• Elizabeth Barton – The Holy Maid of Kent

    Figuring out what you believe is difficult in the best of times, but it was a hundred times worse at the court of Henry VIII. The king’s beliefs swung with the wind and whoever was standing next to him at the time. Like most kings, Henry did not take to disagreement, and in Henry’s case this was doubly true. In the 16th century, reformation was sweeping the continent and many thinkers were coming to question the Catholic Church. They either wanted to reform the Church or break completely from it, depending on who you talked to. Henry was staunchly against this, until it fit with his own plans. The gentry…

  • Maria de Salinas-   Best friend of the Queen

    We all hope for a friend who will stick with us to the very end.  Catherine of Aragon did not have much luck in her life, but she was lucky enough to have a friend who was loyal through the best and worst of times.  Maria de Salinas Willoughby proved to be a selfless and true confidant to the unlucky queen, and a better friend than most of us could ever hope to have or be. Maria de Salinas was sent from Spain as a lady in waiting Princess Catherine, after she had been widowed.  This was a second wave of Spanish attendants sent to England as a pledge of…

  • Margaret Tudor- Part II – Madcap Marriages

    So when we last left Margaret, she was in a pickle.  Her sister-in-law, Catherine of Aragon, just led an army, which killed her husband and made her infant son James V.  She was allowed to be his regent per her husband’s will as long as she did not remarry.  Margaret was not a popular choice for regent.  She was the sister of Henry VIII, whose armies under his wife had decimated the Scottish forces.  She was also a reminder of the attempt to patch things over with England, and its failure and the return of Scotland to the Auld Alliance with France, England’s enemy.  It was a precarious situation at…

  • Margaret Tudor- Part I- The Sacrificial Lamb

    When people think of the Tudors, the first monarch that comes to mind is Henry VIII and then his many wives and children.  Even his sister Mary comes to mind more quickly than his older sister Margaret.    However, she played an important role in Tudor history. Margaret was born November 28, 1489 and was the second child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.  She was named after her formidable grandmother, Margaret Beaufort.  She raised with her royal brothers and sister at the palace of Eltham, and learned skills that would befit her future role as a queen consort.  This included learning to play the lute and clavichord and some…

  • Sir John Harington

    In my “historic towns” series, I discussed the village of Exton in Rutland, and one of its key historical figures, John Harington, 1st Baron of Exton, favourite of James I of England and guardian of Elizabeth of Bohemia. Just because of the link, I decided to expand and write about Harington’s contemporary and relative, the ‘other’ Sir John Harington. John Harington, writer, was born in Somerset at the family seat in Kelston, around 1560. Although the date is unconfirmed, he was baptised in London on August 4th that year. His parents were poet John Harington Sr and his second wife Isabella Markham who was one of the ladies of Elizabeth…