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

On 7th October 1515, Margaret, Queen of Scots, gave birth to a daughter, whom she named after herself. The date is often given as 8th October, but there is a letter of Queen Margaret’s saying it was 7th, and presumably, she was in the best position to know. The little girl, child of the Queen’s second marriage, to Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, was to have one of the most colourful careers of any royal lady of the sixteenth century. Spending her childhood in Scotland, she was exiled to England with her father, aged thirteen, and joined the court of her uncle, Henry VIII. Lady Margaret served in the courts of Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, Katheryn Howard and Katherine Parr - she did not serve Jane Seymour, as she spent the period of Jane’s queenship in the Tower of London.

Married to a Scots Earl, she bore a son, Henry, Lord Darnley, who was the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and was murdered in the most notorious assassination of the century. Margaret spent another period in the Tower for plotting his marriage to Queen Mary, and yet a third for planning the marriage of her younger son, Charles, to the daughter of Bess of Hardwick. Nevertheless, she escaped retribution, and died in her bed in 1578. Read more about Lady Margaret Douglas here.

On 6th October 1509, Sir Nicholas Vaux was appointed as Lieutenant of Guisnes Castle – initially for 20 years, but subsequently for life. He was to hold the office without any interruption from the Governor of Calais. Sir Nicholas, who was about fifty, was the son of loyal Lancastrians – his mother, Katherine Peniston, had been one of Marguerite of Anjou’s attendants and had followed her into exile. He himself had been in the household of Lady Margaret Beaufort from an early age, and had fought for Henry Tudor at Bosworth. Vaux had then married the widowed Elizabeth FitzHugh, Lady Parr, the niece of Warwick the Kingmaker. As Lady Vaux, she attended her second cousin, Queen Elizabeth of York. Vaux’s second wife, Anne Green, was the sister of Maud Green, who married Elizabeth FitzHugh’s son by her first marriage, Sir Thomas Parr. Vaux and Elizabeth’s daughter, Katherine, married Sir George Throckmorton of Coughton Court.

Picture of Coughton Court

On 5th October 1528 Bishop Richard Foxe, Lord Privy Seal, died. He had been an adherent of Henry VII since before the king’s victory at Bosworth, and was one of his chief advisors through his whole reign, being promoted to a range of ecclesiastical benefices, including the Bishopric of Winchester, as well as secular offices. Foxe’s diplomatic skills were highly valued by Henry VII, and he was involved in negotiations with both the sovereigns of Spain, and also James IV of Scotland. Things did not go quite so well there – James IV besieged Norham Castle with Foxe inside! Foxe was present at Henry VII’s deathbed, and was one of the executors of his will.

Foxe was a dedicated follower of the Humanist school of thought – encouraging education and the searching out of original texts to inform religion. He was the founder of the school at Grantham attended by Sir William Cecil and later, Isaac Newton. Foxe also founded Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Work began in around 1512, and it was completed in 1517. The range and quantity of books the library contained was highly praised – there were books in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and Erasmus called it one of the ‘chief beauties of Britain’. Foxe remained prominent in the early councils of Henry VIII, and worked closely with Thomas Wolsey, who went on to become chief minister to the king.