On This Day in Tudor History Quotes

“On 17th January 1569, Agnes Bowker of Market Harborough, Leicestershire, allegedly gave birth to a cat. According to the midwife, Elizabeth Harrison, Agnes had told her of how "the likeness of a bear, sometimes like a dog, sometimes like a man" had carnal knowledge of her in its various guises. Harrison went on to describe how Agnes gave birth to the cat, "the hinder part coming first". The other six women who were present at the birth were questioned, but none seemed very sure of what had happened. One Margaret Harrison said "that she was at the birth of the monster with her child in her arms,”
― Claire Ridgway, On This Day in Tudor History

“it came wi a lass, it'll gang wi a lass" ("it came with a lass, it will end with a lass") as he lay dying, referring to how the Stuart dynasty began with a girl, through Marjorie Bruce, Robert the Bruce's daughter, and how he feared it would now end with his daughter, Mary. However, the Stuart dynasty actually ended with another girl, Queen Anne, in 1714,”
― Claire Ridgway, On This Day in Tudor History

“Mary was tried for treason in October 1586 and found guilty. Parliament and Elizabeth's Privy Council put pressure on Elizabeth to execute Mary, but Elizabeth was unwilling to sign the death warrant of a fellow sovereign, who she believed to be appointed by God, and also a woman with Tudor blood. Elizabeth finally signed Mary's death warrant on the 1st February 1587 and it was delivered, without the Queen's knowledge to Fotheringhay, where the sentence was carried out on the 8th February 1587.”
― Claire Ridgway, On This Day in Tudor History

“Did I not tell you that whenever you disputed with the Queen she was sure to have the upper hand? I see that some fine morning you will succumb to her reasoning, and that you will cast me off. I have been waiting long, and might in the meanwhile have contracted some advantageous marriage, out of which I might have had issue, which is the greatest consolation in this world; but alas! farewell to my time and youth spent to no purpose at all.”
― Claire Ridgway, On This Day in Tudor History

“should not the Pope, in conformity with the above opinions so expressed, declare their marriage null and void, then in that case he (the King) would denounce the Pope as a heretic, and marry whom he pleased.”
― Claire Ridgway, On This Day in Tudor History

“Francisca de Cáceres, who was in charge of dressing and undressing the queen and whom she liked and confided in a lot, was looking sad and telling the other ladies that nothing had passed between Prince Arthur and his wife, which surprised everyone and made them laugh at him." English witnesses, however, tell of Arthur demanding ale the next morning "for I have been this night in the midst of Spain!”
― Claire Ridgway, On This Day in Tudor History

“I was so desierous to be taken unto your gracez favor and so blynded with the desier of wordly glorie that I cowde not nor had grace to considre how grett a fawte it was to conceyle my former fawtz from your majestic consideryng that I entended ever duryng my lyfe to be feithful and true unto your majestie after, and neverthlesse the sorowe of my oflensez was ever before myn eyez consideryng the infynyte goodnez of your majestye towardes me from tyme to tyme ever encressyng and not dymynysshyng. Nowe I referre the judgement of all myn offensez with my lyff and dethe holly unto your most benygne and mercjrfull grace to be considered by no justice of your majestiez lawez but onely by your infynyte goodnez pytie compassion and mercye without the whiche I knowledge myseliff worthy of most extreme punnysshement. — Kateryn Howard”
― Claire Ridgway, On This Day in Tudor History

“This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases and miseries". After his execution, Ralegh's wife, Elizabeth (née Throckmorton), took his head and kept it at her side in a red leather bag until her death.”
― Claire Ridgway, On This Day in Tudor History

“1555 – Burning of Protestant martyr, clergyman and Biblical editor, John Rogers, at Smithfield. Rogers was the first England Protestant burned in Mary I's reign after being condemned as a heretic. Rogers refused the chance of a last minute pardon if he recanted, and died bravely. His wife and eleven children, one being newborn and at the breast, attended his burning. Martyrologist John Foxe recorded that Rogers "constantly and cheerfully took his death with wonderful patience, in the defence and quarrel of the Gospel of Christ.”
― Claire Ridgway, On This Day in Tudor History