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

On 15th August 1534, Ignatius de Loyola and six others took vows leading to the formation of the Jesuits. In his youth, de Loyola was an officer in the Spanish Army, badly wounded in 1521 when he was about thirty. During a long period of convalescence, he underwent a religious conversion that took him from ordinary Catholic belief to a dedication to his religion almost unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries. He gave up his previous worldly pleasures and devoted himself to the traditional spiritual practices of extended prayer, fasting, charity and poverty.

His ambition was to convert non-Christians in the Holy Land, but although he travelled there, he was sent back to Spain where he was questioned by the Inquisition because his preaching seemed to be inspiring hysterical, and possibly heretical, reactions.

He then studied at the University of Paris, before he and his friends founded their new religious order, which was characterised by its missionary zeal and the practice of Ignatuis’ ‘Spiritual Exercises’.

On 14th August 1598, the Irish, under the leadership of Hugh O’Neill and his son-in-law and ally Hugh O’Donnell, won an important encounter in the Nine Years’ War between the Irish and the forces of the English Crown at the Battle of the Yellow Ford. The fighting took place about two miles away from Armagh. The English force was led by Hugh Bagenal, O’Neill’s brother-in-law, and consisted of some 4000 men plus heavy artillery and their purpose was to relieve the siege of the English held fortress at Armagh.

The Irish were well aware of the advance, and, with a force that was probably a bit larger than Bagenal’s, prepared in advance by digging trenches and blocking trackways. This, together with the boggy ground, broke the English formation of six regiments, allowing O’Neill’s men to inflict fatal injuries on the first regiment, which then retreated into the second, causing mayhem. About 900 of the English force were killed, but a further thousand deserted. Casualties on the Irish side were much lower.

On 13th August 1514, Princess Mary of England, who was eighteen years old, was married by proxy to the fifty-two year old widower, Louis XII of France. Mary had been betrothed in 1507 to Charles of Castile, grandson and likely heir of the Emperor Maximilian, but the Emperor had dragged his feet over completing the marriage. This was an insult to his ally, Mary’s brother, Henry VIII, which was made worse when Maximilian attempted to double-cross Henry by making a separate peace during the war they were prosecuting against Louis.

Henry had been let down by Maximilian before, and he and his chief minister, Cardinal Wolsey, were prepared. They swiftly made peace with Louis, and threw in the sweetener of a young, and reputedly beautiful, bride. Louis was delighted, and sent the princess gifts of expensive jewellery.

The proxy marriage took place at Greenwich Palace, in the presence of Henry VIII, his wife, Katharine of Aragon, and the highest ranking nobles of the court. Louis was represented by his kinsman, the Duke of Longueville, who had been taken prisoner the year before during the war. Read more on the background to the marriage and treaty here.