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

On 29th July 1567, following the enforced abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots during her imprisonment at Lochleven, her thirteen month old son, James, was crowned at Stirling, to the accompaniment of a sermon from John Knox. James was the third Scots monarch in a row to succeed as a baby, and, as with his grandfather, James V, and his mother, he faced a long minority, whilst the Scots Lords battled for supremacy.

The first Regent was his half-uncle, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, who was determined to hold on to power and spent considerable time and effort in suppressing the Queen’s remaining supporters. Moray was assassinated in 1570. The second Regent was James’ grandfather, Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox, who died (possibly assassinated) in a raid on Stirling in 1571. Third up was John Erskine, Earl of Mar, who was also James’ guardian. Mar died, possibly of natural causes, but conceivably by poisoning, in 1572.

The host of the dinner at which Mar fell ill, the Earl of Morton, became the fourth Regent in five years. He too, had a chequered history as Regent, and was eventually executed on James VI’s orders for complicity in the murder of Lord Darnley. King James, brought up in an atmosphere of power-struggles and intrigue, soon proved himself to be quite as wily as any of his lords.

On 28th July 1540, Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex was executed on Tower Hill. For nearly ten years Cromwell had been Henry VIII’s most valued servant and a prime contributor to the massive legislative and religious programme that had transformed the country. As a man of ‘low’ birth, he was not really accepted by Henry’s more aristocratic councillors, and nor was he popular in the country at large (although the London population valued his charity).

Over the centuries, Cromwell has generally been portrayed as ruthless and power-hungry, or at best an efficient and dull bureaucrat. Of late, the best-selling novels by Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, and Bring up the Bodies, which have Cromwell as a rational and likeable protagonist, have inspired modern biographers to take a fresh look at him.

Whatever his character may actually have been, his talent and industry cannot be disputed – he rose from being the son of a small (and dishonest) trader in Putney, to being an Earl, a Knight of the Garter, and the King’s chief minister.

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.