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

The 9th September 1513 was one of the most momentous, and saddest, days in the history of Scotland. On that day, King James IV led his troops into battle at a remote place in Northumberland called Branxton Moor, now known as Flodden. The Scots army was bigger, better equipped, and, initially, better positioned than the English. The English however, had the advantage of a commander who, although over seventy, was a clever and insightful general. Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, was a veteran of the Battle of Bosworth, and years of skirmishing on the Border. He knew James well, having accompanied the young Margaret Tudor, James’ wife, to her wedding ten years before. He used this knowledge to entice James out of the commanding position, and to control his own men effectively. James, his twenty-year old illegitimate son, Alexander, and a host of Scottish Earls and lords were killed. Read more about the Battle of Flodden here.

On 8th September 1538, Thomas Audley, the Lord Chancellor, wrote to Thomas Cromwell on behalf of himself and the Earl of Oxford. They wished to express their gratitude to the King for the permission they had received to visit the young Prince Edward, at Havering. They praised the little boy who was not quite eleven months old, in glowing terms. They had never seen ‘so goodly a child of his age, so merry, so pleasant, so good and loving countenance, and so earnest an eye as it were a sage judgment towards every person that repaireth to his Grace.’ He was losing his baby fat, could stand and would be able to walk if his nurses would let him. They completely concurred (we may be unsurprised to note) with the King’s decision to move the child from Havering, in Essex, which, although it was pleasant in summer, would probably be rather cold in winter.

On 7th September 1571, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, was arrested for involvement in the Ridolfi Plot. Norfolk was the senior peer in England, and related to Elizabeth, both through her mother and her father. He was also a Protestant, but was willing to consort with rebels who sought to replace Elizabeth with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, on the condition that Queen Mary would then marry him. Norfolk’s first flirtation with insurrection had been in 1569 when the Rising of the Northern Earls had succeeded in taking Durham and celebrating a full Catholic Mass. One of the leaders, the Earl of Westmoreland, was Norfolk’s brother-in-law.

The Northern Rising ultimately failed, through lack of popular support. After a sojourn in the Tower, Norfolk was freed, but then became embroiled in the attempts by an Italian banker, Roberto Ridolfi, to foment not just home-grown rebellion, but foreign invasion. Spanish forces were to set Mary free, marry her to Norfolk and despatch Elizabeth. The plot was foiled through the active intelligence network around Elizabeth.