Category: 16th Century history

Art, Fashion and Material Culture, 16th Century history, Elizabeth I, The First Elizabethan Age, Tudor

When tinsel was only for the rich: dressing to impress in early modern England

Wondering what to wear to a Christmas or New Year party? Deciding how to look one’s best can be a dilemma – but at least our fashion choices aren’t dictated by Acts of Parliament. In Tudor and Jacobean times it was a different story, as Dr Paul Hunneyball of our Lords 1558-1603 section explains… In 21st-century Britain, clothes are seen as a means of expressing … Continue reading When tinsel was only for the rich: dressing to impress in early modern England

Paul HunneyballLeave a comment
18th Century history, 16th Century history, 17th Century history, Georgian, Oliver Cromwell, Stuart, Tudor

The Last of the Cromwells

The current BBC production of Wolf Hall: the Mirror and the Light, the last of Hilary Mantel’s novels charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, is a reminder that Cromwell’s dynasty did not end with him on the block. In this post, Dr Robin Eagles considers the careers of some of the direct heirs and how Cromwell’s descendant, Elizabeth, attended the coronation of Queen … Continue reading The Last of the Cromwells

Robin Eagles1 Comment
The First Elizabethan Age, 16th Century history, 17th Century history, Diplomacy and International Relations, Elizabeth I, Religious history, Tudor

Richard Bancroft and the English mission to Emden, 1600

Richard Bancroft is well known to students of late Elizabethan and Jacobean England. A relentless enemy to nonconformist puritans, Bancroft served first as bishop of London (1597-1604) and then as archbishop of Canterbury (1604-1610). However, towards the end of Elizabeth’s reign this familiar prelate’s ecclesiastical career was briefly interrupted by a little known diplomatic episode, as Dr Andrew Thrush, the editor of our Elizabethan House … Continue reading Richard Bancroft and the English mission to Emden, 1600

Andrew ThrushLeave a comment
The First Elizabethan Age, 16th Century history, Legal history, Tudor

Poison and the Tudor nobility: the De La Warr peerage case

With House of Lords membership once again on the political agenda, Dr Ben Coates of our Lords 1558-1603 section explores how one aristocratic family’s murderous internal struggles played out in Parliament in the sixteenth century… On 26 Feb. 1549 a private bill ‘to dis[in]herit William West, [for] attempting to poison’ his uncle Thomas West, 9th Lord De La Warr, received a first reading in the … Continue reading Poison and the Tudor nobility: the De La Warr peerage case

Ben CoatesLeave a comment
The First Elizabethan Age, 16th Century history, Elections, Factions, Legal history, Tudor

Winchester v. Winchester: rivalries and election-rigging in 1560s Hampshire

Whatever the outcome of a modern election, the process of voting is predictable, reliable, and well-understood. However, in the sixteenth century, the picture was a lot more complicated, and sometimes corrupt, as Dr Paul Hunneyball of our Elizabethan Lords section explains… Hampshire in the 1560s was a divided community. Despite the Elizabethan religious settlement of 1559, there was still a sizeable Catholic population in the … Continue reading Winchester v. Winchester: rivalries and election-rigging in 1560s Hampshire

Paul HunneyballLeave a comment
The First Elizabethan Age, 16th Century history, Military history, Tudor

A prisoner in the Lords: the curious case of William Grey, 13th Lord Grey of Wilton

The first Elizabethan Parliament (1559) famously witnessed the restoration of the royal supremacy and paved the way for the reintroduction of Protestantism. It also saw the House of Lords briefly become the main focus of parliamentary opposition to royal policy, a radical departure. However, this Parliament boasts another unusual feature, as Dr Andrew Thrush, the editor of our Elizabethan House of Lords section, explains… It … Continue reading A prisoner in the Lords: the curious case of William Grey, 13th Lord Grey of Wilton

Andrew Thrush2 Comments
The First Elizabethan Age, 16th Century history, Elizabeth I, Tudor, Women and Parliament

Elizabeth I’s Swedish lady of the privy chamber: Helena Ulfsdotter née Snakenborg, marchioness of Northampton

As we mark Women’s History Month throughout March, here Dr Andrew Thrush, editor of our Lords 1558-1603 project, looks into the life of Helena Snakenborg. How did this Swedish native become key figure in the court of Elizabeth I? One of the most striking features of Queen Elizabeth I’s funeral, held on 28 April 1603, is that the place of Chief Mourner in the procession … Continue reading Elizabeth I’s Swedish lady of the privy chamber: Helena Ulfsdotter née Snakenborg, marchioness of Northampton

Andrew ThrushLeave a comment
The First Elizabethan Age, 16th Century history, Tudor

‘So far out of order’: the scandalous career of Henry, 2nd Viscount Howard of Bindon

Elizabethan noblemen enjoyed enormous privileges, but generally recognized that there were limits to their freedom of action. However, one particular peer confounded his contemporaries with his convention-busting behaviour, as Dr Paul Hunneyball of our Lords 1558-1603 section explains… ‘Although he doth many times go apparelled like a nobleman, yet other times he useth such apparel as the poorest man in London can go no worse…; … Continue reading ‘So far out of order’: the scandalous career of Henry, 2nd Viscount Howard of Bindon

Paul HunneyballLeave a comment
The First Elizabethan Age, 16th Century history, Elizabeth I, Tudor

The man who would be king (-consort): Henry Fitzalan, earl of Arundel

Many of the leading figures at the Elizabethan court, like the queen’s chief minister, William Cecil, Lord Burghley and the royal favourite Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, need no introduction. However, there were many other prominent men at the Elizabethan court, some of whom remain obscure even to Elizabethan historians. In the following blog, Dr Andrew Thrush, the editor of our House of Lords 1558-1603 … Continue reading The man who would be king (-consort): Henry Fitzalan, earl of Arundel

Andrew ThrushLeave a comment
The First Elizabethan Age, 16th Century history, Buildings and Architecture, Tudor

Bishop Jewel and the lost archdeaconry

Many Elizabethan bills which failed to become Acts of Parliament don’t now survive, and little is known about them except their titles. But two lost bills to annex Dorset to the diocese of Salisbury shed new light on one of Reformation England’s most bizarre sagas. Dr Paul Hunneyball of our Lords 1558-1603 section explains… Medieval English dioceses varied considerably in size, some being much bigger … Continue reading Bishop Jewel and the lost archdeaconry

Paul HunneyballLeave a comment