Tudor Times is the online repository for all things Tudor and Stewart (1485–1625)

On 5th March 1496 Henry VII gave full licence to the Cabots – Giovanni (better known as John), and his sons Ludovico, Sebastiano and Sancio - to sail to all ports of the eastern, western and northern seas to claim lands on behalf of the English Crown. Cabot, born in Genoa, had travelled extensively in the Mediterranean in his youth, before moving to Bristol, in England. Following Columbus’ discovery of the Americas for Spain in 1492, whilst searching for a western passage to the Indies, Cabot became convinced that a more northerly route would achieve the goal of a faster route to the east than the traditional one around the tip of Africa.

Cabot set sail in early May 1496 in the ‘Matthew’, 50 tons, with 18 crew. After around 50 days of sailing he landed somewhere on the north American coast – possibly Newfoundland, Nova Scotia or Maine, claiming it for England. Not choosing to hang about, Cabot and his men arrived back in England on 6th August, and was granted a pension of £20 by the King, as well as sponsorship for a new voyage in 1498, from which he never returned.

On 4th March 1522, which was Shrove Tuesday, Cardinal Wolsey entertained the King and Court at his palace at York Place. This was part of a series of entertainments given for the Imperial Ambassadors: jousting, banquets, plays and masques. The masque held on the 4th, which was performed by the ladies and gentlemen of the court, featured a fortress, the Chateau Verte, which contained eight beautiful ladies, named Kindness, Beauty, Perseverance, Bounty, Mercy, Pity, Constancy and Honour.

The ladies were held prisoner by another seven, with less attractive characteristics – Danger, Disdain, Jealousy, Unkindness, Scorn, Strangeness and Malbouche (Sharp-Tongue). It was the role of the gentlemen to rescue the fair ones. Unsurprisingly, as the heroes were led by the King himself, they were successful. This was the first recorded appearance of Anne Boleyn at the English court playing the part of Perseverance.

On 3rd March 1528 Margaret, Dowager Queen of Scots, married Henry Stewart, Lord Methven as her third husband, despite the disapproval of her son, James V. Margaret had first been married, aged nearly fourteen in 1503, to James IV of Scotland, in fulfilment of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace between the two countries. Widowed when the king was killed at the Battle of Flodden on 9th September 1513, she had married, to the displeasure of the vast majority of the Scots nobles, her second husband, Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, by whom she had one daughter, Lady Margaret Douglas.The marriage to Angus quickly broke down, and was annulled in 1527. However, her third husband treated her no better than Angus had. The couple were based at Methven Castle.

Picture is of Methven Castle