henry VIII favoured Carey was the fact that Carey appears to have been fond of such as riding, hunting and jousting. Carey distinguished himself in jousting at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, Anne Boleyn, Marys sister, caught Henrys eye a year after his affair with Mary ended. Henry proposed marriage to her in 1527, william Carey did not live to enjoy his sister-in-laws prosperity, since he died of the sweating sickness the following year. Brian Tuke, Henrys secretary at the time of Careys death wrote this to Lord Legat the day after his death and our Lord have mercy on his soul, and hold his hand over us. He died greatly in debt, and his wife was reduced to pawning her jewellery before Anne Boleyn arranged a pension for her, william Carey and Mary Boleyn were the parents of two children, Catherine Carey. Maid of Honour to Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard and she was married to the Puritan Sir Francis Knollys, Knight of the Garter. She was later lady-in-waiting to her cousin, Elizabeth I, one of her daughters, Lettice Knollys, became the second wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Elizabeth I. He was ennobled by Queen Elizabeth I just after her coronation, when Henry was dying, Elizabeth offered him the Boleyn family title, Earl of Ormonde, which he had long sought, but he refused the honour. Because of Marys affair, it has suggested that Catherine. The veracity of this claim is the subject of historical debate
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Catherine Carey
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Catherines husband was Sir Francis Knollys, with whom she had 14 children. Catherine was Elizabeth Is first cousin, some contemporaries also asserted that Catherine was an illegitimate child of Henry VIII, which would make her Elizabeths half-sister. Although this was never acknowledged by the King, Catherine was given deference by the Court as she aged, Catherine was said to be a witness to the execution of her aunt, Anne Boleyn, in 1536. Catherine went on to become Maid of Honour to both Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard, the fourth and fifth wives of Henry VIII, on 26 April 1540 she married Sir Francis Knollys. Her husband was named a Knight of the Garter in 1593 and he was also Treasurer of the Royal Household. From the time of her marriage, Catherine became known as Mistress Knollys, when not in London, the couple lived at Reading in Berkshire and Rotherfield Greys in Oxfordshire, and because they were staunch Protestants, they fled to Germany during the reign of Queen Mary I. Princess Elizabeth wrote to her there and Catherine was appointed Chief Lady of the Bedchamber after she became Queen Elizabeth I. For the first ten years of the reign, Lady Catherine combined the most senior post among the ladies-in-waiting with motherhood to more than a dozen children. Unsurprisingly, Elizabeth never recognized Catherine as her half-sister, and it was not a relationship that Catherine or Sir Francis ever openly claimed. She died on 15 January 1569 at Hampton Court Palace, being outlived by her husband and children, there is a small commemorative plaque in the abbey, although her chief monument is at Rotherfield Greys in Oxfordshire. Henry the Eighth, Father and Mother to Elizabeth Queen of England, Sir Francis and Lady Knollys produced a number of offspring who survived to maturity. Of the children listed, only the last, Dudley, is known to have died in infancy and he was a member of parliament representing first Shoreham, Kent and then Oxfordshire. Esquire of the Body to Elizabeth I and he was married to Margaret Cave, daughter of Sir Ambrose Cave and Margaret Willington. Their daughter Lettice Knollys married before 19 June 1602 William Paget, Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex and of Leicester. She married first Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, secondly Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, William Knollys, 1st Earl of Banbury. He was married first to Dorothy Bray, who was 20 years his senior and he was a member of Parliament. Member of Parliament representing Reading, Berkshire, Brecknockshire, Abingdon, Oxfordshire and he married Catherine Vaughan, daughter of Sir Rowland Vaughan, of Porthamel. Member of Parliament representing first Wallingford and then Northampton, married Joan Heigham, daughter of John Heigham, of Giffords Hall, Wickhambrook, Suffolk
6.
Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon
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Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon KG, was an English nobleman and courtier. He was the patron of Lord Chamberlains Men, William Shakespeares playing company, the son of Mary Boleyn, he was a cousin of Elizabeth I. Since his mother was also a mistress to King Henry VIII of England, Henry Carey was the second child of William Carey and Mary Boleyn who was the sister of Anne Boleyn, the second wife and Queen of Henry VIII. Carey and his elder sister Catherine came under the wardship of their maternal aunt Anne Boleyn, the children still had active contact with their mother, who remained on good terms with her sister, until Marys secret elopement with a soldier, William Stafford in 1535. Anne Boleyn acted as her nephews patron and had him provided with an excellent education in a prestigious Cistercian monastery and he was also tutored at some point by French poet Nicholas Bourbon, whose life had been saved from the French Inquisition after Queen Annes intervention. Henrys royal aunt was beheaded in May 1536, when he was ten years old and his mother died seven years later in 1543 on her estate in Essex. On 21 May 1545 he married Anne Morgan, daughter of Sir Thomas Morgan, of Arkestone, Herefordshire, Carey served twice as Member of Parliament, representing Buckingham during 1547–1550—entering when he was 21—and 1554–1555. He was knighted in November 1558 and created Baron by his first cousin Elizabeth I of England on 13 January 1559 and his sister, Catherine, was one of Elizabeths favourite ladies-in-waiting and the Queen was very generous to her Boleyn relatives. His Baronial estate consisted of the manors of Hunsdon and Eastwick, Hertfordshire, Hunsdon had previously belonged to Elizabeths predecessor Mary I. He was also granted a pension of £400. On 31 October 1560 he was appointed master of the queens hawks with a salary of £40 a year, on 20 April 1561, Henry also became a Knight of the Garter. Elizabeth appointed Carey Captain of the Gentlemen Pensioners in 1564, a position making him effectively her personal bodyguard for four years and he accompanied her to Cambridge University in 1564, for which he was awarded a MA. On 25 August 1568, Henry was appointed Governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the rebellion was expecting the support of the Roman Catholic Pope Pius V. Henry was appointed Lieutenant General of the forces loyal to the Queen. His February victory over Sir Leonard Dacre was instrumental in crushing the rebellion, nearly three thousand rebels ambushed Henry Careys party of half that size, but Carey was nonetheless victorious in fending off the assault. A number of the crossed the border to Scotland but were there targeted by the forces of the Scottish Regent. Henry could still appreciate the courage of Dacres soldiers, in his letter to the Queen detailing the victory, he made mention of the rebel charge the bravest charge that ever I saw. He was rewarded with a note of thanks from Queen Elizabeth I that read in part. You have done much for honour, the victorious Henry was appointed Warden of the Eastern March and represented the Queen in signing a treaty with the Regent on 23 October 1571
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Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire
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Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, 1st Earl of Ormond, 1st Viscount Rochford KG KB was an English diplomat and politician in the Tudor era. He was born at the home, Hever Castle, Kent, which had been purchased by his grandfather Sir Geoffrey Boleyn. He was buried at St. Peters parish church in the village of Hever and his parents were Sir William Boleyn and Lady Margaret Butler. He was the father of Anne Boleyn, the wife of Henry VIII of England. As such, he was the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. Sometime before 1499, Boleyn married Lady Elizabeth Howard, eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and he was created a Knight of the Garter at Henry VIIIs coronation in 1509. His appointment as ambassador to the Low Countries brought him contact with the regent Archduchess Margaret of Austria. Like Thomas, she spoke French and Latin and they got well enough for her to accept his daughter Anne as a maid of honour. Through his ability and the connections of his family, he became one of the kings leading diplomats. Known appointments and missions included,1511 and 1517, Sheriff of Kent 1512, 1518–1521, ambassador to France, where he was involved in arrangements for the Field of Cloth of Gold meeting between Henry and the new French King Francis I in 1520. This was followed by another envoy to France, Boleyn was invested as a Knight of the Garter in 1523. Boleyns claim to his other titles derived from his mother, Lady Margaret Butler who was the daughter and co-heir of Thomas Butler. Thomas Butler, as an Irish peer, should only have sat in the Parliament of Ireland, however, as a personal friend of Henry VII he was summoned to the English parliament in November 1488 as Thomas Ormond de Rochford, chevaler. At this time, he was already 8th Earl of Carrick, in English law, matrilineal descent is not considered valid for earldoms, and in Brehon law, then largely still in use in Ireland, new leaders were chosen by election. These customs were, in Boleyns case, outweighed by an important consideration – he was the father of two pretty daughters. Henry VIII dallied first with Boleyns elder daughter Mary, then with his younger daughter, when it was claimed that Henry had had an affair with both Annes sister and mother, the king replied to the rumours, Never with the mother. In 1525, Henry VIII became enamoured of Anne and began pursuing her and her father was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Rochford on 18 June 1525. The title referred to the barony of Rochford supposedly created in 1488 for his grandfather, the title had fallen into abeyance as Ormond had died without any male heir in 1515
8.
Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire
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Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire was an English noblewoman, noted for being the mother of Anne Boleyn and as such the maternal grandmother of Elizabeth I of England. The eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and his first wife Elizabeth Tilney, Elizabeth became Viscountess Rochford in 1525 when her husband was elevated to the peerage, subsequently becoming Countess of Ormond in 1527 and Countess of Wiltshire in 1529. Elizabeth was born c.1480 into the wealthy and influential Howard family, as the eldest of the two daughters of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and his first wife Elizabeth Tilney. Her paternal grandfather, John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, had been created Duke of Norfolk in 1483 following the death of John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk, with no legitimate male heirs. Through her paternal great-grandfather, Sir Robert Howard of Tendring, Elizabeth was a descendant of Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, the second son of King John. Through her maternal great-grandmother, she was descendant of both Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, a son of Edward I and Margaret of France. Her family managed to survive the fall of their patron, King Richard III, who was killed at Bosworth in 1485 and supplanted by the victor, King Henry VII, Elizabeth became a part of the royal court as a young girl. It was while she was at court, that she wed Thomas Boleyn, according to Thomas, his wife was pregnant many times in the next few years but only three children lived to adulthood. The three children were, Mary Boleyn, mistress of Henry VIII of England, Anne Boleyn, Queen consort of Henry VIII of England George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford. Throughout this time, Elizabeth was a lady-in-waiting at the court, first to Elizabeth of York. Based on later gossip, Elizabeth Boleyn must have been an attractive woman. Rumours circulated when Henry was involved with Anne Boleyn that Elizabeth had once been his mistress, most historians believe it is likely that this rumour began by confusing Elizabeth with Henrys more famous mistress Elizabeth Blount, or from the growing unpopularity of the Boleyn family after 1527. In 1519, Elizabeths daughters, Anne and Mary, were living in the French royal court as Ladies-in-waiting to the French Queen consort Claude, in the words of historian M. L. Bruce, both Thomas and Elizabeth developed feelings of dislike for their daughter Mary, in later years, Marys romantic involvements would only further strain this relationship. Around 1520, the Boleyns managed to arrange Marys marriage to William Carey and it was sometime after the wedding that Mary became mistress to Henry VIII, although she never held the title of official royal mistress, as the post did not exist in England. It has long been rumoured that one or both of Mary Boleyns children were fathered by Henry and not Carey, some historians, such as Alison Weir, now question whether Henry Carey was fathered by the King. Henrys relationship with Mary was so discreet that within ten years, in contrast to Mary, Elizabeths other daughter, Anne, is thought to have had a close relationship with her mother. In 1525, Henry VIII fell in love with Anne, and she accompanied Anne to Court, since Anne was attempting to avoid a sexual relationship with the King
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Anne Boleyn
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Anne Boleyn was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of King Henry VIII, and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henrys marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution by beheading, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the start of the English Reformation. Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, in February/March 1526, Henry VIII began his pursuit of Anne. She resisted his attempts to seduce her, refusing to become his mistress – which her sister Mary had been and it soon became the one absorbing object of Henrys desires to annul his marriage to Queen Catherine so he would be free to marry Anne. When it became clear that Pope Clement VII would not annul the marriage, in 1532, Henry granted Anne the Marquessate of Pembroke. Henry and Anne married on 25 January 1533, after a marriage on 14 November 1532. On 23 May 1533, newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry and Catherines marriage null and void, five days later, he declared Henry, shortly afterwards, the Pope decreed sentences of excommunication against Henry and Cranmer. As a result of marriage and these excommunications, the first break between the Church of England and Rome took place and the Church of England was brought under the Kings control. Anne was crowned Queen of England on 1 June 1533, on 7 September, she gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I. Henry was disappointed to have a rather than a son but hoped a son would follow. Anne subsequently had three miscarriages, and by March 1536, Henry was courting Jane Seymour, in order to marry Jane Seymour, Henry had to find reasons for his marriage with Anne to end. Henry had Anne investigated for treason in April 1536. She was beheaded four days later, modern historians view the charges against her, which included adultery, incest, and plotting to kill the king, as unconvincing. Some say that Anne was accused of witchcraft but the indictments make no mention of this charge, after the coronation of her daughter, Elizabeth, as queen, Anne was venerated as a martyr and heroine of the English Reformation, particularly through the works of John Foxe. Over the centuries, she has inspired, or been mentioned, in artistic and cultural works. Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, later Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond, Thomas Boleyn was a well respected diplomat with a gift for languages, he was also a favourite of King Henry VII, who sent him on many diplomatic missions abroad. Anne and her siblings grew up at Hever Castle in Kent, however, the siblings were born in Norfolk at the Boleyn home at Blickling. A lack of records from the period has made it impossible to establish Annes date of birth
10.
Henry VIII of England
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Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII, Henry is best known for his six marriages and, in particular, his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled. Despite his resulting excommunication, Henry remained a believer in core Catholic theological teachings, domestically, Henry is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering in the theory of the divine right of kings to England. Besides asserting the supremacy over the Church of England, he greatly expanded royal power during his reign. Charges of treason and heresy were commonly used to quash dissent, and he achieved many of his political aims through the work of his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich and his contemporaries considered Henry in his prime to be an attractive, educated, and accomplished king, and he has been described as one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne. He was an author and composer, as he aged, Henry became severely obese and his health suffered, contributing to his death in 1547. He is frequently characterised in his life as a lustful, egotistical, harsh. He was succeeded by his son Edward VI, born 28 June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, Henry Tudor was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Of the young Henrys six siblings, only three – Arthur, Prince of Wales, Margaret, and Mary – survived infancy and he was baptised by Richard Fox, the Bishop of Exeter, at a church of the Observant Franciscans close to the palace. In 1493, at the age of two, Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. He was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at age three, and was inducted into the Order of the Bath soon after. The day after the ceremony he was created Duke of York, in May 1495, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter. Henry was given an education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin and French. Not much is known about his early life – save for his appointments – because he was not expected to become king, as Duke of York, Henry used the arms of his father as king, differenced by a label of three points ermine. In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15 of sweating sickness, Arthurs death thrust all his duties upon his younger brother, the 10-year-old Henry. After a little debate, Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall in October 1502, Henry VII gave the boy few tasks. Young Henry was strictly supervised and did not appear in public, as a result, the young Henry would later ascend the throne untrained in the exacting art of kingship
11.
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset
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Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, was the son of King Henry VIII of England and his mistress, Elizabeth Blount, and the only illegitimate offspring whom Henry VIII acknowledged. He was the younger half-brother of Mary I, future Queen of England, as well as the older half-brother of the future Elizabeth I and Edward VI. Through his mother he was the brother of Elizabeth Tailboys, 4th Baroness Tailboys of Kyme, George Tailboys, 2nd Baron Tailboys of Kyme and Robert Tailboys. Lord Henry FitzRoy was born in June 1519 and his mother was Elizabeth Blount, King Henry VIIIs wifes lady in waiting and his father was the 27-year-old King himself. FitzRoy was conceived when Queen Catherine was approaching her last confinement with another of Henrys children, the Queens pregnancies frequently triggered a bout of promiscuity in the King. To avoid scandal, Elizabeth Blount was taken from the court to the Augustinian priory of St Lawrence at Blackmore near Ingatestone. FitzRoys birthdate is given as 15 June 1519, but the exact date is not known. It was not recorded since his birth was a secret, Thomas Cardinal Wolsey was out of London from 9 to 18 June when he reappeared back at court in Windsor. The following day he was expected at Hampton Court, but he did not reappear at a meeting at Westminster until 29 June. The policy of discretion worked, as the baby boy’s arrival caused no great stir, the christening of the newborn Henry FitzRoy was not recorded even though Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was his godfather and known to be present at the event. This puts the date of the christening possibly before 29 June when he reappeared at court, if Henry had chosen the House of Howard, he would have chosen the elder Thomas Howard, who at the time was the 2nd Duke of Norfolk. This Thomas Howard had fought and defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden in 1513 and it would have been considered inappropriate to ask a lady of court because they had ties to the Queen. They might have been relations of his mother Elizabeth Blount, the infant boy was given the surname FitzRoy to make sure that all knew he was son of the King. He was also given the name Henry after his royal father, Henry VIII perhaps felt that his lack of a male heir was a slur upon his manhood, he certainly abandoned all discretion and openly acknowledged the boy. Indeed, Henry’s pride and rivalry with Francis I of France may have required him to do so now he had a son, since he had stood godfather to Franciss second son Henry in 1519, at one point he proudly exhibited his newborn son to the court. This could have taken place when the Queen threw a banquet at her manor of Havering-atte-Bower in honour of French hostages in August 1519. The boy’s upbringing until the moment when he entered Bridewell Palace in June 1525 remains shrouded in confusion, although the boy was illegitimate, this did not mean that young Henry lived remotely from and had no contact with his father. The boy was born in the century, and at that time households were in a state of constant movement and transition
12.
Francis I of France
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Francis I was the first King of France from the Angoulême branch of the House of Valois, reigning from 1515 until his death. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and he succeeded his cousin and father-in-law Louis XII, who died without a male heir. Francis reign saw important cultural changes with the rise of absolute monarchy in France, the spread of humanism and Protestantism, Jacques Cartier and others claimed lands in the Americas for France and paved the way for the expansion of the first French colonial empire. For his role in the development and promotion of a standardized French language, he became known as le Père et Restaurateur des Lettres. He was also known as François au Grand Nez, the Grand Colas, following the policy of his predecessors, Francis continued the Italian Wars. In his struggle against Imperial hegemony, he sought the support of Henry VIII of England at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. When this was unsuccessful, he formed a Franco-Ottoman alliance with the Muslim sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a controversial move for a Christian king at the time. Francis was born on 12 September 1494 at the Château de Cognac in the town of Cognac, which at that time lay in the province of Saintonge, today the town lies in the department of Charente. Francis was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. His family was not expected to inherit the throne, as his third cousin King Charles VIII was still young at the time of his birth, as was his fathers cousin the Duke of Orléans, later King Louis XII. However, Charles VIII died childless in 1498 and was succeeded by Louis XII, the Salic Law prevailed in France, thus females were ineligible to inherit the throne. Therefore, the four-year-old Francis became the heir presumptive to the throne of France in 1498 and was vested with the title of Duke of Valois. In 1505, Louis XII, having fallen ill, ordered that his daughter Claude and Francis be married immediately, Claude was heiress to the Duchy of Brittany through her mother, Anne of Brittany. Following Annes death, the took place on 18 May 1514. Louis died shortly afterwards and Francis inherited the throne and he was crowned King of France in the Cathedral of Reims on 25 January 1515, with Claude as his queen consort. As Francis was receiving his education, ideas emerging from the Italian Renaissance were influential in France, some of his tutors, such as François Desmoulins de Rochefort and Christophe de Longueil, were attracted by these new ways of thinking and attempted to influence Francis. His academic education had been in arithmetic, geography, grammar, history, reading, spelling, Francis came to learn chivalry, dancing, and music and he loved archery, falconry, horseback riding, hunting, jousting, real tennis and wrestling. He ended up reading philosophy and theology and he was fascinated with art, literature, poetry and his mother, who had a high admiration for Italian Renaissance art, passed this interest on to her son
13.
Hever Castle
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Hever Castle is located in the village of Hever, Kent, near Edenbridge,30 miles south-east of London, England. It began as a house, built in the 13th century. From 1462 to 1539, it was the seat of the Boleyn family, Anne Boleyn, the second queen consort of King Henry VIII of England, spent her early youth there after her father, Thomas Boleyn, inherited it in 1505. He had been there in 1477, and the castle passed to him upon the death of his father. It later came into the possession of King Henry VIIIs fourth wife, the castle is now open to the public as a tourist attraction. There have been three periods in the construction of this historic castle. The oldest part of the dates to 1270 and consisted of the gatehouse. The second period was when the castle, then in need of repair, was converted into a manor in 1462 by Geoffrey Boleyn, younger brother of Thomas Boleyn, Master of Gonville Hall and he added a Tudor dwelling within the walls. The third period of repair and renovation was in the 20th century, Geoffrey Boleyns grandson, Thomas Boleyn, inherited the castle in 1505. He lived there with his wife Lady Elizabeth Howard and their children George, Mary and it is not known if Anne was born at Hever, but she lived there until she was sent to the Netherlands in 1513 to receive an education at the court of the Archduchess Margaret. Henry VIII often used the nearby Bolebroke Castle to conduct his courtship with Anne, the property came into the possession of Henry VIII after the death of Annes father, Thomas Boleyn, in 1539. He bestowed it upon Anne of Cleves in 1540 as part of the settlement following the annulment of their marriage, Hever Castle still has one of Henry VIIIs private locks, taken with him on his various visits to noblemens houses and fitted to every door for his security. The property subsequently passed through various owners, including the Waldegrave family from 1557 to 1715, during this latter period of ownership, the castle fell into a poor state of repair, during which time it was leased to various private tenants. In 1903, it was acquired and restored by the American millionaire William Waldorf Astor and he added the Italian Garden to display his collection of statury and ornaments. In 1983, the Astor family sold the castle to Broadland Properties Limited, the estate is now used as a conference centre, but the castle and grounds are open to the public. Hever Castle is now a tourist attraction, drawing on its links to Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, its mazes, gardens and lake. There is an events programme with assorted events, including jousting tournaments and archery displays in the summer months. The castle has become the venue for a triathlon
14.
Kent
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Kent /ˈkɛnt/ is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south west, the county also shares borders with Essex via the Dartford Crossing and the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. France can be clearly in fine weather from Folkestone and the White Cliffs of Dover. Hills in the form of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge span the length of the county, because of its relative abundance of fruit-growing and hop gardens, Kent is known as The Garden of England. The title was defended in 2006 when a survey of counties by the UKTV Style Gardens channel put Kent in fifth place, behind North Yorkshire, Devon. Haulage, logistics, and tourism are industries, major industries in north-west Kent include aggregate building materials, printing. Coal mining has played its part in Kents industrial heritage. Large parts of Kent are within the London commuter belt and its transport connections to the capital. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the North Downs and The High Weald, the area has been occupied since the Palaeolithic era, as attested by finds from the quarries at Swanscombe. The Medway megaliths were built during the Neolithic era, There is a rich sequence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman era occupation, as indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup and the Roman villas of the Darent valley. The modern name of Kent is derived from the Brythonic word Cantus meaning rim or border and this describes the eastern part of the current county area as a border land or coastal district. Julius Caesar had described the area as Cantium, or home of the Cantiaci in 51 BC, the extreme west of the modern county was by the time of Roman Britain occupied by Iron Age tribes, known as the Regnenses. East Kent became a kingdom of the Jutes during the 5th century and was known as Cantia from about 730, the early medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara, or Kent people. These people regarded the city of Canterbury as their capital, in 597, Pope Gregory I appointed the religious missionary as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. In the previous year, Augustine successfully converted the pagan King Æthelberht of Kent to Christianity, the Diocese of Canterbury became Britains first Episcopal See with first cathedral and has since remained Englands centre of Christianity. The second designated English cathedral was in Kent at Rochester Cathedral, in the 11th century, the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta, meaning undefeated. This naming followed the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy, the Kent peoples continued resistance against the Normans led to Kents designation as a semi-autonomous county palatine in 1067. Under the nominal rule of Williams half-brother Odo of Bayeux, the county was granted powers to those granted in the areas bordering Wales
15.
Courtier
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A courtier is a person who is often in attendance at the court of a king or other royal personage. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers, historically the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and the social and political life were often completely mixed together. Monarchs very often expected the more important nobles to spend much of the year in attendance on them at court, not all courtiers were noble, as they included clergy, soldiers, clerks, secretaries, and agents and middlemen of all sorts with regular business at court. All those who held a court appointment could be called courtiers and those personal favorites without business around the monarch, sometimes called the camarilla, were also considered courtiers. Promotion to important positions could be very rapid at court, the key commodities for a courtier were access and information, and a large court operated at many levels - many successful careers at court involved no direct contact with the monarch. The largest and most famous European court was that of the Palace of Versailles at its peak, although the Forbidden City of Beijing was even larger and more isolated from national life. Very similar features marked the courts of all very large monarchies, whether in Delhi, Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Ancient Rome, Byzantium, early medieval European courts frequently traveled from place to place following the monarch as he traveled. This was particularly the case in the early French court, but, the European nobility generally had independent power and was less controlled by the monarch until roughly the 18th century, which gave European court life a more complex flavour. The earliest courtiers coincide with the development of definable courts beyond the rudimentary entourages or retinues of rulers, two of the earliest titles referring to the general concept of a courtier were likely the ša rēsi and mazzāz pāni of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The imperial court of the Byzantine Empire at Constantinople would eventually contain at least a thousand courtiers, the courts systems became prevalent in other courts such as those in the Balkan states, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia. Byzantinism is a term that was coined for this spread of the Byzantine system in the 19th century, in modern literature, courtiers are often depicted as insincere, skilled at flattery and intrigue, ambitious and lacking regard for the national interest. More positive representations of the stereotype might include the role played by members of the court in the development of politeness, in modern English, the term is often used metaphorically for contemporary political favourites or hangers-on. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from William Shakespeares Hamlet Sir Lancelot from Arthurian legend Gríma Wormtongue from J. R. R, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington from J. K.36, No
16.
Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
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Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk KG PC, styled Earl of Surrey from 1483 to 1485 and again from 1489 to 1514, was an English nobleman and politician. He was the son of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, by his first wife. The Duke was the grandfather of both Queen Anne Boleyn and Queen Catherine Howard and the grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. He served four monarchs as a soldier and statesman and he was educated at Thetford Grammar School. While a youth he entered the service of King Edward IV as a henchman, Howard took the Kings side when war broke out in 1469 with the Earl of Warwick, and took sanctuary at Colchester when the King fled to Holland in 1470. Howard rejoined the forces at Edwards return to England in 1471. He was appointed an esquire of the body in 1473, on 14 January 1478 he was knighted by Edward IV at the marriage of the Kings second son, the young Duke of York, and Lady Anne Mowbray. After the death of Edward IV on 9 April 1483, Thomas Howard, Thomas bore the Sword of State at Richards coronation, and served as steward at the coronation banquet. Both Thomas and his father were granted lands by the new King, on 28 June 1483, John Howard was created Duke of Norfolk, while Thomas was created Earl of Surrey. Surrey was also sworn of the Privy Council and invested with the Order of the Garter, in the autumn of that year Norfolk and Surrey suppressed a rebellion against the King by the Duke of Buckingham. Both Howards remained close to King Richard throughout his reign, and fought for him at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, where Surrey was wounded and taken prisoner. Surrey was attainted in the first Parliament of the new King, Henry VII, stripped of his lands, and committed to the Tower of London, where he spent the next three years. Howard was offered an opportunity to escape during the rebellion of the Earl of Lincoln in 1487, in May 1489 Henry restored him to the earldom of Surrey, although most of his lands were withheld, and sent him to quell a rebellion in Yorkshire. Surrey remained in the north as the Kings lieutenant until 1499, in 1499 he was recalled to court, and accompanied the King on a state visit to France in the following year. In 1501 he was appointed a member of the Council. Surrey, Bishop Richard Foxe, the Lord Privy Seal, and Archbishop William Warham and he was entrusted with a number of diplomatic missions. In 1501 he was involved in the negotiations for Catherine of Aragons marriage to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and in 1503 conducted Margaret Tudor to Scotland for her wedding to King James IV. Surrey was an executor of the will of King Henry VII when the King died on 21 April 1509 and he challenged Thomas Wolsey in an effort to become the new Kings first minister, but eventually accepted Wolseys supremacy
17.
George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon
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George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon KG was the eldest son of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon and Anne Morgan. His father was first cousin to Elizabeth I of England, in 1560, at the age of 13, George matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1566 he accompanied the Earl of Bedford on a mission to Scotland. During the Northern Rebellion of 1569, George was knighted in the field by the Earl of Sussex for bravery, George had challenged Lord Fleming, the commander of Dunbar Castle, to single combat. George served as a member of Parliament in the Commons for several terms, George was sent to Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight and later assumed command of the Isles defenses during the Spanish Armada threat. Both Henry and George Carey were patrons of the theatre company in London known as the Lord Chamberlains Men. Talents such as William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage were among the writers and performers of the company. In 1597 George was invested as a Knight of the Garter, George married Elizabeth Spencer, who like her husband was a patron of the arts. He died on 9 September 1603, and his brother John became the third Lord Hunsdon
18.
Earl of Ormond (Ireland)
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For the titles in the Peerage of Scotland see, Earl of Ormond The peerage title Earl of Ormond and the related titles Duke of Ormonde and Marquess of Ormonde have a long and complex history. An earldom of Ormond has been created three times in the Peerage of Ireland and it was originally created in 1328 for James Butler. The fifth earl was created Earl of Wiltshire in the Peerage of England, the earldom of Ormond was restored to his younger brother, John Butler, the sixth earl. The de facto, if not indeed the de jure earl and this facilitated the next creation by awarding the titles of Ormond and Wiltshire to Thomas Boleyn, who was the father of Anne Boleyn. At that time, Anne was the mistress of King Henry VIII of England, as a maternal grandson of the 7th Earl, Thomas Boleyn had a slim claim to the title. Through his daughter, Anne, he was the grandfather of Elizabeth I of England, on the death of Boleyn, these peerages of the second creation became extinct because he lacked male heirs, his son George having been executed for treason. As a reward for his patriotism and generosity, Piers Butler, the third creation for Piers Butler merely recognised the reality of the situation prior to the Boleyn eruption. The fifth earl of this creation was made Marquess of Ormonde and Duke of Ormonde in the Peerage of Ireland, prior to the creation of the Earldom of Ormond, the First Earls father had been created the first Earl of Carrick. However, this title did not pass to James Butler, after a gap of 7 years following his fathers death, James was rewarded with an earldom in his own right – Ormond. After 1682, the spelling Ormonde was used almost universally, subsidiary titles for the duke were Earl of Brecknock and Baron Butler in the Peerage of England and Earl of Ormond, Earl of Ossory and Viscount Thurles in the Peerage of Ireland. In 1715 the second duke was attainted and his English peerages declared forfeit, in 1758 the de jure third duke died and the dukedom and marquessate became extinct. That title became extinct in 1997, while the earldom became dormant, an unrelated Earldom of Ormonde was twice created in the Peerage of Scotland. Irish nobility Butler dynasty Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Ormonde, Earl
19.
Elizabeth I of England
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Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed two and a half years after Elizabeths birth. Annes marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, edwards will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Marys reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels, in 1558, Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel. She depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers, led by William Cecil, one of her first actions as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement was to evolve into the Church of England and it was expected that Elizabeth would marry and produce an heir to continue the Tudor line. She never did, despite numerous courtships, as she grew older, Elizabeth became famous for her virginity. A cult grew around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, in government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and half-siblings had been. One of her mottoes was video et taceo, in religion, she was relatively tolerant and avoided systematic persecution. Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs, manoeuvring between the powers of France and Spain. She only half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands, France, by the mid-1580s, England could no longer avoid war with Spain. Englands defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 associated Elizabeth with one of the greatest military victories in English history, Elizabeths reign is known as the Elizabethan era. Some historians depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler, towards the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity. Such was the case with Elizabeths rival, Mary, Queen of Scots, after the short reigns of Elizabeths half-siblings, her 44 years on the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped forge a sense of national identity. Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace and was named after both her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard and she was the second child of Henry VIII of England born in wedlock to survive infancy. Her mother was Henrys second wife, Anne Boleyn, at birth, Elizabeth was the heir presumptive to the throne of England. She was baptised on 10 September, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the Marquess of Exeter, the Duchess of Norfolk, Elizabeth was two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded on 19 May 1536, four months after Catherine of Aragons death from natural causes. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and deprived of her place in the royal succession, eleven days after Anne Boleyns execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after the birth of their son, Prince Edward, in 1537
20.
Marquess of Pembroke
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Marquess of Pembroke was a title in the Peerage of England created by King Henry VIII of England for his mistress and future spouse, Anne Boleyn. It was the first hereditary title granted to a woman. The then extinct title of Earl of Pembroke had been significant for the House of Tudor. It was held by Henry VIIIs grand-uncle, Jasper Tudor, Henry VIII decided to raise his secret lover to the dignity of a marquess prior to finally marrying her and he chose to grant her the Marquessate of Pembroke. On Sunday,1 September 1532, Anne Boleyn was granted the Marquessate of Pembroke and land, mostly in Wales, the investiture ceremony was performed by Henry VIII himself in Windsor Castle. The French ambassador was also present, the Bishop of Winchester read the patent of creation while Anne knelt before the King who then invested her with the coronet, the robe of estate and the charters of creation and of the lands. The sixteenth-century spelling of her title was often Marquesse or Marquess of Pembroke, sometimes Lady marquesse, the attending peers did not fail to notice this unusual omission. It is not clear how the Marquessate of Pembroke ceased to exist, there are three possibilities, It may have merged with the Crown on the marriage of the Marquess to the King on 28 May 1533. It may have been forfeited on 15 May 1536, when Anne was declared guilty of high treason and it may have become extinct on Annes death, without male heirs, on 19 May 1536. List of peerages created for women
21.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
22.
Mary Tudor, Queen of France
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Mary Tudor, the third daughter of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, was an English princess. Mary became the wife of Louis XII of France, more than 30 years her senior. Following his death, she married Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, the marriage, which was performed secretly in France, took place during her brothers reign and without his consent. This necessitated the intervention of Thomas Wolsey and although the couple were eventually pardoned by Henry VIII, Mary was the fourth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the youngest to survive infancy. She was born at Sheen Palace, most probably in March 1496, a privy seal bill dated from midsummer 1496 authorizes a payment of fifty shillings to her nurse, Anne Skeron. Also, Erasmus stated that she was four years old when he visited the Royal nursery in 1499–1500, at age six, she was given her own household, complete with a staff of gentlewomen assigned to wait upon her, a schoolmaster, and a physician. She was given instruction in French, Latin, music, dancing, as children, Mary and her brother, the future King Henry VIII, shared a close friendship. He would name his first surviving child, the future Queen Mary I and they lost their mother when Mary was just seven, and given the number of bills paid to her apothecary between 1504 and 1509, it would appear that Marys own health was fragile. Known in her youth as one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe, in 1506, during a visit from Philip I of Castile, Mary was called upon to entertain the guests, dancing, and playing the lute and clavicord. The following year, King Philip died, and on 21 December 1507, Mary was betrothed to his son Charles, the betrothal was called off in 1513. Instead, Cardinal Wolsey negotiated a treaty with France, and on 9 October 1514, at the age of 18. One of the Maids of Honour who attended her in France was Anne Boleyn, following Louis death, the new King Francis I made attempts to arrange a second marriage for the beautiful widow. Mary had been unhappy with her marriage of state to Louis, as at this time she was almost certainly already in love with Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. Henry was aware of his sisters feelings, letters from 1515 indicate that Mary agreed to wed Louis only on condition that if she survived him, however, Henry wanted any future marriage to be to his advantage. The Kings council, not wishing to see Brandon gain further power at Court, were opposed to the match. Meanwhile, rumours swirled in France that she would wed either the Duke of Lorraine or the Duke of Savoy, a pair of French friars actually went so far as to warn Mary that she must not wed Brandon, because he had traffickings with the devil. When Henry sent Brandon to bring Mary back to England in late January 1515, once in France, Mary persuaded Brandon to abandon this pledge. The couple wed in secret at the Hotel de Clugny on 3 March 1515, in the presence of just ten people, technically this was treason, as Brandon had married a Royal Princess without Henrys consent
23.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
24.
Louis XII of France
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Louis XII was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his cousin Charles VIII, who died without a closer heir in 1498. Before his accession to the throne of France, he was known as Louis of Orléans and was compelled to be married to his disabled and supposedly sterile cousin Joan by his second cousin, king Louis XI. By doing so, Louis XI hoped to extinguish the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois, Louis of Orléans was one of the great feudal lords who opposed the French monarchy in the conflict known as the Mad War. At the royal victory in the Battle of Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier in 1488, Louis was captured and he subsequently took part in the Italian War of 1494–1498 as one of the French commanders. When Louis XII became king in 1498, he had his marriage with Joan annulled by Pope Alexander VI and instead married Anne of Brittany and this marriage allowed Louis to reinforce the personal Union of Brittany and France. Louis persevered in the Italian Wars, initiating a second Italian campaign for the control of the Kingdom of Naples, Louis conquered the Duchy of Milan in 1500 and pushed forward to the Kingdom of Naples, which fell to him in 1501. Proclaimed King of Naples, Louis faced a new coalition gathered by Ferdinand II of Aragon and was forced to cede Naples to Spain in 1504. A popular king, Louis was proclaimed Father of the People in 1506 by the Estates-General of Tours for his reduction of the tax known as taille, legal reforms, Louis XII died in 1515 without a male heir. He was succeeded by his cousin Francis from the Angoulême cadet branch of the House of Valois, Louis was born on 27 June 1462 in the Château de Blois, Touraine. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, however, Louis XI may have been more influenced in this opinion by his opposition to the entire Orleanist faction of the royal family than by the actual facts of this paternity case. Despite any alleged doubts that King Louis XI may have had, King Louis XI died on 30 August 1483. He was succeeded to the throne of France by his thirteen year-old son, nobody knew the direction which the new king would take in leading the kingdom. Accordingly, on 24 October 1483, a call went out for a convocation of the Estates General of the French kingdom, in January 1484, deputies of the Estates General began to arrive in Tours, France. The deputies represented three different estates in society, the First Estate was the Church, in France this meant the Roman Catholic Church. The Second Estate was composed of the nobility and the royalty of France, the Third Estate was generally composed of commoners and the class of traders and merchants in France. Louis, the current Duke of Orleans and future Louis XII, each estate brought their chief complaints to the Estates General in hopes to have some impact on the policies that the new King would pursue. The First Estate wanted a return to the Pragmatic Sanction, the Pragmatic Sanction had been first instituted by King Charles VII, the current King Charles VIIIs grandfather
25.
Claude of France
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Claude of France, was Sovereign Duchess of the Duchy of Brittany after her mother, Anne, and Queen of France by marriage to Francis I. Claude was born on 13 October 1499 in Romorantin-Lanthenay as the eldest daughter of Louis XII of France, because her mother had no surviving sons, Claude became heiress to the Duchy of Brittany. The crown of France, however, could only to and through male heirs. Eager to keep Brittany separated from the French crown, Queen Anne, with help of Cardinal Georges dAmboise, promoted a solution for this problem. A part of the contract promised the inheritance of Brittany to the prince, already the next in line to thrones of Castile and Aragon, Austria. Thus, all the causes of the rivalry between Charles V and Francis I were decided even before the succession of the two princes. Indeed, previously Louise of Savoy obtained from the king a secret promise that Claude could be married to her son, Anne of Brittany, furious to see the triumph of Marshal of Gié, exerted all her influence to obtain his conviction for treason before the Parliament of Paris. On 9 January 1514, when her died, Claude became Duchess of Brittany. With this union, it was secured that Brittany would remain united to the French crown, however, the union was short-lived and childless, Louis XII died less than three months later, on 1 January 1515, reputedly worn out by his exertions in the bedchamber. Francis and Claude became king and queen, the time in history that the Duchess of Brittany became Queen of France. As Queen, Claude was eclipsed at court by her mother-in-law, Louise of Savoy, and her sister-in-law and she never ruled over Brittany, in 1515 she gave the government of her domains to her husband in perpetuity. Gabriel Miron repeated his functions under Anne of Brittany and remained as Chancellor of Queen Claude and first doctor, after Francis became king in 1515, Anne Boleyn stayed as a member of Claudes household. Its assumed that Anne served as Claudes translator whenever there were English visitors, such as in 1520, Anne Boleyn returned to England in late 1521, where she eventually became Queen of England as the second wife of Henry VIII. Diane de Poitiers, another of Claudes ladies, was an inspiration of the School of Fontainebleau of the French Renaissance. Claude was crowned Queen of France at St. Denis Basilica on 10 May 1517 by Cardinal Philippe de Luxembourg and she spent almost all her marriage in an endless round of annual pregnancies. Her husband had mistresses, but was usually relatively discreet. Claude imposed a moral code on her own household, which only a few chose to flout. Both Duchies joined in all good deed to our beautiful kingdom, the pawn of so much dynastic maneuvering, Claude was short in stature and afflicted with scoliosis, which gave her a hunched back, while her husband was bigger and athletic
26.
Whore
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Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment or some other benefit. Prostitution is sometimes described as sex or hooking. Depending on the jurisdiction, prostitution can be legal or illegal, a person who works in this field is called a prostitute, and is a kind of sex worker. Prostitution is one of the branches of the sex industry, other branches include pornography, stripping, the legal status of prostitution varies from country to country, ranging from being permissible but unregulated, to an enforced or unenforced crime, or a regulated profession. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as the worlds oldest profession in the English-speaking world, estimates place the annual revenue generated by prostitution worldwide to be over $100 billion. Prostitution occurs in a variety of forms, brothels are establishments specifically dedicated to prostitution. In escort prostitution, the act may take place at the residence or hotel room. Although the majority of prostitutes are female and have clients, a prostitute can be. There are about 42 million prostitutes in the world, living all over the world, Sex tourism refers to the practice of traveling to engage in sexual relations with prostitutes in other countries. Some rich clients may pay for long-term contracts that may last for years, some view prostitution as a form of exploitation of or violence against women, and children, that helps to create a supply of victims for human trafficking. Some critics of prostitution as an institution are supporters of the Swedish approach, which has also adopted by Canada, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Norway. Prostitute is derived from the Latin prostituta, some sources cite the verb as a composition of pro meaning up front or forward and situere, defined as to offer up for sale. Another explanation is that prostituta is a composition of pro and statuere, a literal translation therefore is, to put up front for sale or to place forward. The Online Etymology Dictionary states, The notion of sex for hire is not inherent in the etymology, the word prostitute was then carried down through various languages to the present-day Western society. Most sex worker activists groups reject the word prostitute and since the late 1970s have used the sex worker instead. However, sex worker can also mean anyone who works within the sex industry or whose work is of a nature and is not limited solely to prostitutes. A variety of terms are used for those who engage in prostitution, common alternatives for prostitute include escort and whore, however, not all professional escorts are prostitutes. Use of the whore is widely considered pejorative, especially in its modern slang form of ho
27.
Catherine of Aragon
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The daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, Catherine was three years old when she was betrothed to Arthur, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the English throne. They married in 1501, but Arthur died five months later on 2 April 1502, in 1507, she held the position of ambassador of the Aragonese Crown in England, the first female ambassador in European history. Catherine subsequently married Arthurs younger brother, the recently ascended Henry VIII, for six months in 1513, she served as regent of England while Henry VIII was in France. During that time the English won the Battle of Flodden, an event in which Catherine played an important part with a speech about English courage. He sought to have their marriage annulled, setting in motion a chain of events led to Englands schism with the Catholic Church. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by assuming supremacy over religious matters, in 1533 their marriage was consequently declared invalid and Henry married Anne on the judgement of clergy in England, without reference to the Pope. Catherine refused to accept Henry as Supreme Head of the Church in England and considered herself the Kings rightful wife and queen, despite this, she was acknowledged only as Dowager Princess of Wales by Henry. After being banished from court, she lived out the remainder of her life at Kimbolton Castle, English people held Catherine in high esteem, and her death set off tremendous mourning. The controversial book The Education of a Christian Woman by Juan Luis Vives, such was Catherines impression on people that even her enemy, Thomas Cromwell, said of her, If not for her sex, she could have defied all the heroes of History. She successfully appealed for the lives of the involved in the Evil May Day. Catherine also won widespread admiration by starting an extensive programme for the relief of the poor and she was a patron of Renaissance humanism, and a friend of the great scholars Erasmus of Rotterdam and Thomas More. Catherine was born at the Archbishops Palace in Alcalá de Henares near Madrid and she was the youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. Catherine was quite short in stature with red hair, wide blue eyes, a round face. Consequently, she was cousin of her father-in-law, Henry VII of England. Catherine was educated by a tutor, Alessandro Geraldini, who was a clerk in Holy Orders and she studied arithmetic, canon and civil law, classical literature, genealogy and heraldry, history, philosophy, religion, and theology. She had a religious upbringing and developed her Roman Catholic faith that would play a major role in later life. She learned to speak, read and write in Spanish and Latin and she was also taught domestic skills, such as cooking, dancing, drawing, embroidery, good manners, lace-making, music, needlepoint, sewing, spinning, and weaving. The great scholar Erasmus later said that Catherine loved good literature which she had studied with success since childhood
28.
Arthur, Prince of Wales
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Arthur Tudor was Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester and Duke of Cornwall. As the eldest son and heir apparent of Henry VII of England and his mother, Elizabeth of York, was the daughter of Edward IV, and his birth cemented the union between the House of Tudor and the House of York. Plans for Arthurs marriage began before his birthday, he was installed as Prince of Wales two years later. He grew especially close to his siblings Margaret and Henry, Duke of York, at the age of eleven, Arthur was formally betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, a daughter of the powerful Catholic Monarchs in Spain, in an effort to forge an Anglo-Spanish alliance against France. Arthur was well educated and, contrary to some belief, was in good health for the majority of his life. Soon after his marriage to Catherine in 1501, the took up residence at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire. Catherine would later state that the marriage had not been consummated. One year after Arthurs death, Henry VII renewed his efforts of sealing an alliance with Spain by arranging for Catherine to marry Arthurs brother Henry. Arthurs untimely death paved the way for Henrys accession as Henry VIII in 1509, in 1485, Henry Tudor became King of England upon defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. On this occasion, Camelot was identified as present-day Winchester, and his wife, born at Saint Swithuns Priory on 20 September 1486 at about 1 am, Arthur was Henry and Elizabeths eldest child. Arthurs birth was anticipated by French and Italian humanists eager for the start of a Virgilian golden age, Sir Francis Bacon wrote that although the Prince was born one month premature, he was strong and able. Young Arthur was viewed as a symbol of not only the union between the House of Tudor and the House of York, but also of the end of the Wars of the Roses. In the opinion of contemporaries, Arthur was the hope of the newly established House of Tudor. Arthur became Duke of Cornwall at birth, four days after his birth, the baby was baptised at Winchester Cathedral by the Bishop of Worcester, John Alcock, and his baptism was immediately followed by his Confirmation. Initially, Arthurs nursery in Farnham was headed by Elizabeth Darcy, after Arthur was created Prince of Wales in 1490, he was awarded a household structure at the behest of his father. Over the next thirteen years, Henry VII and Elizabeth would have six more children, Arthur was especially close to his sister Margaret and his brother Henry, with whom he shared a nursery. On 29 November 1489, after being made a Knight of the Bath, Arthur was appointed Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, and was invested as such at the Palace of Westminster on 27 February 1490. As part of his ceremony, he progressed down the River Thames in the royal barge and was met at Chelsea by the Lord Mayor of London, John Mathewe
29.
Cistercians
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A Cistercian is a member of the Cistercian Order (/sɪˈstɜːrʃən/, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist, a religious order of monks and nuns. They are variously called the Bernardines, after the highly influential St, the original emphasis of Cistercian life was on manual labour and self-sufficiency, and many abbeys have traditionally supported themselves through activities such as agriculture and brewing ales. Over the centuries, however, education and academic pursuits came to dominate the life of their monasteries, after that the followers of the older pattern of life became known as the Cistercians of the Original Observance. The term Cistercian, derives from Cistercium, the Latin name for the village of Cîteaux and it was in this village that a group of Benedictine monks from the monastery of Molesme founded Cîteaux Abbey in 1098, with the goal of following more closely the Rule of Saint Benedict. The best known of them were Robert of Molesme, Alberic of Cîteaux and the English monk Stephen Harding, Bernard of Clairvaux entered the monastery in the early 1110s with 30 companions and helped the rapid proliferation of the order. By the end of the 12th century, the order had spread throughout France and into England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the keynote of Cistercian life was a return to literal observance of the Rule of St Benedict. The most striking feature in the reform was the return to manual labour, especially field-work, Cistercian architecture is considered one of the most beautiful styles of medieval architecture. Additionally, in relation to such as agriculture, hydraulic engineering and metallurgy. The monastery church of Cluny Abbey, the largest in Europe, had become wealthy from rents, tithes, feudal rights and pilgrims who passed through Cluniac houses on the Way of St. James. On March 21,1098, Roberts small group acquired a plot of marshland just south of Dijon called Cîteaux, during the first year, the monks set about constructing lodging areas and farming the lands of Cîteaux, making use of a nearby chapel for Mass. In Roberts absence from Molesme, however, the abbey had gone into decline, and Pope Urban II, the remaining monks of Cîteaux elected Alberic as their abbot, under whose leadership the abbey would find its grounding. Robert had been the idealist of the order, and Alberic was their builder, upon assuming the role of abbot, Alberic moved the site of the fledgling community near a brook a short distance away from the original site. Alberic discontinued the use of Benedictine black garments in the abbey and he returned the community to the original Benedictine ideal of manual work and prayer, dedicated to the ideal of charity and self sustenance. Alberic also forged an alliance with the Dukes of Burgundy, working out a deal with Duke Odo of Burgundy concerning the donation of a vineyard as well as stones with which they built their church. The church was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary on November 16,1106, on January 26,1108, Alberic died and was soon succeeded by Stephen Harding, the man responsible for carrying the order into its crucial phase. The order was fortunate that Stephen was an abbot of extraordinary gifts, and he framed the original version of the Cistercian Constitution or regulations, the Carta caritatis. Although this was revised on several occasions to meet needs, from the outset it emphasised a simple life of work, love, prayer. Cistercian abbeys also refused to admit children, allowing adults to choose their religious vocation for themselves – a practice later emulated by many of the older Benedictine houses
30.
Pale of Calais
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The Pale of Calais is a historical region in modern-day France that was controlled by the monarchs of England following the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Pale is an archaic English term for area, jurisdiction, the capture by the English is the subject of Auguste Rodins 1889 sculpture The Burghers of Calais. In 1558, the expanding Kingdom of France took the Pale of Calais in the aftermath of the Siege of Calais, Calais fell after the Battle of Crécy in 1346 to Edward III of England following a desperate siege. Its seizure gave him a defensible outpost where his army could regroup, by 1453, at the end of the Hundred Years War, it was the only part of mainland France to remain in English hands. While it was possible to resupply and defend Calais easily by sea, in the absence of any natural defence it depended on fortifications built up and maintained at some expense. However, its main defence had been both the French and the Burgundians coveted the city, but each preferred to see it under the English rather than their rival. Its loss was recognised under the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, in England there was shock and disbelief at the loss of this final Continental territory. The chronicler Raphael Holinshead reported that a few months later Mary, on her bed, told her family, When I am dead and opened. However the loss of the Pale of Calais was not as severe on the English economy as might have been expected, during the English occupation, the people of the Pale of Calais retained their identity as French and Flemish speakers. Furthermore, the French were continually reclaiming small pieces of the territory, much of the area of the Pale consisted of wetlands, and the territory was roughly divided into highlands in the west and lower country in the east. History of Calais Hundred Years War English overseas possessions English claims to the French throne The Pale of Ireland
31.
Thomas Cromwell
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Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex KG PC was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540. Cromwell was one of the strongest and most powerful advocates of the English Reformation and he helped to engineer an annulment of the kings marriage to Queen Catherine of Aragon so that Henry could lawfully marry Anne Boleyn. Cromwell subsequently charted an evangelical and reformist course for the Church of England from the posts of vicegerent in spirituals. During his rise to power, Cromwell made many enemies, including his former ally Anne Boleyn and he played a prominent role in her downfall. He later fell from power, after arranging the marriage to German princess Anne of Cleves. Cromwell was arraigned under a bill of attainder and executed for treason, the king later expressed regret at the loss of his chief minister. Until the 1950s, historians discounted Cromwells role, calling him a doctrinaire hack who was more than the agent of the despotic King Henry VIII. Geoffrey Elton, however, featured him as the figure in the Tudor revolution in government in The Tudor Revolution. Elton portrayed Cromwell as the genius, much more so than the king, handling the break with Rome and creating the laws. Subsequent historians have agreed with Elton as to Cromwells importance, though not with his claims of revolution. Thomas Cromwell was born around 1485, in Putney, Surrey, as the son of Walter Cromwell, a blacksmith, fuller and cloth merchant, thomass mother, Katherine, was the aunt of Nicholas Glossop of Wirksworth in Derbyshire. She lived in Putney in the house of an attorney, John Welbeck. Cromwell had two sisters, the elder, Katherine, married Morgan Williams, a Welsh lawyer, the younger, Elizabeth, married a farmer, Katherine and Morgans son, Richard, was employed in his uncles service, and changed his name to Cromwell. Little is known about Cromwells early life and it is believed that he was born at the top of Putney Hill, on the edge of Putney Heath. The plot of ground here referred to is now covered by the Green Man public house, Cromwell declared to Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer that he had been a ruffian… in his young days. As a youth, he left his family in Putney, accounts of his activities in France, Italy and the Low Countries are sketchy and contradictory. It is alleged that he first became a mercenary, and marched with the French army to Italy, while in Italy, he entered service in the household of the Florentine banker Francesco Frescobaldi. Later, he visited leading mercantile centres in the Low Countries, living among the English merchants, at some point he returned to Italy
32.
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
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Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk KG PC was a prominent Tudor politician. He was an uncle of two of the wives of King Henry VIII, namely Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, after falling from favour in 1546 he was stripped of the dukedom and imprisoned in the Tower, avoiding execution when Henry VIII died a year later. He was the eldest son of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk by his first wife, Elizabeth Tilney and he was descended in the female line from Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, the sixth son of King Edward I. Due to their alliegance to the side, the Howard familys titles became forfeit. Howard was a soldier, and was often employed in military operations. In 1497 he served in a campaign against the Scots under the command of his father and he was made a Knight of the Garter after the accession of King Henry VIII, and became the Kings close companion, with lodgings at court. On 4 May 1513 he was appointed Lord Admiral and on 9 September helped to defeat the Scots at the Battle of Flodden. Anne of York died in 1511, and early in 1513 he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, and Eleanor Percy, the daughter of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland. On 1 February 1514 Howards father, then Earl of Surrey, was created Duke of Norfolk, over the next few years he served the King in a variety of ways. In September 1514 he escorted the Kings sister Princess Mary to France for her forthcoming marriage, in 1517 he quelled a May day riot in London with the use of soldiers. On 10 March 1520, Surrey was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland, by July 1520 Surrey entered upon the thankless task of endeavouring to keep Ireland in order. His letters contain accounts of attempts to pacify the rival factions of Kildare and Ormonde, at the end of 1521 Surrey was recalled from Ireland to take command of the English fleet in naval operations against France. His ships were ill-provisioned, and his warfare consisted of a series of raids upon the French coast for the purpose of inflicting all the damage possible. In July 1522 he burned Morlaix, in September laid waste the country round Boulogne, on 4 December 1522 Surrey was made Lord Treasurer upon his fathers resignation of the office, and on 21 May 1524 he succeeded his father as 3rd Duke of Norfolk. His liking for war brought him conflict with Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Finding himself pushed aside, Norfolk spent considerable time away from court in 1525–7 and 1528, by 1529 matters of state were being increasingly handled by Norfolk, Suffolk and the Boleyns, who pressed the King to remove Wolsey. In October the King sent Norfolk and Suffolk to obtain the seal from the Cardinal. In November Wolsey was arrested on a charge of treason, Norfolk benefited from Wolseys fall, becoming the Kings leading councillor and applying himself energetically in the Kings efforts to find a way out of his marriage to Queen Katherine
33.
George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford
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George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford was an English courtier and nobleman, and the brother of queen consort Anne Boleyn. This made him the brother-in-law of King Henry VIII and the uncle of Queen Elizabeth I of England. A prominent figure in the politics of the early 1530s, he was accused of incest with his sister Anne during the period of her trial for high treason. They were both executed as a result, George was the only surviving son of the courtier and ambassador Sir Thomas Boleyn and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Thomas and Elizabeth had a number of children, including two sons named Thomas and Henry who failed to reach adulthood, three children survived, George, Mary and Anne. There has been debate over the centuries as to the age of the three Boleyn siblings, but there is general agreement that George was born c.1504. This stems from a number of different sources, George Cavendish says in a poem that George was about 27 when he gained a place on the Privy Council in 1529. Cavendish gives this as an age in order to make his tortuous verses more rhythmic. In addition to Cavendishs verses, foreign diplomats believed George was too young to be appointed as Ambassador to France in October 1529. Marys date of birth is generally accepted as being c.1500 but there is some disagreement as to Annes date of birth with arguments for 1501. However, following the executions of Anne and George in 1536 their father wrote to Cromwell and this is the current thinking of the vast majority of modern historians with only one notable exception. George and his sisters were born in Norfolk at his familys home of Blickling Hall. However, they spent most of their childhood at another of the homes, Hever Castle in Kent. Like his father, it was understood that George would have a career as a courtier, politician and diplomat. The monarchy was the font of all patronage and potential wealth and it was only through service to the Royal Family that a family could hope to achieve or protect their greatness and social position. With this in mind, George was introduced to Henry VIIIs court at the age of ten and he attended an indoor melee with his father and acted in a mummery with his father, and the much older Charles Brandon and Nicholas Carew. Thanks to his familys influence and the fact he obviously impressed Henry at an early age, since learning was highly praised at Court and essential for a career as a diplomat, George received an excellent education, speaking fluent French together with some Italian and Latin. Although his two sisters were educated abroad, George remained in England throughout his formative years, less is known about Georges personal life than about his celebrated court career, but what is known is that he married Jane Parker sometime during 1525
34.
Tower of London
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The Tower of London, officially Her Majestys Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle located on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the edge of the square mile of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was a resented symbol of oppression. The castle was used as a prison from 1100 until 1952, a grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence. As a whole, the Tower is a complex of buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under Kings Richard the Lionheart, Henry III, the general layout established by the late 13th century remains despite later activity on the site. The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history and it was besieged several times, and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has served variously as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a record office. From the early 14th century until the reign of Charles II, in the absence of the monarch, the Constable of the Tower is in charge of the castle. This was a powerful and trusted position in the medieval period, in the late 15th century, the castle was the prison of the Princes in the Tower. Under the Tudors, the Tower became used less as a royal residence and this use has led to the phrase sent to the Tower. Executions were more commonly held on the notorious Tower Hill to the north of the castle, in the latter half of the 19th century, institutions such as the Royal Mint moved out of the castle to other locations, leaving many buildings empty. Anthony Salvin and John Taylor took the opportunity to restore the Tower to what was felt to be its medieval appearance, in the First and Second World Wars, the Tower was again used as a prison and witnessed the executions of 12 men for espionage. After the Second World War, damage caused during the Blitz was repaired, today, the Tower of London is one of the countrys most popular tourist attractions. Under the ceremonial charge of the Constable of the Tower, it is cared for by the charity Historic Royal Palaces and is protected as a World Heritage Site. The Tower was orientated with its strongest and most impressive defences overlooking Saxon London and it would have visually dominated the surrounding area and stood out to traffic on the River Thames. The castle is made up of three wards, or enclosures, the innermost ward contains the White Tower and is the earliest phase of the castle
35.
Anne of Cleves
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Anne of Cleves was Queen of England from 6 January to 9 July 1540 as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. The marriage was declared never consummated and, as a result, following the annulment of their marriage, Anne was given a generous settlement by the King, and thereafter referred to as the Kings Beloved Sister. She lived to see the coronation of Queen Mary I, outliving the rest of Henrys wives and she grew up living in Schloss Burg on the edge of Solingen. Annes father was influenced by Erasmus and followed a path within the Reformation. He sided with the Schmalkaldic League and opposed Emperor Charles V, after Johns death, Annes brother William became Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, bearing the promising epithet The Rich. In 1526, her elder sister Sibylle was married to John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, head of the Protestant Confederation of Germany, at the age of 11, Anne was betrothed to Francis, son and heir of the Duke of Lorraine while he was only 10. Thus the betrothal was considered unofficial and was cancelled in 1535 and her brother William was a Lutheran but the family was unaligned religiously, with her mother, the Duchess Maria, described as a strict Catholic. The Dukes ongoing dispute over Gelderland with Emperor Charles V made them suitable allies for Englands King Henry VIII in the wake of the Truce of Nice, the match with Anne was urged on the King by his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. The artist Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to Duren to paint portraits of Anne and her sister, Amalia. Henry required the artist to be as accurate as possible, not to flatter the sisters, the two versions of Holbeins portrait are in the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Another 1539 portrait, by the school of Barthel Bruyn the Elder, is in the collection of Trinity College, Cambridge, negotiations with Cleves were in full swing by March 1539. Cromwell oversaw the talks and a treaty was signed on 4 October of that year. Henry valued education and cultural sophistication in women, but Anne lacked these and she had received no formal education but was skilled in needlework and liked playing card games. She could read and write, but only in German, nevertheless, Anne was considered gentle, virtuous and docile, qualities that recommended her as a suitable candidate for Henry. Anne was described by the French ambassador, Charles de Marillac, as tall and slim, of middling beauty and of very assured and she was fair haired and was said to have had a lovely face. In the words of the chronicler Edward Hall, Her hair hanging down and she was apparelled after the English fashion, with a French hood, which so set forth her beauty and good visage, that every creature rejoiced to behold her. She appeared rather solemn by English standards, and looked old for her age, Holbein painted her with high forehead, heavy-lidded eyes and a pointed chin. Henry met her privately on New Years Day 1540 at Rochester Abbey in Rochester on her journey from Dover, Henry and some of his courtiers, following a courtly-love tradition, went disguised into the room where Anne was staying
36.
Catherine Howard
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Catherine Howard was Queen of England from 1540 until 1541, as the fifth wife of Henry VIII. Catherine married Henry VIII on 28 July 1540, at Oatlands Palace, in Surrey, Catherine was stripped of her title as queen within 16 months, in November 1541. She was beheaded three months later, on the grounds of treason for committing adultery while married to the King, Catherine was one of the daughters of Lord Edmund Howard and Joyce Culpeper. Her fathers sister, Elizabeth Howard, was the mother of Anne Boleyn, therefore, Catherine Howard was the first cousin of Anne Boleyn, and the first cousin once removed of Lady Elizabeth, King Henry VIII and Annes daughter. As a granddaughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and her father was not wealthy, being a younger son among 21 children and disfavoured in the custom of primogeniture, in which the eldest son inherits all his fathers estate. With little to sustain the family, her father was often reduced to begging for handouts from his affluent relatives. After Catherines mother died in 1528, her father married twice more, in 1531 he was appointed Controller of Calais. He was dismissed from his post in 1539, and died in March 1539, Catherine was the third of Henry VIIIs wives to have been a member of the English nobility or gentry, Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves were of Continental royalty. Catherine was probably born in Lambeth in about 1523, but the date of her birth remains uncertain. Soon after the death of her mother, when Catherine was aged five, she was sent with some of her siblings to live in the care of her fathers stepmother. The Dowager Duchess was often at Court and seems to have had direct involvement in the upbringing of her wards. As a result of the Dowager Duchesss lack of discipline, Catherine became influenced by some girls who candidly allowed men into the sleeping areas at night for entertainment. The girls were rewarded with food and wine and gifts, Catherine was not as well educated as some of Henrys other wives, although, on its own, her ability to read and write was impressive enough at the time. Her character has often described as vivacious, giggly and brisk. She displayed great interest in her lessons, but would often be distracted during them. She also had a side for animals, particularly dogs. In the Duchesss household at Horsham, in around 1536, Catherine and her teacher, Henry Mannox. Catherine was then aged about thirteen and he later gave evidence in the inquiry against her
37.
Puritans
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Puritanism in this sense was founded as an activist movement within the Church of England. The founders, clergy exiled under Mary I, returned to England shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, Puritanism played a significant role in English history during the first half of the 17th century. One of the most effective stokers of anti-Catholic feeling was John Pym, Puritans were blocked from changing the established church from within and were severely restricted in England by laws controlling the practice of religion. They took on distinctive beliefs about clerical dress and in opposition to the episcopal system and they largely adopted Sabbatarianism in the 17th century, and were influenced by millennialism. Consequently, they became a political force in England and came to power as a result of the First English Civil War. Almost all Puritan clergy left the Church of England after the Restoration of 1660, the nature of the movement in England changed radically, although it retained its character for a much longer period in New England. Puritans by definition were dissatisfied with the extent of the English Reformation. They formed and identified with various groups advocating greater purity of worship and doctrine, as well as personal. Puritans adopted a Reformed theology and, in sense, were Calvinists. In church polity, some advocated separation from all other established Christian denominations in favor of autonomous gathered churches. The Puritans were never a formally defined sect or religious division within Protestantism, the Congregationalist tradition, widely considered to be a part of the Reformed tradition, claims descent from the Puritans. Historically, the word Puritan was considered a term that characterized Protestant groups as extremists. According to Thomas Fuller in his Church History, the dates to 1564. Archbishop Matthew Parker of that used it and precisian with the sense of the modern stickler. In modern times, the word puritan is often used to mean against pleasure, in this sense, the term Puritan was coined in the 1560s, when it first appeared as a term of abuse for those who found the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559 inadequate. The term Puritan, therefore, was not intended to refer to strict morality, a common modern misunderstanding, the word Puritan was applied unevenly to a number of Protestant churches from the late 16th century onwards. Puritans did not originally use the term for themselves, the practitioners knew themselves as members of particular churches or movements, and not by a single term. Precise men and Precisians were other early derogatory terms for Puritans, seventeenth century English Puritan preacher Thomas Watson used the godly to describe Puritans in the title of one of his more famous works The Godly Mans Picture
38.
Francis Knollys (the elder)
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Sir Francis Knollys of Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire, KG was a courtier in the service of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth I, and was a Member of Parliament for a number of constituencies. Francis Knollys was born 1511, the son of Sir Robert Knollys and Lettice Peniston, daughter of Sir Thomas Peniston of Hawridge, Buckinghamshire. He appears to have received education at Oxford. Henry VIII extended to him the favour that he had shown to his father, acts of Parliament in 1540–41 and in 1545–46 attested this grant, making his wife in the second act joint tenant with him. At the same time Francis became one of the gentlemen-pensioners at court, in 1542 he entered the House of Commons for the first time as member for Horsham. At the beginning of Edward VIs reign he accompanied the English army to Scotland, and was knighted by the commander-in-chief, on 25 November 1551 he was present at Sir William Cecils house, at a conference between several Catholics and Protestants respecting the corporeal presence in the Sacrament. About the same date he was granted the manors of Caversham in Oxfordshire, at the end of 1552 he visited Ireland on public business. The accession of Mary in 1553 darkened Knollys prospects and his religious opinions placed him in opposition to the government, and he deemed it prudent to cross to Germany. On his departure the Princess Elizabeth wrote to his wife a sympathetic note, Knollys first took up his residence in Frankfurt, where he was admitted a church-member on 21 December 1557, but afterwards removed to Strasburg. According to Fuller, he communicated to the necessities of his fellow-exiles in Germany. Before Marys death he returned to England, and as a man of assured understanding and truth and he was soon afterwards made Vice-Chamberlain of the Household and captain of the halberdiers, while his wife – a first cousin of Elizabeth – became a woman of the queens privy chamber. In 1560 Knollys wife and son Robert were granted for their lives the manor of Taunton, in 1559 Knollys was chosen MP for Arundel and in 1562 knight of the shire for Oxfordshire. He was appointed steward of Oxford in Feb 1564 until 1592. In 1572 he was re-elected member for Oxfordshire, and sat for that constituency until his death, Knollys friendship with the queen and Cecil led to his employment in many state offices. It was, he explained, out of the question to conduct the campaign against the Irish rebels on strictly economical lines, in August 1564 he accompanied the queen to Cambridge, and was created MA. Two years later he went to Oxford, also with his sovereign, in the same year he was appointed treasurer of the queens chamber and in 1570 promoted to Treasurer of the Household. In May 1568 Mary, Queen of Scots fled to England and she had found refuge in Carlisle Castle, and the delicate duty of taking charge of the fugitive was entrusted jointly to Knollys and to Henry Scrope, 9th Baron Scrope of Bolton. On 28 May Knollys arrived at the castle, and was admitted to Marys presence, at his first interview he was conscious of Marys powerful fascination
39.
Lettice Knollys
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A grandniece of Anne Boleyn and close to Princess Elizabeth since childhood, Lettice Knollys was introduced early into court life. At 17 she married Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford, who in 1572 became Earl of Essex, after her husband went to Ireland in 1573 she possibly became involved with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. There was plenty of scandalous talk, not least when Essex died in Ireland of dysentery in 1576, two years later Lettice Knollys married Robert Dudley in private. When the Queen was told of the marriage she banished the Countess forever from court, the couples child, Robert, Lord Denbigh, died at the age of three, to the great grief of his parents and ending all prospects for the continuance of the House of Dudley. She continued to style herself Lady Leicester, the Countess was left rich under Leicesters will, yet the discharge of his overwhelming debts diminished her wealth. Lettice Knollys was always close to her family circle. Helpless at the eclipse of her eldest son, the second Earl of Essex. From the 1590s she lived chiefly in the Staffordshire countryside, where, in good health until the end. Lettice Knollys was born on 8 November 1543 at Rotherfield Greys and her father, Sir Francis Knollys, was a Member of Parliament and acted as Master of the Horse to Prince Edward. Her mother, Catherine Carey, was a daughter of Mary Boleyn, thus Catherine was Elizabeth Is first cousin, and Lettice Knollys her first cousin once removed. Lettice was the third of her parents 16 children, Sir Francis and his wife were Protestants. In 1556 they went to Frankfurt in Germany to escape persecution under Queen Mary I. It is unknown whether Lettice was among them, and she may have passed the next few years in the household of Princess Elizabeth with whom the family had a relationship since the mid-1540s. They returned to England in January 1559, two months after Elizabeth Is succession, Francis Knollys was appointed Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household, Lady Knollys became a senior Lady of the Bedchamber, and her daughter Lettice a Maid of the Privy Chamber. In late 1560 Lettice Knollys married Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford, the couple lived at the family seat of Chartley in Staffordshire. Here the two eldest of their five children, the daughters Penelope and Dorothy, were born in 1563 and 1564, pregnant with her first son, she flirted with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the Queens favourite. The Queen found out at once and succumbed to a fit of jealousy, the Viscountess went back to Staffordshire where, in November 1565, she gave birth to Robert, later 2nd Earl of Essex. Two more sons followed, Walter, who was born in 1569, and Francis, Walter Devereux was raised to the earldom of Essex in 1572
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Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
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Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester KG was an English nobleman and the favourite and close friend of Elizabeth Is, from her first year on the throne until his death. He was a suitor for the hand for many years. Dudleys youth was overshadowed by the downfall of his family in 1553 after his father, Robert Dudley was condemned to death but was released in 1554 and took part in the Battle of St. Quentin under Philip II of Spain, which led to his full rehabilitation. On Elizabeth Is accession in November 1558, Dudley was appointed Master of the Horse, in October 1562, he became a Privy Councillor and, in 1587, was appointed Lord Steward of the Royal Household. In 1564, Dudley became Earl of Leicester and, from 1563, one of the greatest landowners in North Wales, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was one of Elizabeths leading statesmen, involved in domestic as well as foreign politics alongside William Cecil and Francis Walsingham. Although he refused to be married to Mary, Queen of Scots, Dudley was for a time relatively sympathetic to her until, from the mid-1580s. As patron of the Puritan movement, he supported non-conforming preachers, a champion also of the international Protestant cause, he led the English campaign in support of the Dutch Revolt. His acceptance of the post of Governor-General of the United Provinces infuriated Queen Elizabeth, the expedition was a military and political failure, and it ruined the Earl financially. Leicester was engaged in many business ventures and was one of the main backers of Francis Drake. During the Spanish Armada, the Earl was in command of the English land forces. In this function, he invited Queen Elizabeth to visit her troops at Tilbury and this was the last of many events he had organised over the years, the most spectacular being the festival at his seat Kenilworth Castle in 1575 on occasion of a three-week visit by the Queen. Dudley was a patron of the arts, literature. Robert Dudleys private life interfered with his career and vice versa. When his first wife, Amy Robsart, fell down a flight of stairs and died in 1560, however, the resulting scandal very much reduced his chances in this respect. Popular rumours that he had arranged for his wifes death continued throughout his life, for 18 years he did not remarry for Queen Elizabeths sake and when he finally did, his new wife, Lettice Knollys, was permanently banished from court. This and the death of his legitimate son and heir were heavy blows. Shortly after the death in 1584, a virulent libel known as Leicesters Commonwealth was circulated in England. It laid the foundation of a literary and historiographical tradition that depicted the Earl as the Machiavellian master courtier
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Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
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Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the wife of King George VI and the mother of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. She was the last Empress consort of India, born into a family of British nobility, she came to prominence in 1923 when she married Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. The couple and their daughters embodied traditional ideas of family and public service and she undertook a variety of public engagements and became known as the Smiling Duchess because of her consistent public expression. In 1936, her husband became king when his brother, Edward VIII. She accompanied her husband on diplomatic tours to France and North America before the start of World War II, during the war, her seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public. In recognition of her role as an asset to British interests, after the war, her husbands health deteriorated and she was widowed at the age of 51. Her elder daughter, aged 25, became the new queen, on the death of Queen Mary in 1953, Elizabeth became the most senior member of the British royal family after the sovereign, and was viewed as the family matriarch. In her later years, she was a popular member of the family. She continued a public life until just a few months before her death at the age of 101, seven weeks after the death of her younger daughter. Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the youngest daughter and the ninth of ten children of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis, other possible locations include Forbes House in Ham, London, the home of her maternal grandmother, Louisa Scott. Her birth was registered at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, near the Strathmores English country house, St Pauls Walden Bury, which was also given as her birthplace in the census the following year. She was christened there on 23 September 1900, in the parish church, All Saints. She spent much of her childhood at St Pauls Walden and at Glamis Castle and she was educated at home by a governess until the age of eight, and was fond of field sports, ponies and dogs. When she started school in London, she astonished her teachers by precociously beginning an essay with two Greek words from Xenophons Anabasis and her best subjects were literature and scripture. After returning to education under a German Jewish governess, Käthe Kübler. On her fourteenth birthday, Britain declared war on Germany, four of her brothers served in the army. Her elder brother, Fergus, an officer in the Black Watch Regiment, was killed in action at the Battle of Loos in 1915, another brother, Michael, was reported missing in action on 28 April 1917. Three weeks later, the family discovered he had captured after being wounded
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Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II has been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. Elizabeth was born in London as the eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake duties during the Second World War. Elizabeths many historic visits and meetings include a visit to the Republic of Ireland. She has seen major changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation. She has reigned through various wars and conflicts involving many of her realms and she is the worlds oldest reigning monarch as well as Britains longest-lived. In October 2016, she became the longest currently reigning monarch, in 2017 she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the family, however, support for the monarchy remains high. Elizabeth was born at 02,40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather and her father, Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, Elizabeth, Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfathers London house,17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. Elizabeths only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930, the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford, who was casually known as Crawfie. Lessons concentrated on history, language, literature and music, Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margarets childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family. The book describes Elizabeths love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, others echoed such observations, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant and her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved. During her grandfathers reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward, Prince of Wales, and her father, the Duke of York. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, many people believed that he would marry and have children of his own. When her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, later that year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Consequently, Elizabeths father became king, and she became heir presumptive, if her parents had had a later son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession
