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

On 21st July 1567 Louis of Nassau was utterly defeated by Duke of Alva at the Battle of Jemmingen. Louis was leader in the revolt of the Netherlands against their feudal overlord, Philip II of Spain. Louis was a committed Calvinist, and, together with other Netherlandish nobles, demanded in 1566 that Philip withdraw the Inquisition from their territories. Eventually, the situation deteriorated into open warfare, with numerous battles and sieges. Louis survived the Battle of Jemmingen to fight again. He was badly wounded at the Battle of Mookerheyde in 1574 and withdrew from the fight, but his body was never found.

On 20th July 1524, Claude of Valois, Queen of France and Duchess of Brittany died. She was just twenty-four years old, and had been queen for ten years. Although Claude was the oldest child of her father, Louis XII, she was unable to inherit the French throne as female inheritance to the Crown was not permitted. Instead, she was married to her second cousin, François d’Angouleme, who succeeded as François I.

On 19th July 1545, Henry VIII’s flagship, the Mary Rose, sank in the Solent. The whole fleet were in the Solent, waiting to repulse a French attack. The reasons for the sinking are still uncertain – she turned in a gust of wind, which may have destabilised her; water may have entered the open gun ports; human error may have been a factor, or as claimed by the French, one of their cannon balls. She may also have been overloaded. Almost all of the crew went down with her, including the Vice-Admiral, George Carew. In one of the very few instances we have of simple human kindness at the Tudor court, Henry VIII, who had witnessed the whole scene, limped on his bad leg to Carew’s wife to embrace and comfort her. The remains of the ship were rediscovered in 1971, and she was lifted in 1982. Since then an enormous amount of archaeological and conservation work have been done on her. As a side note, Lady Carew was Mary Norris, daughter of Sir Henry Norris, executed in 1536.