19
May
19 MAY 1536
Execution of Anne Boleyn, just 19 weeks after the death of Henry VIII’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon.
Tags: Tudors
Death of Alice Chaucer, duchess of Suffolk. She is buried in St Mary’s Church Ewelme. Her tomb (pictured left) shows her wearing the Garter insignia on her left forearm. The tomb is remarkable: Alice’s effigy rests on an alabaster tomb chest, with a cadaver effigy below.
Alice had been married as a child to Sir John Phelip, who died when she was only 11 years old. After 1421 she married Thomas Montagu, earl of Salisbury. After his death in 1438, she married in November 1430 William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk.
Source: ODNB on Alice Chaucer, duchess of Suffolk
More on St Mary’s Church and the foundation of William and Alice de la Pole in Ewelme here.
Photograph of the tomb of Alice Chaucer by the present author.
Dorothea Preis
Tags: de la Pole, Oxfordshire
Nave of St Mary de Castro (© D Preis)
Richard Duke of York Knighted
On Whitsunday, 19 May 1426, Henry VI was knighted in St Mary de Castro, Leicester, by his uncle, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford. Then the only four-year-Richard, Duke of York, old Henry knighted 44 others, foremost among them Richard, duke of York (father of Edward IV and Richard III).
Source:
William Arthur Shaw, The Knights of England. Vol.1. Sherratt and Hughes, London, 1906, pp.130-132
Dorothea Preis
Tags: Henry VI, Leicester, Richard Duke of York
18
May
18 MAY 1497
Death of Katherine Woodville, sister of Elizabeth Woodville. She was first married to Henry Stafford, second duke of Buckingham. Her second husband was Jasper Tudor. Her marriage to her third husband, Richard Wingfield, in 1496 was not licenced by the king and her eldest son had to pay her fine after her death. Wingfield requested in his will of 1525 masses for Katherine’s soul. According to the ODNB, Jasper Tudor had not mention her at all in his will, but this is incorrect.
Source: ODNB on Henry Stafford, Henry, second duke of Buckingham
Tags: Woodville Family
18
May
18 MAY 1471
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, named Great Chamberlain and Lord High Admiral of England by his brother Edward IV.
Tags: Richard III
18
May
18 MAY 1152
Marriage of Henry II, the first Plantagenet king, and Eleanor of Aquitaine
(Photograph of the tomb of Henry II and Eleanor in Fontevraud Abbey taken by Lainestl; obtained through Wikimedia Commons)
Tags: Family
17
May
17 MAY 1443
Birth of Edmund, Earl of Rutland, in Rouen, Normandy. Fifth child and second surviving son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and Cecily Neville. He died with his father in the Battle of Wakefield, 30 December 1460.
Tags: Family, Richard Duke of York
15
May
15 MAY 1464
Battle of Hexham, Northumberland, the end of Lancastrian resistance (under Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset) to Edward IV in the north of England. The Yorkists were led by John Neville (later 1st Marquess of Montagu) and Somerset was wounded and then executed. Henry VI fled and was later found wandering helplessly around Lancashire.
Tags: Battles
10
May
10 MAY 1483
Order to Sir Edward Woodville (brother of Elizabeth Woodville) to disband the fleet. The Marquess of Dorset (Elizabeth Woodville’s son from her 1st marriage) had immediately after Edward IV’s death arranged to appoint Sir Edward Woodville as commander of the fleet. The king’s treasure was divided between the queen, Dorset and Edward Woodville. This was possible as the Treasurer of England, Earl Essex, had died just 5 days before Edward IV on 4 April 1483. Richard now promised a pardon to all involved, and all but two ships returned to England. Woodville, however, fled with the treasure to Brittany and Henry Tudor.
Tags: Woodville Family
10
May
10 MAY 1403
Death of Katherine de Roet, first mistress and later third wife of John of Gaunt.
Katherine was probably born in 1350, the daughter of Sir Payn Roet, a knight from Hainault who came to England with Philippa, Edward III’s queen. She married in 1365 Sir Hugh Swynford.
In 1368 she became governess to the children of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, after the death of his wife Blanche. It is not sure, when exactly she became John of Gaunt’s mistress, but between 1373 and 1377 they had four children.
Following the death of John of Gaunt’s second wife, they married in Lincoln Cathedral in January 1396, where she is also buried.
She is the title character of Anya Seton’s novel Katherine.
Tags: John of Gaunt
