In the mid-1540s, Queen Katherine Parr undertook one of the most ambitious literary and religious projects of the late Henrician period: the translation into English of Desiderius Erasmus’s Paraphrases upon the New Testament. This large-scale…
The Byrth of Mankynde: The First English Treatise on Obstetrics and Its Dedication to Katherine Howard Published in 1540, "The Byrth of Mankynde" (also known as The Woman’s Book) marks a milestone in the history…
Entry into a Royal Household Jane Seymour entered the household of Catherine of Aragon at some point before the final collapse of the queen’s marriage to Henry VIII. The precise date of her appointment is…
A Summer of Royal Absence In the summer of 1520 Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon crossed the Channel to meet Francis I of France at the celebrated Field of the Cloth of Gold. Between…
A King’s Impatience In November 1501, after years of negotiation, repeated delays and careful diplomacy, the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon finally reached English soil. She had landed at Plymouth in early October and made…
The Last Wife of Henry VIII Katherine Parr occupies a distinctive and often underappreciated place among the six wives of Henry VIII. Married to the king in July 1543 at Hampton Court Palace, she became…
A Beaufort Heiress in Turbulent Times Amanda Hale as Margaret in The White Queen. Margaret Beaufort was born on 31 May 1443 at Bletso in Bedfordshire, a manor that belonged to her mother, Margaret Beauchamp…
A young Henry weeping on the empty bed of his dead mother Elizabeth of York. His two sisters Margaret and Mary sit at the foot of the bed. From the Vaux Passional, in the National…
Arrival in a New Land When the fifteen-year-old Catalina of Aragon disembarked at Plymouth in October 1501 after a difficult sea voyage, she stepped into England not only as a diplomatic bride but as a…
A Different Kind of Terror Henry VII (1457-1509), King of England Henry VII is often remembered as a cold, distant and deeply suspicious monarch. Contemporary chroniclers and later historians frequently emphasised his avarice and his…
