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

On 3 February 1576 Henri, King of Navarre, escaped from Paris after having been held by Catholic forces since his marriage to Marguerite de Valois, sister of Henri III of France, in 1572. The marriage had been the occasion of the terrible Massacre of St Bartholomew, during which Henri only avoided death after converting to Catholicism. As soon as he was free, he renounced his conversion and joined the Protestant forces hoping to defeat the fanatical Catholic League. Read more about Henri in a Guest Article by Dominic Pearce here

On 2nd February 1550 Sir Francis Bryan died. Sir Francis was a close companion of Henry VIII and a noted jouster in his youth, even losing an eye in a tournament. In the 1520s, he was a supporter of Henry’s annulment, and, as a half-cousin of Anne Boleyn, he was restored to the Privy Chamber, whence he had been banished with a number of others as a bad influence on the young king. Despite this, Sir Francis was keen to promote another cousin, Jane Seymour, and worked with Cromwell for Anne’s downfall. Unlike many of his friends, Bryan escaped implication in the Exeter Conspiracy, and held high office for the remainder of Henry VIII’s reign. In 1548, he married the widowed Lady Joan FitzGerald, Dowager Countess of Ormond, and was appointed as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.

On 1 February 1554, Mary I rode into the City of London to make a speech at the Guildhall to inspire her capital city to support her in the face of a rebel army marching towards Southwark. Sir Thomas Wyatt (son of the poet who had been the admirer of Anne Boleyn) had, together with Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, begun a rebellion, allegedly to protest against Mary’s plan to marry Philip of Spain. It was apparent that Suffolk, at least, was hoping to replace Mary with his daughter, Lady Jane Grey, who had been proclaimed Queen the previous summer, and Wyatt may have been hoping to put Elizabeth, the Queen’s sister, on the throne.

Mary made an inspiring speech ending with the words ‘And now good Subiects, pluck up your hearts, and like true men, stand fast against these rebels, both our enemies and yours, and fear them not: for I assure you, I fear them nothing at all.’ The Queen was cheered to the rafters, and the city militia overcame the rebels.

Picture of Mary I is by Hans Eworth