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

On 10th October 1530, Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, died. He was about 53. Dorset was the grandson of Queen Elizabeth Woodville by her first marriage, and thus half-nephew to Elizabeth of York. One of Dorset’s early tutors was Thomas Wolsey, later Cardinal, and many of the men associated with Wolsey, and later Thomas Cromwell were Dorset’s friends and associates. Dorset’s mother was one of the richest women in England – Baroness Harrington and Bonville in her own right.

She and Dorset quarrelled over his inheritance – she insisted on her right to manage the Dorset estates as widow of the first Marquess, even after her remarriage. Her son, angry at her second marriage to a man nearly twenty years younger than herself, tried to obtain control of it. Although an arbitration was made by Henry VII, mother and son continued to argue over money for the rest of her life. In an attempt to bring Dorset fully into the Tudor fold, he was married to Lady Margaret Beaufort’s half-niece, but had no children. By his second marriage, he was grandfather to the tragic Grey sisters – Ladies Jane, Katherine and Mary Grey.

Picture shows ruins of Dorset’s home, Bradgate, in Leicestershire

On 9th October 1514, the eighteen year old Mary, Princess of England, was married to the decidedly worn Louis XII of France. The marriage had been arranged as part of the peace treaty following the successful campaign that Henry had led into France the previous year, capturing the towns of Tournai and Therouanne, and achieving a victory at the Battle of the Spurs. Mary was reported to be very beautiful, and her new husband showed himself distinctly pleased with her physical charms. So much so, that his death three months later, was attributed to excessive exertions to keep his bride happy. Mary then defied convention to make a marriage that enraged her brother – more on that here.

In several European countries, 8th October 1582 did not happen. Pope Gregory XIII, in his bull named Inter Gravissimas, introduced a new dating system (known now as the Gregorian Calendar) to try to bring the dates of Easter back towards the spring equinox. Problems in the old (Julian) calendar, meant that the calendar and the moon were out of phase, and Easter dates were falling later than the Church wished. To solve the problem, three leap days in every 100 years were dropped, and the length of the year shortened very slightly. Astronomers and mathematicians had been working on the problem for a while – the scheme introduced was designed by Luigi Lilio (or Aloysius Lilius), although he did not live to see it implemented. To align the new calendar with the moon, ten days had to be dropped. Because the scheme was promoted by the Catholic Church, the first countries to adopt it were Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain. England and Scotland did not adopt it until 1752, giving rise to all sorts of confusion in dating.