Ruins of Sopwell Nunnery, St Albans (© D Preis)
On 25 January 1533, Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn in secret, possibly at Sopwell Nunnery in St Albans. This is suggested among others on the blog The Tangible Past.
Henry was very much attracted by Anne’s charm and wit. To be able to marry her, Henry wanted to divorce his first wife Katherine of Aragon, to whom he had been married for 24 years. This meant he also had to break with the Church of Rome, who did not accept his reasons for a divorce. Their marriage was only annulled on 23 May 1533, when Thomas Cranmer declared it null and void. On 28 May 1533 he declared the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn valid.
However, as Anne did not produce the looked-for male heir, after approx. 1000 days of marriage, Henry ordered Anne’s execution.
You might find Suzannah Lipscomb‘s article on this marriage of interest.
Effigies of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault
On 24 January 1328, Edward III married Philippa of Hainault at York Minster. Their marriage lasted 40 years until Philippa died in 1369. They had twelve children and through them were the ancestors of both the House of York and the House of Lancaster as well as the Tudor line.
Find out more about this marriage from Anne O’Brien’s blog ‘Royal newly-weds 14th century style‘.
Westminster Hall in the early 19th century
The meeting of Richard III’s only parliament at Westminster in the presence of the King began on 23 January 1484. It had been summoned on 9 December 1483 and would be dissolved on 20 February 1484.
Attending were 37 Lords and 10 Judges (including the Attorney General) as well as 296 members of the Commons. It was opened by a speech from Chancellor Russel. This parliament ratified Richard’s title by Titulus Regius. The rebels from the October 1483 rebellion were attainted.
Of interest are the 15 public statutes of this parliament, which included ending benevolences, protecting land purchase rights, reforming the justice system, preventing commercial dishonesty in the cloth trade, protecting English merchants, and preventing fraudulent collection practices. However, while trying to limit the activities of foreign merchants in England, the statutes included a proviso, exempting all merchants and craftsmen concerned in the book trade from the scope of the Act.
Richard’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Catesby was chosen to be the speaker of the Commons; and the receiver of petitions was Thomas Barowe, who had been in Richard’s service since at least 1471, who was also Master of the Rolls.
Christopher Puplick, ‘He Contents the People Wherever He Goes: Richard III, his parliament and government’, The Chronicles of the White Rose: Journal of the New South Wales Branch of the Richard III Society, Vol.2 (2008/09), pp.14-32 (last accessed online 2 Jan. 2020)
Anne Sutton, ‘Richards III’s Parliament’, Richard III Society. URL: http://www.richardiii.net/2_3_0_riii_leadership.php#parliament (last accessed 2 Jan. 2020)
Susan L. Troxell, ‘The Tenth Coin: Richard III’s Parliament and Public Statutes’, Ricardian Register, Vol.44, No.4 (December 2013), pp.8-16 (last accessed online 2 Jan. 2020)
Dorothea Preis
Henry VII (portrait at National Portrait Gallery, London)
On 18 January 1486, Henry VII (Tudor) married Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. It seems Henry needed to be urged by Parliament to make good his promise to marry Elizabeth, before actually doing so. Plans for Elizabeth’s coronation were only made in September 1487 and she was finally crowned on 25 November 1487, more than a year after giving birth to their first son, Arthur.
Elizabeth died on 11 February 1503 at Richmond Palace. Henry died six years later, on 21 April 1509, also at Richmond Palace. They are buried next to each other in Westminster Abbey.
Reference: Rosemary Horrox, ‘Elizabeth (1466–1503)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. (online accessed: 27 January 2011)
Marriage of Richard of Shrewsbury and Anne Mowbray, by James Northcote
On 15 January 1478, Edward IV’s younger son Richard of Shrewsbury was married to Anne Mowbray, the only child of John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk (died 17 January 1476) and Elizabeth Talbot (sister of Eleanor Talbot). The wedding took place in St. Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster. The bride was 5 years old, the groom 4. She died on 19 November 1481. Her heirs would normally have been her cousins William, Viscount Berkeley, and John, Lord Howard, but by an act of Parliament in January 1483 the rights were given to her husband Richard, with reversion to his descendants, and, failing that, to the descendants of his father Edward IV.
Anne of York and Thomas St Leger (Brass at St George’s Chapel, Windsor)
On 14 January 1476, Anne of York, duchess of Exeter, died soon after childbirth . She was born on 10 August 1439, the second child and eldest surviving daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and Cecily Neville, and a sister of Edward IV and Richard III.
She was first married to Henry Holland, 2nd duke of Exeter, in January 1446, they were divorced on 12 November 1472.
She later married Thomas St Leger and they had a daughter, also Anne. Michael Ibsen, whose DNA was used to determine whether the remains found in Leicester in 2012 were those of Richard III, is descended in an all-female-line from this daughter Anne.
Reference: Michael Hicks, ‘Holland, Henry, second duke of Exeter (1430–1475)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. (accessed online: 27 December 2014)
Anne of Cleves by Hans Holbein the Younger
On 6 January 1540, Henry VIII married Anna von Jülich-Kleve-Berg.
Certainly not one of the happiest marriages in history and it was over in six months time. Henry – of course – blamed Anne entirely as being too unattractive. Though I doubt that by that stage she found him very attractive either. However, she managed to come out of the divorce fairly well provided and with the title of the “King’s Sister”.
My interest in Anne was re-kindled after reading Mavis Cheek’s Amenable Women (this review was also published in the Ricardian Bulletin, June 2010, pp. 28-29).
More information:
Antonia Fraser, The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Phoenix Paperback, UK, 2003. ISBN 978-1-8421-2633-2 (pbk)
Elizabeth Norton, Anne of Cleves: Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride. Amberley Publishing, UK, 2009. ISBN 978-1-84868-329-7
Mary Saaler, Anne of Cleves: Fourth Wife of Henry VIII. The Rubicon Press, UK, 1995. ISBN 0-948695-41-2
Retha M. Warnicke, The Marrying of Anne of Cleves: Royal protocol in early modern England. Cambridge University Press, UK, 2000. ISBN 0-521-77037-8
Online:
Retha M. Warnicke, ‘Anne [Anne of Cleves] (1515–1557)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [last accessed online 2 Jan. 2020]
Various articles on The Anne Boleyn Files, URL: http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/
Fiction:
Margaret Campbell Barnes, My Lady of Cleves. (Originally published in 1946, but there are various later editions)
Mavis Cheek, Amenable Women. Faber and Faber, UK, 2008. ISBN 978-0-571-23953-5
Dorothea Preis
Charles the Bold, by Rogier van der Weyden
On 5 January 1477, Charles the Bold of Burgundy died at a battle while laying siege to Nancy in Lorraine. His heiress was his daughter Mary from his second marriage to Isabella of Bourbon. After her death in 1465, he married on 3 July 1468 Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV and Richard III. Margaret would after his death become Mary’s most constant advisor.
More on Charles the Bold on Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Margaret Beaufort
On 3 January 1462, Margaret Beaufort married Henry Stafford, son of Humphrey, duke of Buckingham.
She had been married as a child to John de la Pole, though the marriage was soon dissolved.
She married in 1455 Edmund Tudor, but he died on 1 November 1456 from the plague. She gave birth to Edmund’s son Henry on 28 January 1457, who would later defeat King Richard III at the battle of Bosworth and take the crown as Henry VII.
Margaret had no further children. However, her marriage to Henry Stafford seems to have been happy. He died on 4 October 1471.
In June 1472 she married Thomas Stanley, surviving him for five years until her own death on 29 June 1509, just two months after her son had died.
Michael K. Jones and Malcolm G. Underwood, ‘Beaufort, Margaret , countess of Richmond and Derby (1443–1509)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [last accessed online 2 Jan 2020]
Michael Jones, ‘Lady Margaret Beaufort’, History Today, Volume 35, Issue 8 (August 1985). URL: http://www.historytoday.com/michael-jones/lady-margaret-beaufort [last accessed 2 Jan. 2020]
Dorothea Preis
Marriage of Henry V and Catherine of Valois
On 3 January 1437, Catherine of Valois, mother of Henry VI, and grandmother of Henry Tudor, died in London. She was buried at Westminster Abbey.
More information on Catherine of Valois here.
