Tudor Times is the online repository for all things Tudor and Stewart (1485–1625)

On 14th November 1501 Arthur, Prince of Wales and Katharine of Aragon were married at St Paul’s Cathedral. The couple had only met a few days before, but the treaty which their marriage fulfilled, had been made as long before as 1489. Katharine was the daughter of the joint sovereigns of Spain, Queen Isabella of Castile (the larger territory in the Iberian Peninsula) and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. For Arthur’s father to have agreed a match with the daughter of such illustrious parents not long after his own victory at Bosworth was a diplomatic coup. Throughout her childhood in Spain, Katharine had known that her destiny was to be Queen of England (although, curiosly, she did not learn English as child – presumably because French was still the language primarily spoken at the English court in Henry’s reign). The wedding celebration was one of the most spectacular, and expensive, public spectacles of Henry VII’s reign. Sadly, the bride, who turned sixteen a month after her wedding day, was widowed within a matter of months.

On 13th November 1553, the trial of Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Lord Guilford Dudley, took place at the Guildhall in London. Lady Jane had been named as his heir by the late king, Edward VI, in a will that almost certainly had no legal validity. Whether Edward’s choice of his cousin, Jane, was entirely his own idea, or the product of undue influence by Jane’s father-in-law, the Duke of Northumberland, is a point which has been argued over for centuries. Whatever Edward VI and Northumberland felt, public sentiment, including that of the majority of the Privy Council, was not in favour of Jane inheriting at the expense of Edward’s half-sister, Mary. Within a few days, Jane’s brief reign was ended as the victorious Mary entered London, at the head of an army of volunteers.

Jane and Guilford were found guilty and sentenced to death. Queen Mary, reluctant to shed the blood of her sixteen year old cousin, postponed the sentence, with a view to pardoning the girl she believed (or wanted to believe) had been the pawn of her ambitious father-in-law. Unfortunately, Jane’s father, the Duke of Suffolk, became embroiled in another rebellion in February 1554, and the result was Jane’s execution. Read more about the succession crisis of 1553 here

On 12th November 1555, Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, died. Gardiner began his career in the household of Thomas Wolsey, before transferring to that of Henry VIII in 1529 when he became the King’s secretary. He undertook a number of embassies to France and Rome, to try to garner support for Henry’s annulment. Gardiner readily accepted royal supremacy, but remained firmly Catholic in religious doctrine. Towards the end of Henry's reign, he was seen as one of the leaders, together with the Duke of Norfolk, of the conservative faction. He was left out of the council of regency set up under Henry's will. After falling out with Archbishop Cranmer over the prayer book of 1549, he spent the next four years in the Tower. On Mary’s accession, he became Lord Chancellor. It has been alleged that Gardiner was an illegitimate descendant of Jasper Tudor, but there is no known evidence to support the theory.