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

On 16th August 1513 Henry VIII won a victory over the French that became known as the Battle of the Spurs. In alliance with Ferdinand of Aragon, his father-in-law, and the Emperor Maximilian, Henry invaded France. This was his second French war. The first, in 1512, in which he had not been involved personally, had ended in ignominy.

Throughout the early part of the year, Henry’s chief minister, Thomas Wolsey, had been preparing huge quantities of supplies of all sorts to support the campaign. Henry embarked for France and met his ally the Emperor, who was subsidised by England to the tune of 100,000 crowns, and, in a flattering gesture to Henry, proclaimed that he would fight as one of Henry’s men, rather than leading his own.

The Battle of the Spurs itself was fought outside Therouanne, and was thus named because the French cavalry spurred their horses in retreat. The English captured the Duke de Longueville who was sent back to England as a captive until he was ransomed.

For more on the campaign see here

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.