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

On 27th July 1593, William Davies, a Roman Catholic priest, was hanged, drawn and quartered as a traitor at Beaumaris Castle (shown in picture) in Anglesey. Davies, who was in his mid-thirties, had been ordained at Rheims in 1585, before joining the English mission. A native of North Wales, he returned there to minister to a local population still broadly Catholic, with magistrates disinclined to enforce the law for church uniformity very strictly.

In 1586, the Government stepped up pressure on magistrates to implement the laws against ‘recusants and obstinate persons in religion’. Davies was warned of an impending arrest and managed to secrete himself on the Little Orme with his colleagues for a period of nine months, the local gentry effectively turning a blind eye. During this period, Davies and his companions probably printed the first Welsh book to be printed in Wales – Y Drych Cristianogawl (The Christian Mirror).

Davies was finally arrested in March 1592, for attempting to smuggle Catholics to France, via Ireland. Convicted of being a Catholic priest (by then an offence in itself), he was imprisoned first at Beaumaris, then in Ludlow. Returned to Beaumaris, the authorities tried to persuade him to attend the established Church just once, to avoid the death penalty. He refused. Soldiers from Chester had to be brought in to carry out the sentence.

On 26th July 1525, the Duke of Richmond's Household departed for Sheriff Hutton from Rye House, Hertfordshire (shown in the picture). The six year old duke was the illegitimate son of Henry VIII and Elizabeth (Bessie) Blount. Henry had begun to despair of having a legitimate male heir, and whilst his daughter, Mary, was sent to Wales, as de facto Princess of Wales, Richmond was appointed as President of the Council of the North.

The purpose of the Council was to show royal power in a part of the country that was far from London, and often difficult to rule. The man in charge of his household was Sir William Parr, and the Duke’s entourage stayed at Parr’s home at Rye House, where Sir William’s nephew, another William Parr, joined the ducal household. Many of the members of the Duke’s household later became supporters of religious reform. Richmond was to remain in the north for some years, but died young, in 1536, having married Mary Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, but never consummating the match.

On 25th July 1554, Mary I, Queen of England and Philip II of Spain were married at Winchester Cathedral. In subsequent interpretations of Mary’s reign, the marriage has been seen as a mistake, but the situation at the time was more complex than later historians, who were overwhelmingly Protestant and anti-Spanish, reflected.

Whilst female rulers were not unknown (and Mary’s own grandmother, Isabella of Castile was one of the most successful mediaeval monarchs), it was a foregone conclusion that a Queen-regnant would marry, both to carry on her line, and for support, particularly in military matters. In many cases, the husband would effectively oust the wife from her position, as had happened to Mary’s aunt, Juana of Castile.

For Mary, marriage was urgent – she was thirty-seven, not robust, and keen to re-establish the Catholic faith in England. Philip was her cousin, and was also the representative of the traditional Anglo-Burgundian alliance that had been a feature of English politics and economics for at least one hundred years. The plans for the marriage split Mary’s Council, and led to the Wyatt Rebellion. However, the eventual treaty was very favourable to England, and prevented Philip having any claims on Mary’s throne, whilst any children would have inherited his Burgundian territories.

The 25th July is the Feast of St James, the patron saint of Spain, and the date was presumably chosen for that reason.