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

On 14th October 1536, Lady Katherine Scrope, nee Clifford, wrote to her father, Henry, Earl of Cumberland, to inform him that the rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace were in the vicinity of her home at Bolton Castle and were ‘persuading’ the local nobles and gentry to join them. The tone of Katherine’s letter is rather ambivalent – she implies that her husband, John, 8th Baron Scrope of Bolton, would follow his father-in-law’s lead on whether to join with the rebels or not. Whilst the Earl of Cumberland stayed staunchly loyal, Lord Scrope became embroiled and Bolton suffered some reprisals by the king’s troops.

Lady Katherine was well-connected – her grandmother, Anne St John, was half-cousin to Henry VII, and her own half-brother, another Henry, was married in June 1537 to the king’s niece, Eleanor Brandon – perhaps as reward for the Cliffords not joining the rebels.

On 13th October 1499, Claude de Valois, Queen of France was born. She was the daughter of Louis XII, and his second wife, Anne of Brittany. Queen Claude’s life was brief – unable to inherit her father’s throne, she was married at 14 to her cousin, François d’Angouleme, by whom she had several children, including Madeleine de Valois, Queen of Scots. In 1520, Queen Claude was present at the Field of Cloth of Gold. She died in 1524.

On 12th October 1537, Queen Jane Seymour gave birth, after a long and arduous labour, to a boy. It was St Edward’s Day, so the little prince was named after him. His father, Henry VIII, was beside himself with joy – it was more than 25 years since his first-born son, Henry, Duke of Cornwall, had been born and died within a few weeks. Prince Edward was born at Hampton Court Palace, but would spend much of his childhood at Hertford Castle, considered healthier, because further away from London.

A strict regimen was designed for the care of the child, to try to prevent any childhood illness carrying him off. He was not to be approached by anyone not in the very best of health, all his clothes were to be aired before he was dressed and his food was carefully tasted. He seems to have been a healthy baby, but his mother, sadly, did not recover from his birth.