Kings

Tudor Rivals: The Scorned Rose and England’s Precious Jewel

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Guest article by Anthony Ruggiero  The Tudor Dynasty of England, spanning from the late fifteenth century into the early seventeenth century, was a fascinating drama, filled with intrigue, lust and murder. The dynasty’s monarchs were its main characters whose relationships impacted the country socially, economically and politically. Such relationships included Queen Mary I and King Edward VI. Mary Tudor, the daughter of King Henry VIII and his first wife, ruled over [More]

The Other Seymours: Sir Henry Seymour

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The most recognizable Seymours at the court of Henry VIII were: Edward, Thomas, and Jane Seymour. Other than Elizabeth Seymour, who married Gregory, the son of Thomas Cromwell, there was another Seymour brother who occasionally spent time at court and is often overlooked, his name was Henry. Not to mention their youngest sister, Dorothy. But today we are going to look at Henry, in particular. Henry Seymour was older than Thomas yet younger than Edward, and while Henry did [More]

Coat of Arms, Badge and Signature of the Six Tudor Queens

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      Katherine of Aragon         Anne Boleyn           Jane Seymour           Anne of Cleves             Katheryn Howard           Kateryn [More]

Jane Seymour Character Study (Guest Post)

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Jane Seymour Character Study Guest Post by Hunter S. Jones When I began thinking of what I could write about the Tudor era. I wanted to write a story unlike anything I had ever read before. The artistic seed was there, but what would trigger the growth of a concept which led to Phoenix Rising? Let’s examine Jane Seymour. What do we know of Jane Seymour, really know of her? She was the daughter of Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth. Jane was the oldest daughter o [More]

Hugh Latimer’s Slander of a Dead Man

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This post was originally made on my Thomas Seymour Society blog. I recently picked up The Reign of Edward VI by James Anthony Froude and started looking for information on Thomas Seymour. It was while searching that I came across some new information. On page 77, in the section of the book about the Protectorate, I found this line: the admiral had seduced and deserted at least one innocent woman, who fell into crime and was executed. The source for this statement is [More]

The Life of Edward VI of England (Part Three)

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Prince Edward was the long-awaited, and much celebrated, son of Henry VIII. He is arguably the least talked about of all the Tudor monarchs. We know him as King Edward VI. In case you missed the first two parts you can find them here. As we continue on our journey to tell the story of King Edward VI life, we will start at the time of the execution of his uncle, Sir Thomas, Baron Seymour of Sudeley and Lord High Admiral. Thomas Seymour was placed in the Tower [More]

The Life of Edward VI of England (Part Two)

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This is Part Two in my series on the life of King Edward VI. If you missed Part One, click Here. If you would prefer to listen to this article instead of reading it, you can do so by clicking this image that will bring you to my podcast: King Henry VIII It was at Westminster that King Henry VIII took his last breath. He had reigned in England since his father’s death in April 1509. When he came to the throne he was a young, athletic and by al [More]

The Life of King Edward VI of England (Part One)

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As only the second Tudor king, Henry VIII was troubled through most of his reign by the lack of a male heir. He had sons but they never survived infancy - until the birth of his son Edward, Prince of Wales. It took three marriages and countless pregnancies, miscarriages, stillbirths and deaths before the King got what he so desired. A son. Jane Seymour was the mother of Prince Edward but sadly lost her life after a long and arduous labor. There are debates on whether she [More]

The Procession for the Christening of Edward, Prince of Wales

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The crying of a newborn babe echoed through the bedchamber where Queen Jane had finally given birth to the new Prince of Wales, Edward Tudor. King Henry VIII and his daughters Mary and Elizabeth's lives would change forever because of that crying baby boy - and it would shorten the Queen's. The Monday following the birth of Prince Edward a grand display of succession was displayed when a glamorous christening ceremony was held for the new heir to the English [More]

To Protect Thyself and Thy King

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When the Lord Protector, Thomas Seymour's brother Edward, Duke of Somerset was off fighting the Battle of Pinkie in Scotland in 1547, Thomas used his time wisely by gaining friends and support from the King's inner circle of servants and privy chamber members. Thomas, as the Lord High Admiral of England, should have been in Scotland as well, but he had stayed in London to allegedly intrigue against Somerset. If I recall he feigned illness. This would not be the last time [More]

Most Influential Tudor Women: Margaret Beaufort

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On my Facebook page called, Tudors Dynasty, I asked my followers who they believed to be the most influential women of the Tudor era. It is because of this poll that I decided to turn this into a series of episodes about some amazing Tudor women. Before I start, let's understand what influential truly means. The Definition of Influential is: having great influence on someone or something. Now that we know the definition of the word, does that change our ideas about [More]

Understanding the Man: Henry VIII (Part One)

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As many of you may already know, King Henry VIII is my favorite monarch of the Tudor dynasty. If it wasn't for his reign I do not believe the Tudors would be as popular as they are today. With the creation of Showtime's THE TUDORS, many of us were aware of the name Henry VIII but really didn't know much about him. In the show we were able to see that there was more to the man than the execution of two of his six wives. While I understand that THE TUDORS tv program had a [More]

The Regency Council of Edward VI

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As Henry VIII lay dying in his bedchamber in January 1547, Edward Seymour and William Paget were whispering in the gallery outside his chamber door at Westminster plotting the future. We know this is true because later Paget calls out Edward Seymour on following through on what they had discussed in the gallery that day in a later letter - the letter is also a warning to his close friend. At the point of this letter, Thomas Seymour was already dead (20 March 1549) and things [More]

The Life of Lady Jane Grey (Part Three)

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We ended Part Two of the series with the death of Edward VI on the 6th of July 1553. In this, the final article in the series, we will observe the short reign (13 days, not 9) of Queen Jane and discuss her execution. If you'd prefer to listen to me discuss the topic you can do so here: Heir to the Throne On the 21st of June 1553, the Letters Patent was signed by 102 noblemen, London aldermen, bishops, archbishops and councillors - this was pretty much every [More]

The Tenth and Eleventh Love Letters from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn (Guest Post)

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  The Tenth Love Letter from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn Guest post by Heather R Darsie Henry VIII wrote this letter in June 1528 to his beloved Anne Boleyn during an outbreak of the sweating sickness, showing his characteristic nervousness about Anne. It is unknown whether this letter truly does follow the previous, although it seems that this letter came before the one the author understands to be the ninth letter. In the ninth letter, Anne is already ill. In thi [More]