Okay boys. I am checking to see who has read the website this week. First of all, make sure you watch the videos I have linked up over here on the right.
The lesson this week is on Mary, Queen of Scots.
I am going to tell you all about her and then we will end the class with a BANG!!!
But what I want you to do is to look on Google and find out how many times Mary Queen of Scots was married and what were their names?
And if you really want to impress me, tell me...how did Mary Queen of Scots die?
Inspired by the book series of the same name, this class is designed specifically with boys in mind. Read what I post on this blog. This is your book for this semester. Class will be a lot more fun if you come prepared!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Francis Drake, Patriot or Pirate? Or Both?
During Queen Elizabeth's reign, England
rose to become a great naval power. And one of the most important
men to make this happen was Sir Francis Drake.
A few years later, Sir Francis Drake would help to save England. King Phillip of Spain was planning to invade England (remember Mary Queen of Scots?) and had a large fleet of ships in a harbor in Cadiz. Drake sailed quickly to Cadiz and sent a fire ship into the harbor, destroying nearly 100 ships and was able to escape unharmed. This delayed the Spanish invasion 1 year.
He was born in humble circumstances in
1540 and started as a cabin boy. Because of his sheer determination
and hard work, he rose to the highest rank in the English navy.
In 1567, he was on a slave trading
voyage in the West Indies. They were driven off course by a bad
storm, and had to seek shelter in the harbor of San Juan de Ulua, a
Spanish port on the coast of Mexico. At first they were received with
kindness, but were afterward attacked by bigger ships, and only
escaped with two vessels. After this act of treachery (evil
plotting), Drake decided that he would take every opportunity in the
future to rob and plunder the Spanish to pay them back for this
betrayal.
After 1570, Drake made many voyages to
the New World to spy on the Spanish and steal as much stuff from them
as possible. In Panama, he planned on capturing an entire Spanish
town where they were shipping gold and silver from Peru, and take it
for England. But he got wounded badly, and they had to give up the
plan.
But from then on, he would sail up and
down the coast, seizing a large number of ships and taking the
Spanish wealth, both in money and goods. He even decided to hike
across the isthmus of Panama and from a tree on a hill, he was able
to see both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Drake returned to England in 1573 with
many riches. He bought three new ships and set out to sail around
the world. He followed the same path that Magellan, the Portuguese
navigator had taken 70 years before. When they got around Cape Good
Horn in South America, he lost several ships and some turned back.
But Drake kept going with his single ship, the Marigold. On the
western side to North America, he plunder lots of Spanish
settlements, with the permission and blessing of Elizabeth I.
Frances Drake stopped to make repairs at a place called Drakes Point
(named after him) in the San Francisco Bay area. Then he set sail
across the Pacific Ocean.
It took Drake exactly 2 years and ten
months to sail around the world. There was a big banquet on his ship
and Queen Elizabeth was one of his guests. This is where Drake
became a knight with the title 'Sir'. The Marigold couldn't sail
anymore, but it was made into a monument that lasted 100 years until
it was too rotted. But they saved a piece of the wood and made it
into a chair for King Charles II, who afterward gave it to the
University of Oxford, where it can still be seen today!
A few years later, Sir Francis Drake would help to save England. King Phillip of Spain was planning to invade England (remember Mary Queen of Scots?) and had a large fleet of ships in a harbor in Cadiz. Drake sailed quickly to Cadiz and sent a fire ship into the harbor, destroying nearly 100 ships and was able to escape unharmed. This delayed the Spanish invasion 1 year.
But the Spanish still collected over
130 vessels and more than 50,000 men, which was called the
'Invincible Armada'. They planned to attack the English in three
different places. They thought the English would be so bewildered
that they would just surrender.
But the English were ready. Troops
were collected in case the Spanish landed on English soil. The queen
gave a rousing speech to encourage her people. Merchants offered
their ships for the fight, the rich donated money, the poor
volunteered to fight. The English didn't have half the soldiers that
the Spanish had, but they were tough. Sir Francis Drake was one of
the commanders, along with Howard, Frobisher, and Hawkins. In Late
July 1588, the coast of England was lit with warning beacons telling
the news of the Spanish invasion. They were coming.
The English vessels were light and
could maneuver easily. The Spanish had large, clunky ships. The
English sailed with skill and could fire their guns with precision.
The Spanish guns would sail over head. The fighting went on for a
week! Finally the Spanish fleet went back to the harbor in France
and the English couldn't attack. So once again, they sent 8 fire
ships into the harbor. It didn't destroy any ships but it scared the
Spanish and they sailed out to sea again. The English attacked and
many ships were disabled and 4,000 Spaniards were killed in one day's
fighting.
The Spanish wanted to sail home, but
were blocked by the English fleet. They decided to sail around
Scotland, but bad weather pushed most of the ships onto jagged rocks
and the Spanish Armada was annihilated, like completely destroyed.
Only 54 vessels made it home and 10,000 men survived.
England was victorious.
But Sir Francis Drake was not done
sailing. He took another trip to the West Indies to try to capture a
Spanish town on the Panama isthmus. But he caught a fever and died
on board his ship on January 28, 1596.
Sir Francis' body was buried at sea.
Lord Macaulay wrote these lines in reference to his burial:
“The waves became his winding sheet:
The waters were his tomb.
But for his fame-the mighty sea
Has not sufficient room.”
He left no children, but his nephew was
made a baronet in the reign of James II. England will always remember
with gratitude the services Sir Francis rendered in the days of her
struggle to become 'mistress of the sea.'
-from Famous Men of Modern Times
by John H. Haaren & A.B. Poland, 2008 Memoria Press
Monday, October 15, 2012
John Cabot
1492 was a remarkable year in the
history of the world. And that was because three little ships made a
remarkable and daring journey to a land never seen before by much of
the world. The Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria thankfully landed on an
island in the Caribbean on October 12 after a harrowing (scary and
slightly dangerous) trip across the great unknown, the Atlantic
Ocean. Their fearless leader, Christopher Columbus had done what he
said he was going to do...find the Indies by sailing west instead of
east.
But what did they really find? A whole
new world, a big mass of land that was smack dab in the way of China
and the riches of the indies: spices and more spices. Can you
imagine how bad that European food must have tasted if they were
willing to risk everything to find a quicker way to the Indies and
cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, cloves.
Well, they didn't just go because of
spices, but it was a BIG part of it. They wanted to find gold, and
they wanted to save the world from hell by bringing Christianity to
people, whether they wanted it or not.
King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella of
Spain provided Columbus with the boats and supplies and so they
quickly benefited from the riches they found in this new world.
Spain was becoming very rich and powerful. Portugal also sent out
explorers like Vasco de Gama, Cabral, and Magellan. Portugal and
Spain were raking in the riches.
So, what about England? After all, they
were an island nation and should be cashing in on all of this new
discovery.
In 1496, King Henry VII issued letters
to allow John Cabot to sail in eastern, western, and northern seas
that had not been explored by the Spanish and Portuguese. Cabot was
not even English. He was born in 1451 as Giovanni Caboto. He was
from Italy, just like Christopher Columbus. At first he went to
Spain and Portugal to get them to give him ships to explore this new
world. He thought that Asia could be reached easily and quickly by
sailing more to the north.
But Spain and Portugal didn't want to
help him because they felt they already had enough explorers out
there. They didn't need anymore.
Guess who had to pay the most for
spices? England. They were the farthest away from the traditional
spice route to India. They wanted to get the spices themselves and
of course, riches.
On his second try, Cabot set sail in
May, 1497. He had one small ship, the Matthew,
with a crew of about 18 men. He sailed the same route the Vikings
had used hundreds of years before.
Eventually, he did
find land, but no spices. He came back over a year later in August
1497 with glowing reports of what he had found. He provided the
first mapped details of the North American coast.
King Henry called
Cabot's discovery “new-found-land”. It would eventually become
known as Newfoundland, part of present-day Canada. Cabot became
famous. Everyone thought he had found Asia.
He sailed again in
May 1498 with five ships. The weather was bad and one ship sailed
back while four continued on. They were never heard from again.
Though Cabot didn't
know it, he had discovered North America for the Europeans. His
discovery would become more valuable than a ship's hull filled with
treasure. It allowed England to claim North America.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Elizabeth I, Queen of England
Now that Elizabeth was queen of
England, she had a lot of hard challenges in front of her. England in
1559 was weak and unstable. The treasury did not have much money.
Powerful countries like Spain and France were a threat. And then a
lot of people had been killed because of religion.
Remember, Henry VIII, Elizabeth's
father had broken away from the Catholic church and made his own
church in which he was in charge. He called it the Church of England.
Now that she was Queen Elizabeth, she was also the head of the Church
of England. She had to make sure that everyone was a member of the
Church of England so that they would be loyal to her. But, unlike
her sister Mary, she said she did not want to make “windows into
men's souls”. As long as the people were loyal to her, she would
not force anyone to do anything.
Queen Elizabeth had a bad temper and a
strong will. But she was very careful and not willing to make quick,
sudden decisions on big things.
But the big question was marriage.
Queen Elizabeth was a woman so naturally she had to get married. Who
would it be? Monarchs did not marry for love, but for power. The
match had to be right for England so that it could be strengthened
and not weakened. Elizabeth was very clever. She had many offers of
marriage and she stalled for years and years, waiting to make a
decision. Everyone wanted her to get married so that she could have
children and secure a successor for the future of England. But
Elizabeth only pretended to be interested in marriage.
By pretending, Elizabeth was able to
protect her country from powerful European nations that could harm a
weakened England. There was no way she would ever marry someone who
had invaded her country! It was a smart strategy...and it worked.
To the north of England was Scotland.
Unlike today, back in Elizabethan times, Scotland was an independent
country and England was always trying to invade it and take it over.
The Scottish wanted help to keep the English out, so they looked to
France for aid. Soon after Elizabeth was crowned queen, Scotland got
a new queen as well, Mary Stuart. She was known as Mary, Queen of
Scots. Mary and Elizabeth were related. They were cousins!
Mary was related to Henry VIII and had
a claim to the English throne. And Mary Stuart was a Catholic. Many
Catholics wanted Mary to be the queen for that very reason. She
thought she should be queen of England as well. But Mary was not very
popular in Scotland. She angered the people by marrying someone they
did not like. The Scottish rebelled and Mary fled Scotland on
horseback in the middle of the night. She ended up in England and
asked Queen Elizabeth for protection.
Elizabeth didn't like Mary, but she
agreed to help another queen-a queen who was her cousin. Mary lived
in England for the next 19 years. But Elizabeth kept guards on her so
that she wouldn't start a rebellion against Elizabeth. And boy, was
she right. Mary was trying to stir up a rebellion so that she could
take the throne from Elizabeth. Spies were able to find proof
because Mary had been sneaking letters out of her castle in beer
barrels.
Elizabeth was furious! The rebels'
leader was put to death. But what would Elizabeth do about Mary? Mary
was put on trial and found guilty of treason. Elizabeth only had to
sign the death warrant, but she hesitated for days. She didn't
particularly like Mary Stuart, but she didn't want to kill a queen.
In the end, Elizabeth signed the
warrant, and Mary, Queen of Scots was executed. This did not go over
well in Spain. They already didn't like the English because they had
broken away from the Catholic church and were big rivals with Spain.
King Philip (the guy who was married to Bloody Mary and then wanted
to marry Elizabeth) needed some kind of excuse to invade England, and
with the execution of a fellow Catholic, Mary Stuart, it was the
excuse he needed. He sent a huge fleet of ships, called an Armada, to
invade England in 1588.
The Spanish had a powerful navy because
of their many successes in exploration, thanks to men like
Christopher Columbus, De Soto, and such. It did not look good for
England. They did not have nearly as many ships. The sea battle
lasted for days. But luck was with the English. First, they burned
some of the enemy ships. Then a great storm came through the English
Channel. Spanish ships crashed against the rocks and were destroyed.
It was a great moment for England. The
storm was seen as a blessing from God. Elizabeth had shown that she,
a woman, could fight a war as well as any king. The English navy had
proven itself by defeating the powerful Armada. In the coming years,
England would rule the seas with its great navy.
It was a turning point in the history
of the world.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Henry VIII's Children
Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry
VIII. Her mother was Anne Boleyn. Queen Anne was very beautiful.
Remember, she was the second wife of Henry VIII. He divorced his
first wife Catherine, because she did not give him a son.
Anne promised that their child would be
a son, so when Elizabeth was born, it was a huge disappointment.
Queen Anne had three miscarriages after Elizabeth's birth and the
king was not happy. Henry was convinced Anne would never bare a son,
so he had her arrested for treason for some flimsy reason. She was
locked in the Tower of London and four days later, she was executed.
They chopped off her head!
Only two weeks later, King Henry VIII
remarried. Her name was Jane Seymour and she quickly got pregnant and
luckily enough had a son. Unfortunately, Jane got really sick and
died a few days later.
Things did not look good for Elizabeth.
She was the second daughter from a denounced marriage, where her own
mother was killed by her father. In her father's eyes, she was no
longer a princess. She was sent to live far away from her father.
She hardly ever saw him.
But Elizabeth grew up well. She was
incredibly smart and was surrounded by people who loved her.
Elizabeth studied math, history, literature, astronomy and geography.
She especially loved reading books in Latin and Greek. She knew five
languages besides English: Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Latin.
When Elizabeth I turned thirteen, her
father died. Her brother Edward became king, but he was a sick thing
and did not last long. So he died when he was fifteen and the crown
went to Elizabeth's older sister Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII
first wife Catherine.
Now this is really important. Catherine
and Mary were extremely devoted Catholics. But Elizabeth and Edward
had been raised Protestant. Their father had accidentally become an
important leader of the Reformation, because he wanted to divorce
Catherine (Mary's mother) to marry Anne (Elizabeth's mother). The
Catholic Church absolutely forbid it, so Henry VIII broke away from
the Catholic Church and told everyone in England that he was now the
leader of the church in England. But Henry VIII still was a
Catholic, even though he disagreed with the Church not letting him
get a divorce.
Confused yet?
Henry wanted to be in charge! He was
the King! No Pope was going to tell him what to do.
Remember...Mary was now the queen, but
a lot of people in England did not like the Catholic Church and the
last monarch, her brother Edward didn't like the Catholic Church
either. It was a very dangerous time in England because things were
changing and most of the time, people in power do not like change.
So what was Mary supposed to do? She
was now the queen. She decided that she was going to make everyone
be Catholic again. But what if you didn't want to be a Catholic?
Simple enough, Mary had those people burned at the stake! More than
250 people were killed like this and it didn't make people like Mary
very much. They gave her a wretched nickname, Bloody Mary.
Not only did Mary not like people who
weren't Catholic, she also did not like her half-sister Elizabeth.
After all, Mary's poor mother Catherine was discarded and thrown away
by Henry to marry Elizabeth's mother Anne Boleyn. This was a
humiliating thing. Mary was also suspicious that Elizabeth was a
Protestant and not a devoted Catholic.
So what did Mary do to Elizabeth?
Simple enough. She had her thrown into jail! Elizabeth now found
herself in the Tower of London like her mother before her. Things
did not end well for Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth was very afraid that
the same thing was going to happen to her. She had to be really
careful what she said and did. The littlest thing could be the
excuse Mary was looking for to be able to chop off her head.
The Tower of London |
Meanwhile, Mary was desperately trying
to have a child. She was married to Phillip of Spain. Phillip was the
son of Ferdinand and Isabella. Do you know who they were? They were
the ones that gave Christopher Columbus the money to sail west, where
he accidentally discovered America! Anyways, Mary wanted to have a
child, but it didn't work out so well for her. Instead of getting
pregnant, she got really sick with cancer and died.
On her deathbed, Mary declared that
Elizabeth should be the next queen. Elizabeth was sitting under a
tree reading a book when two officers came racing towards her. Can
you imagine how scared she might have been? What if they were coming
to arrest her again, and this time kill her? But no, the men
presented Elizabeth with the royal ring. It was the one Mary had
worn. Elizabeth said a prayer of gratitude, in Latin. She must have
been very glad that she survived Mary's rule. Now she was queen.
Elizabeth was only 25 years-old.
On January 15, 1559, Elizabeth was
crowned queen of England at the famous Westminster Abbey in London.
Elizabeth had learned a lot over the
past ten years. She knew how people close to her could turn against
her. She would have to be careful and smart if she was going to
remain queen.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
William Tyndale, A Man To Be Admired
William Tyndale was a native of Gloucester and began his studies at Oxford in 1510, later moving onto Cambridge. By 1523 his passion had been ignited; in that year he sought permission and funds from the bishop of London to translate the New Testament. The bishop denied his request, and further investigations convinced Tyndale that the project would not be welcomed anywhere in England.
To find a friendly environment, he
traveled to the free cities of Europe – Hamburg, Wittenberg,
Cologne, and finally to the Lutheran city of Worms. There, in 1525,
his New Testament emerged: the first translation from Greek into the
English language. It was quickly smuggled into England, where it
received a less-than-enthusiastic response from the authorities. King
Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey, and Sir Thomas More, among others, were
furious. It was, said More, “not worthy to be called Christ's
testament, but either Tyndale's own testament of the testament of his
master Antichrist.”
Thomas More did everything he could to stop Tyndale and the translation of the Bible into English. He was a ruthless man when it came to disagreement in the Catholic Church. But he was consistent. This poor guy ended up getting beheaded by order of King Henry VIII because he would not support Henry's break with the Pope and the Church. |
Authorities bought up copies of the translation (which, ironically, only financed Tyndale's further work) and hatched plans to silence Tyndale.
Meanwhile Tyndale had moved to Antwerp,
a city which he was relatively free from English agents and those of
the Holy Roman (and Catholic) Empire. For nine years he managed, with
the help of friends, to hide from authorities, review his New
Testament, and begin translating the Old.
His translations, it would turn out,
became decisive in the history of the English Bible , and of the
English language. Nearly a century later, when translators of the
Authorized, or King James Version, debated how to translate the
original languages, eight of ten times, they agreed that Tyndale had
it best to begin with.
Conspiracy to Capture!
We do not know who planned and financed
the plot that ended his life (whether England or continental
authorities), but we do know it was carried out by Henry Phillips, a
man who had been accused of robbing his father and of gambling
himself into poverty. Phillips became Tyndale's guest at meals and
soon was one of the few privileged to look at Tyndale's books and
papers.
In May 1535, Phillips lured Tyndale
away from the safety of his quarters and into the arms of soldiers.
Tyndale was immediately taken to the Castle of Vilvorde, the great
state prison of the Low Countries, and accused of heresy.
Trials for heresy in the Netherlands
were in the hands of special commissions of the Holy Roman Empire. It
took months for the law to take its course. During this time, Tyndale
had many hours to reflect on his own teachings, such as this passage
from one of his tracts:
“Let it not make thee despair,
neither yet discourage thee, O reader, that it is forbidden thee in
pain of life and goods, or that it is made breaking of the king's
peace, or treason unto his highness, to read the Word of thy soul's
health-for if God be on our side, what matter maketh it who be
against us, be they bishops, cardinals, popes.”
Finally, in early August 1536, Tyndale
was condemned as a heretic, degraded from the priesthood, and
delivered to the secular authorities for punishment.
On Friday, October 6, after local
officials took their seats, Tyndale was brought to the cross in the
middle of the town square and given a chance to recant. That refused,
he was given a moment to pray. English historian John Foxe said he
cried out, “Lord, open the King of England's eyes!”
Then he was bound to the beam, and both
an iron chain and a rope were put around his neck. Gunpowder was
added to the brush and logs. At the signal of a local official, the
executioner, standing behind Tyndale, quickly tightened the noose,
strangling him. Then an official took up a lighted torch and handed
it to the executioner, who set the wood ablaze.
One brief report of that distant scene
has come down to us. It is found in a letter from an English agent to
Lord Cromwell two months later.
“They speak much,” he wrote, “of
the patient sufferance of Master Tyndale at the time of his
execution.”
**This was originally printed as an article for Christianity Today, with slight revisions to simplify for kids.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Henry VIII and Six Wives
Catherine
of Aragon (divorced)
Catherine
of Aragon was the youngest surviving child of Ferdinand and
Isabella, the joint rulers of Spain, and as was common for princesses
of the day, her parents almost immediately began looking for a
political match for her. When she was three year old, she was
betrothed to Arthur,
the son of Henry
VII of
England. Arthur was not even quite two at the time.
When
she was almost 16, in 1501, Catherine made the journey to England. It
took her three months, and her ships weathered several storms, but
she safely made landfall at Plymouth on October 2, 1501. Catherine
and Arthur were married on 14 November 1501 in Old St. Paul's
Cathedral, London. Catherine was escorted by the groom's younger
brother, Henry.
Henry
Tudor, named after his father, Henry
VII,
was born by Elizabeth
of York June
28, 1491 in Greenwich
Palace.
Since he was the second son, and not expected to become king, we know
little of his childhood. We know that Henry attended the wedding
celebrations of Arthur and his bride, Catherine
of Aragon,
in November 1501 when he was 10 years old.
After
the wedding and celebrations, the young couple moved to Ludlow Castle
on the Welsh border. Less than six months later, Arthur was dead,
possibly of the 'sweating
sickness'.
Although this marriage was short, it was very important in the
history of England, as will be apparent.
Ludlow Castle |
Catherine
was now a widow, and still young enough to be married again. Henry
VII still had a son, this one much more robust and healthy than his
dead older brother. The English king was interested in keeping
Catherine's dowry, so 14 months after her husband's death she was
betrothed to the future Henry VIII, who was too young to marry at the
time.
By
1505, when Henry was old enough to wed, Henry VII wasn't as keen on a
Spanish alliance, and young Henry was forced to repudiate (give up,
go against) the betrothal. Catherine's future was uncertain for the
next four years. When Henry VII died in 1509 one of the new young
king's first actions was to marry Catherine. She was finally crowned
Queen of England in a joint coronation ceremony with her husband
Henry VIII on June 24, 1509.
The coronation of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon |
Shortly
after their marriage, Catherine found herself pregnant. This first
child was a stillborn daughter born prematurely in January 1510, but
this disappointment was soon followed by another pregnancy. Prince
Henry was born on January 1, 1511 and the was christened on the 5th.
There were great celebrations for the birth of the young prince, but
they were halted by the baby's death after 52 days of life. Catherine
then had a miscarriage, followed by a another short-lived son. On
February 1516, she gave birth a daughter named Mary,
and this child lived. There were probably two more pregnancies, the
last recorded in 1518.
Henry VIII oldest surviving child, and unfortunately, a girl, Mary. |
Henry
was growing frustrated because he had no son and heir, but he
remained a devoted husband.
By 1526 though, he had begun to separate from Catherine because he
had fallen in love with one of her ladies: Anne
Boleyn.
It is
here that the lives of Henry's first and second wives begin to
interweave. By the time his interest in Anne became common knowledge,
Catherine was 42 years old and was no longer able to have more
children. Henry's main goal now was to get a male heir, which his
wife was not able to provide. Somewhere along the way Henry began to
look at the texts of Leviticus which say that if a man takes his
brother's wife, they shall be childless. As evidenced above,
Catherine and Henry were far from childless, and still had one living
child. But that child was a girl, and didn't count in Henry's mind.
The King began to petition (ask)the Pope for an annulment (a
divorce).
At
first, Catherine was kept in the dark about Henry's plans for their
annulment and when the news got to Catherine she was very upset. She
was also at a great disadvantage since the court that would decide
the case was far from impartial. Catherine then appealed directly to
the Pope, which she felt would listen to her case since her nephew
was Charles
V,
the Holy Roman Emperor.
The
political and legal debate continued for six years. Catherine was
adamant in that she and Arthur, her first husband and Henry's
brother, did not consummate their marriage and therefore were not
truly husband and wife. Catherine sought not only to retain her
position, but also that of her daughter Mary.
Things
came to a head in 1533 when Anne Boleyn became pregnant. Henry had to
act, and his solution was to reject the power of the Pope in England
and to have Thomas
Cranmer,
the Archbishop of Canterbury grant the annulment. Catherine was to
renounce the title of Queen and would be known as the Princess
Dowager of Wales, something she refused to acknowledge through to the
end of her life.
Catherine
and her daughter were separated and she was forced to leave court.
She lived for the next three years in several dank and unhealthy
castles and manors with just a few servants. However, she seldom
complained of her treatment and spent a great deal of time at prayer.
On
January 7, 1536, Catherine died at Kimbolton Castle and was buried at
Peterborough Abbey (later Peterborough Cathedral, after the
dissolution of the monasteries) with the ceremony due for her
position as Princess Dowager, not as a Queen of England.
Anne Boleyn (beheaded)
Exactly
when and where Henry VIII first noticed Anne is not known. It is
likely that Henry sought to make Anne his mistress, as he had her
sister Mary years before. Maybe drawing on the example of Elizabeth
Woodville, Queen to Edward IV (and maternal grandmother to Henry
VIII) who was said to have told King Edward that she would only be
his wife, not his mistress, Anne denied Henry VIII sexual favors. We
don't know who first had the idea of marriage, but eventually it
evolved into "Queen or nothing" for Anne. No sex unless
they were married first!
At
first, the court probably thought that Anne would just end up as
another one of Henry's mistresses. But, in 1527 we see that Henry
began to seek an annulment of his marriage to Catherine, making him
free to marry again.
King
Henry's passion for Anne can be attested to in the love letters he
wrote to her when she was away from court. Henry hated writing
letters, and very few documents in his own hand survive. However, 17
love letters to Anne remain and are preserved in the Vatican library.
In
1528, Anne's emergence at Court began. Anne also showed real interest
in religious reform and may have introduced some of the 'new ideas'
to Henry, and gaining the hatred of some members of the Court. When
the court spent Christmas at Greenwich that year, Anne was lodged in
nice apartments near those of the King.
The
legal debates on the marriage of Henry and Catherine of Aragon
continued on. Anne was no doubt frustrated by the lack of progress.
Her famous temper and tongue showed themselves at times in famous
arguments between her and Henry for all the court to see. Anne feared
that Henry might go back to Catherine if the marriage could not be
annulled and Anne would have wasted time that she could have used to
make an advantageous marriage.
Anne
was not popular with the people of England.
In
this period, records show that Henry began to spend more and more on
Anne, buying her clothes, jewelry, and things for her amusement such
as playing cards and bows and arrows.
The
waiting continued and Anne's position continued to rise. On the first
day of September 1532, she was created Marquess of Pembroke, a title
she held in her own right. In October, she held a position of honor
at meetings between Henry and the French King in Calais.
Sometime
near the end of 1532, Anne finally gave way and by December she was
pregnant. To avoid any questions of the legitimacy of the child,
Henry was forced into action. Sometime near St. Paul's Day (January
25) 1533, Anne and Henry were secretly married. Although the King's
marriage to Catherine was not dissolved, in the King's mind it had
never existed in the first place, so he was free to marry whomever he
wanted. On May 23, the Archbishop of Canterbury officially proclaimed
that the marriage of Henry and Catherine was invalid.
Plans
for Anne's coronation began. In preparation, she had been brought by
water from Greenwich to the Tower of London dressed in cloth of gold.
The barges following her were said to stretch for four miles down the
Thames. On the 1st of June, she left the Tower in procession to
Westminster Abbey, where she became a crowned and anointed Queen in a
ceremony led by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
By
August, preparations were being made for the birth of Anne's child,
which was sure to be a boy. Names were being chosen, with Edward and
Henry the top choices. The proclamation of the child's birth had
already been written with 'prince' used to refer to the child.
Anne
took to her chamber, according to custom, on August 26, 1533 and on
September 7, at about 3:00 in the afternoon, the Princess Elizabeth
was born. Her christening service was scaled down, but still a
pleasant affair. The princess' white christening robes can currently
be seen on display at Sudeley Castle in England.
Anne
now knew that it was imperative that she produce a son. By January of
1534, she was pregnant again, but the child was either miscarried or
stillborn. In 1535, she became pregnant again but miscarried by the
end of January. The child was reported to have been a boy. The Queen
was quite upset, and blamed the miscarriage on her state of mind
after hearing that Henry had taken a fall in jousting. She had to
have known at this point that her failure to produce a living male
heir was a threat to her own life, especially since the King's fancy
for one of her ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, began to grow.
Anne's
enemies at court began to plot against her using the King's
attentions to Jane Seymour as the catalyst for action. Cromwell began
to move in action to bring down the Queen. He persuaded the King to
sign a document calling for an investigation that would possibly
result in charges of treason.
On
April 30, 1536, Anne's musician and friend for several years, Mark
Smeaton, was arrested and probably tortured into making 'revelations'
about the Queen. Next, Sir Henry Norris was arrested and taken to the
Tower of London. Then the Queen's own brother, George Boleyn, Lord
Rochford was arrested.
On
May 2, the Queen herself was arrested at Greenwich and was informed
of the charges against her: adultery, incest and plotting to murder
the King. She was then taken to the Tower by barge along the same
path she had traveled to prepare for her coronation just three years
earlier. In fact, she was lodged in the same rooms she had held on
that occasion.
There
were several more arrests. Sir Francis Weston and William Brereton
were charged with adultery with the Queen. Sir Thomas Wyatt was also
arrested, but later released. They were put on trial with Smeaton and
Norris at Westminster Hall on May 12, 1536. The men were not allowed
to defend themselves, as was the case in charges of treason. They
were found guilty and received the required punishment: they were to
be hanged at Tyburn, cut down while still living and then
disemboweled and quartered. Ew!
On
Monday the 15th, the Queen and her brother were put on trial at the
Great Hall of the Tower of London. It is estimated that some 2000
people attended. Anne conducted herself in a calm and dignified
manner, denying all the charges against her. Her brother was tried
next, with his own wife testifying against him (she got her due later
in the scandal of Kathryn Howard). Even though the evidence against
them was scant, they were both found guilty, with the sentence being
read by their uncle, Thomas Howard , the Duke of Norfolk. They were
to be either burnt at the stake (which was the punishment for incest)
or beheaded, at the discretion of the King.
On
May 17, George Boleyn was executed on Tower Hill. The other four men
condemned with the Queen had their sentences commuted from the grisly
fate at Tyburn to a simple beheading at the Tower with Lord Rochford.
A beheading is much better than being disemboweled.
Anne
knew that her time would soon come and started to become hysterical,
her behavior swinging from great levity to body- wracking sobs. She
received news that an expert swordsman from Calais had been summoned,
who would no doubt deliver a cleaner blow with a sharp sword than the
traditional axe. It was then that she made the famous comment about
her 'little neck'.
Interestingly,
shortly before her execution on charges of adultery, the Queen's
marriage to the King was dissolved and declared invalid. One would
wonder then how she could have committed adultery if she had in fact
never been married to the King, but this was overlooked, as were so
many other lapses of logic in the charges against Anne.
They
came for Anne on the morning of May 19 to take her to the Tower
Green, where she was to be afforded the dignity of a private
execution. She made a short speech [read
the text of Anne's speech]
before kneeling on the scaffold. She removed her headdress (which was
an English gable hood and not her usual French hood, according to
contemporary reports) and her ladies tied a blindfold over her eyes.
The sword itself had been hidden under the straw. The swordsman cut
off her head with one swift stroke.
Anne's
body and head were put into an arrow chest and buried in an unmarked
grave in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula which adjoined the Tower
Green. Her body was one that was identified in renovations of the
chapel under the reign of Queen Victoria, so Anne's final resting
place is now marked in the marble floor.
Jane
Seymour (died)
Jane
Seymour may have first come to court in the service of Queen
Catherine, but then was moved to wait on Anne Boleyn as she rose in
the King's favor and eventually became his second wife.
In
September 1535, the King stayed at the Seymour family home in
Wiltshire, England. It may have been there that the king "noticed"
Jane. But, it isn't until February of 1536 that there is evidence of
Henry's new love for Jane.
By
that point, Henry's disinterest in Anne was obvious and Jane was
likely pegged to be her replacement as Queen.
Opinion
is divided as to how Jane felt about being the new object of Henry's
affections. Some see Jane's calm and gentle demeanor as evidence that
she didn't really understand the position as political pawn she was
playing for her family. Others see it as a mask for her fear. Seeing
how Henry's two previous Queens had been treated once they fell from
favor, Jane probably had some trepidation, although Anne Boleyn's
final fate had not been sealed at that time.
One
other view was that Jane fell into her role quite willingly and
actively sought to entice the King and flaunt her favor even in front
of the current Queen.
However
Jane actually felt, we will never know. Henry's feelings were pretty
clear though. Within 24 hours of Anne Boleyn's execution, Jane
Seymour and Henry VIII were formally betrothed. On the 30th of May,
they were married. Unlike Henry's previous two Queens, Jane never had
a coronation. Perhaps the King was waiting forJane to 'prove' herself
by giving him a son.
It
wasn't until early 1537 that Jane became pregnant. During her
pregnancy, Jane's every whim was indulged by the King, convinced that
Jane, whom he felt to be his first 'true wife', carried his long
hoped for son. In October, a prince was born at Hampton Court Palace
and was christened on 15th of October. The baby was named Edward.
Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, was godmother and Elizabeth,
daughter of Anne Boleyn, also played a role in the ceremony.
Finally! A son. |
There
has been much written over whether or not Jane gave birth to Edward
by cesarean section. It seems unlikely that if she had, she would
have lived as long as she did after the birth. Jane attended her
son's christening, although she was weak. She died on October 24th,
just two weeks after her son was born.
Henry
had already been preparing his own tomb at St. George's Chapel at
Windsor Castle, which was where Jane was buried. In the end, she
would be the only of Henry's six wives to be buried with him.
Anne
of Cleves (divorced)
Hans Holbein did a great job painting Anne. Because in real life, she was not this pretty. In fact, Henry VIII said she looked like a horse. |
Henry
VIII remained single for over two years after Jane Seymour's death,
possibly giving some credence to the thought that he genuinely
mourned for her. However, it does seem that someone, possibly Thomas
Cromwell, began making inquiries shortly after Jane's death about a
possible foreign bride for Henry.
Henry's
first marriage had been a foreign alliance of sorts, although it is
almost certain that the two were truly in love for some time. His
next two brides were love matches and Henry could have had little or
no monetary or political gain from them.
But
the events of the split from Rome left England isolated, and probably
vulnerable. It was these circumstances that led Henry and his
ministers to look at the possibility of a bride to secure an
alliance. Henry did also want to be sure he was getting a desirable
bride, so he had agents in foreign courts report to him on the
appearance and other qualities of various candidates. He also sent
painters to bring him images of these women.
Hans
Holbein, probably the most famous of the Tudor court painters, was
sent to the court of the Duke of Cleves, who had two sisters: Amelia
and Anne. When Holbein went in 1539, Cleves was seen as an important
potential ally in the event France and the Holy Roman Empire (who had
somewhat made a truce in their long history of conflict) decided to
move against the countries who had thrown off the Papal authority.
England then sought alliances with countries who had been supporting
the reformation of the church. Holbein painted the sisters of the
Duke of Cleves and Henry decided to have a contract drawn up for his
marriage to Anne.
Although
the King of France and the Emperor had gone back to their usual state
of animosity, Henry proceeded with the match. The marriage took place
on January 6, 1540. By then, Henry was already looking for ways to
get out of the marriage.
Anne
was ill-suited for life at the English court. Her upbringing in
Cleves had concentrated on domestic skills and not the music and
literature so popular at Henry's court. And, most famously, Henry did
not find his new bride the least bit attractive and is said to have
called her a 'Flanders Mare'. In addition to his personal feelings
for wanting to end the marriage, there were now political ones as
well. Tension between the Duke of Cleves and the Empire was
increasing towards war and Henry had no desire to become involved.
Last but not least, at some point, Henry had become attracted to
young Kathryn Howard.
Anne
was probably smart enough to know that she would only be making
trouble for herself if she raised any obstacles to Henry's attempts
to annul the marriage so the marriage was dissolved and Anne accepted
the honorary title as the 'King's Sister'. She was given property,
including Hever Castle, formerly the home of Anne Boleyn.
Anne
lived away from court quietly in the countryside until 1557 and
attended the coronation of her former step-daughter, Mary I.
She
is buried in a somewhat hard to find tomb in Westminster Abbey.
Kathryn
Howard (beheaded)
Kathryn
Howard was the daughter of Lord Edmund Howard, a younger brother of
Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. She was also first cousin to Anne
Boleyn, Henry's ill-fated second Queen.
Kathryn
came to court at about the age of 19 as a lady in waiting to Anne of
Cleves and there is no doubt that the spirited young girl caught
Henry's attentions. Kathryn's uncle probably encouraged the girl to
respond to the King's attentions and saw it as a way to increase his
own influence over the monarch. The Duke of Norfolk also took
advantage of the debacle of the Anne of Cleves marriage as a chance
to discredit his enemy, Thomas Cromwell. In fact, Cromwell was
executed shortly after the marriage was nullified.
Sixteen
days after he was free of Anne, Henry took his fifth wife, Kathryn
Howard, on July 28, 1540. Henry was 49 and his bride was no older
than 19.
For
all that can be said against this match, Kathryn did manage to lift
the King's spirits. Henry had gained a lot of weight and was dealing
with the ulcerated leg that was to pain him until his death. The
vivacious young girl brought back some of Henry's zest for life. The
King lavished gifts on his young wife and called her his 'rose
without a thorn' and the 'very jewel of womanhood'.
Less
than a year into Kathryn's marriage, the rumors of her infidelity
began. In a way, one couldn't blame her for seeking the company of
handsome young men closer to her own age. But to do so, even if only
in courtly flirtations, was dangerous for a Queen, especially one who
came from a powerful family with many enemies. Kathryn didn't help
matters much by appointing one of her admirers as her personal
secretary.
By
November 1541, there was enough evidence against the Queen that
Archbishop Cranmer informed the King of Kathryn's misconduct. At
first Henry did not believe the accusations, but he agreed to allow
further investigations into the matter. Enough evidence was gathered
that the Queen had been promiscuous before her marriage and may have
had liaisons after becoming Henry's wife. She was executed on the
Tower Green on February 13, 1542 and laid to rest near her cousin
Anne Boleyn in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of
London.
Katherine
Parr (survived)
Katherine
Parr was the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Parr and his wife Maud
Green, both of whom were at the court of Henry
VIII in
his early reign. Maud was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine
of Aragon and
named her daughter, born in 1512, after her. So, Henry VIII’s last
wife was named after his first.
Katherine
Parr’s first marriage was to Edward Borough, the son of Thomas,
third Baron Borough of Gainsborough in 1529 when she was 17 years
old. Edward died only a few years later, probably in early 1533. It
was during this marriage that Katherine’s mother Maud died, in
December 1531. Katherine’s second marriage was to John Neville,
third Baron Latimer of Snape Castle in Yorkshire, whom she married in
the summer of 1534 when he was 41 and she was 22. But he got sick
also and died in March 1543, leaving her a widow for the second time,
now at the age of 31. It was around this time that Katherine was
noticed by not only the King, but also Thomas
Seymour,
brother of the late Queen Jane
Seymour.
Katherine expressed her desire to marry Thomas Seymour after
Latimer’s death, but the King’s request for her hand was one that
Katherine felt it was her duty to accept. Katherine and Henry VIII
were married on July 12th in the Queen’s closet at Hampton
Court Palace in
a small ceremony attended by about 20 people.
Katherine
was interested in the reformed faith, making her enemies with the
conservatives of Henry’s court. It was Katherine’s influence with
the King and the Henry’s failing health that led to a plot against
her in 1546 by the conservative faction. Katherine and her ladies
were known to have had banned books which was grounds for arrest and
execution on charges of heresy. To gain evidence against the
Queen,Anne
Askew,
a well-known and active Protestant, was questioned and tortured, but
refused to recant her faith or give evidence against Katherine and
her ladies. However, there was enough other evidence against the
Queen to issue a warrant for her arrest. The warrant was accidentally
dropped and someone loyal to the Queen saw it and then quickly told
her about it. This is a well-documented incident that has made its
way into many historical fiction accounts. Sometimes the history
itself is the best drama! After learning of the arrest warrant,
Katherine was said to be very ill, either as a ruse to stall or from
a genuine panic attack. Henry went to see her and chastised her for
her outspokenness about the reformed religion and his feeling that
she was forgetting her place by instructing him on such matters.
Katherine’s response in her defense was that she was only arguing
with him on these issues so she could be instructed by him, and to
take his mind off other troubles. Playing to Henry’s ego no doubt
helped and Katherine was forgiven.
Katherine
was close with all three of her stepchildren as Henry’s wife and
was personally involved in the educational program of the younger
two, Elizabeth and Edward.
She was also a patron of the arts and music. Katherine’s own
learning and academic achievements, as alluded to previously, were
impressive, and in 1545, her book “Prayers or Meditations” became
the first work published by an English Queen under her own name.
Another book, “The Lamentation of a Sinner”, was published after
Henry VIII’s death.
Henry
VIII died in January 1547 and Katherine had probably expected to play
some role in the regency for the new nine-year-old king, Edward VI,
but this was not to be. Only a few months after Henry’s death,
Katherine secretly married Thomas Seymour, but the quickness and
secret nature of the union caused a scandal. Katherine was still able
to take guardianship of Princess Elizabeth and Seymour purchased the
wardship of the king’s cousin, Lady
Jane Grey.
After
three previous marriages and at the age of 36, Katherine was pregnant
for the first time and in June 1548, she moved to Sudeley
Castle in
Gloucestershire to await the birth of her child. On August 30th she
gave birth to a daughter named Mary. Katherine soon fell ill with
puerperal fever, which was to claim her life in the morning hours of
September 5th. Katherine was buried, with Lady Jane Grey as the chief
mourner, in the chapel at Sudeley Castle, where the tomb can still be
visited today.
**This information was found at ... http://tudorhistory.org/wives/
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