Luminarium: Encyclopedia Project Tudor Rose England under the Tudors

Luminarium | Encyclopedia | What's New | Letter from the Editor | Bookstore | Poster Store | Discussion Forums | Search


 
Sketch for a Portrait of Thomas Boleyn by hans Holbein

Sir Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire (1477-1539)

SIR THOMAS BOLEYN, EARL OF WILTSHIRE, was the second son of Sir William Boleyn of Blickling, Norfolk, and grandson of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, a wealthy London merchant, who was lord mayor in 1457. The manor of Blickling, purchased originally by Sir Geoffrey of the veteran Sir John Fastolf, descended to Sir James Boleyn, the elder brother of Sir Thomas. His mother was Margaret, daughter and coheir of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormonde. According to his own statement he was fifty-two years old in 1529,1 and must therefore have been born in 1477.

In 1497, when he was twenty, he was in arms with his father against the Cornish rebels [see Battle of Blackheath].  In 1509 he was appointed keeper of the exchange at Calais and of the foreign exchange in England, and in 1511 the reversion of the keepership of the royal park of Beskwood in Nottinghamshire was granted to him.2  That same year he accepted the challenge of King Henry VIII and three other knights to a tourney on the birth of a prince,3 and shortly afterwards obtained a contingent reversion of some of the forfeited lands of Viscount Lovel granted by Henry VII to the Earl of Oxford, of which he no doubt came into possession on the earl's death without issue in 1513.4  In 1511 also he had a grant of lands in Kent,5 and early next year he was appointed, in conjunction with Sir Henry Wyatt, constable of Norwich castle,6 and received other grants and marks of royal favour besides.

At this time he was sent in embassy to the Low Countries with Sir Edward Poynings, where he remained for about a year, with an allowance of twenty shillings a day.7 On 5 April 1513 he and his colleagues concluded with Margaret of Savoy at Mechlin the Holy league, by which the Emperor Maximilian, Pope Julius II, and Ferdinand of Spain combined to make war on France.8 He took part in the invasion of France in the following summer with a retinue of a hundred men;9 but nothing is recorded of his exploits in the war.

He appears to have made some exchange of lands with the crown in or before the year 1516.10 Even then he must have occupied a distinguished position at the court of Henry VIII, for on 21 Feb. in that year he was one of four persons who bore a canopy over the Princess Mary at her christening.11 In 1517 he was appointed sheriff of Kent.12 On 26. Oct. in that year he obtained a license to export from his mill at Rochford in Essex, in a 'playte' or small vessel of his own, called the Rosendell, all 'wode, bollet, and. . .' (a word illegible in the original), made (which apparently means cut or manufactured) within the lordship of Rochford.13

Early in 1519 he went in embassy to Francis I, and he remained in France till the beginning of March 1520. During this period the famous interview of the Field of the Cloth of Gold was projected, and it was Boleyn who negotiated the preliminary arrangements. He was admitted to great familiarity with Francis I, and was evidently quite at home in the language and manners of the French court. He himself does not appear to have been a witness of the interview, which took place in June 1520, though it had been arranged beforehand that he should go; but he was required to be present at the meeting of Henry VIII and the Emperor Charles V, which took place immediately afterwards, in July at Gravelines.14

In May 1521 he was on the special commission for London, and also for Kent, before which the indictment was found against the unfortunate Duke of Buckingham.15 In the autumn of that year, during the conferences held at Calais, in which Wolsey professed to mediate between the French and the imperialists, he was used as an agent in various communications with the latter, and was afterwards sent to the Emperor at Oudenarde. In May 1522 he was appointed to attend the king at Canterbury on the emperor's arrival in England, and his name appears as a witness to one of the acts in connection with the treaty of Windsor on 20 June. A little later in the same year he was sent with Dr. Sampson to the emperor in Spain in order to promote joint action in the war against France. He seems to have taken a French ship at sea on the voyage out, and made prisoners of some Breton merchants, who, being sent to England, received license to import 300 'waie' of salt for their ransom.16

In April 1523 he received letters of recall, and he returned in May following. A private letter, dated 28 April in this year, says that he received a writ of summons to parliament as a baron along with Sir William Sandys, Sir Maurice Berkeley, and Sir Nicholas Vaux,17 but the writer was certainly misinformed. Not only was Boleyn still in Spain at the time the letter was written, but he is mentioned long afterwards by the same designation by which he had been styled for years before, viz. as knight for the royal body. It was on 16 June 1525 that he was first ennobled as Viscount Rochford, when the king's illegitimate son [Henry Fitzroy] was created Duke of Richmond: shortly before which he had a rather anxious duty as commissioner for the forced loan in the county of Kent to prevent the outbreak of disturbances.

There cannot be a doubt that not only his elevation to the peerage, but several earlier tokens of royal favour besides, were due to the fascination his daughter had begun to exercise over the king. Early in in 1522 he filled the office of treasurer of the household, and he is so styled in a patent of 24 April in that year granting him the manor of Fobbing in Essex. On the 29th of the same month various offices about Tunbridge, Brasted, and Penshurst were granted to him and his son George in survivorship. On 1 Sept. 1523 the keepership of the part of Beskwood, of which he had before received a grant in reversion, was given to him and Sir John Byron in survivorship. It was, perhaps, about the same time that he received also the keepership of Thundersley Park in Essex, the grant of which is enrolled without date in the fifteenth year of Henry VIII.18 In 1524 or 1525 he was made steward of the lordship of Swaffham in Norfolk.19 Some correspondence that he had with Sir John Daunce is preserved, relating to the repairs of the manors of Tunbridge and Penshurst.20 In December 1525 he was assessed for the subsidy at 800l.,21, an income probably equal to about 10,000l. a year in our day [1886].

On 17 May 1527 he received a commission in conjunction with Clerk, bishop of Bath, and Sir Anthony Browne to go to France and take the oath of Francis I to the new treaty between him and Henry. He was one of the English noblemen who received pensions from Francis for promoting a good understanding between the two countries. He took his place in the parliament which met in November 1529, and on 8 Dec. he was created Earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde.22 The latter earldom had for many years been in dispute between him and Sir Piers Butler, who had actually borne the title; but the matter was referred to the king's arbitration, who, making Sir Piers an allotment out of the lands, compelled him to relinquish the title in favour of Boleyn.23

On 24 January, 1530 he was appointed Lord Privy Seal. The authority for the patent of this office had already been issued four days previously; at which time he received a commission along with Stokesley, afterwards bishop of London, and Lee, afterwards archbishop of York, to go to the Emperor Charles V, and explain to him the king's reasons for seeking a divorce from his aunt, Catherine of Arragon.24  The pope [Clement VII] and the emperor at that time had met together at Bologna, and the ambassadors were further commissioned to treat with both of them, and with other potentates, for a general peace. But, of course, the main object was to counteract, as far as possible, the influence which the emperor would bring to bear upon the pope in favour of Catherine. The ambassadors, however, failed to impress the former with the justice of the king's cause; and the latter very naturally kept his sentiments to himself.

It was on this occasion that—according to that most untrustworthy authority, Foxe—although sent ambassador from the king of England, he declined to pay the pope the accustomed reverence of kissing his toe. The story may be true, for to one who stood so high in favour of a powerful sovereign the discourtesy involved no very serious consequences. But the graphic addition that a spaniel, brought by the earl from England, at once gave his holiness's foot the salutation refused by his master, seems rather to show the spirit in which the tale is told than to invite our confidence in its veracity. The incident is avowedly related 'as a prognosticate of our separation from the see of Rome.'

From Bologna Wiltshire took his departure into France, where he remained for some time trying to get the doctors of the university of Paris to give an opinion in the king's favour on the divorce question. He returned to England in August.25  From this time he was generally resident at the court, and the notices of him in state papers are frequent enough; but there is little to tell of his doings that deserves particular mention. What there is certainly does not convey a very high opinion of the man. Not many weeks after Wolsey's death he gave a supper to the French ambassador, at which he had the extremely bad taste to exhibit a farce of the cardinal's going to hell.26

When the authority of the bishops was attacked in the parliament of 1532, he was, naturally enough, one of the first to declare that neither pope nor prelate had a right to make laws; and he offered to maintain that proposition with his body and goods.27  That he became a leader, or rather a patron, of the protestant party, was no more than might have been expected from his position, his daughter's greatness and the fortunes of his house being so closely connected with a revolt against church authority.  Yet he was one of those who in 1533 examined the martyr Frith for denying the real presence; while he commissioned Erasmus from time to time to write for him treatises on religious subjects, such as on preparation for death, on the Apostles' Creed, or on one of the Psalms of David.28

The last thing recorded of him that is at all noteworthy is, that he and Sir William Paulet were sent on 13 July 1534 to the Princess Mary to induce her to renounce her title and acknowledge herself an illegitimate child!29  He died (as appears by a letter of his servant Robert Cranewell to Lord Cromwell at his family mansion of Hever, in Kent, on 13 March 1539.30

(James Gairdner)



1 Calendar of Henry VIII, iv. p. 2581.
2 ib. i. Nos. 343, 1477.
3 ib. No. 1491.
4 ib. No. 1774.
5 ib. No. 1814.
6 ib. No. 3008.
7 ib. ii. pp. 1456, 1461.
8 ib. i. Nos. 3859, 3861.
9 ib. No. 4307.
10 ib. ii. No. 2210.
11 ib. No. 1573.
12 ib. No. 3783.
13 ib. No. 3756.
14 ib. iii. No. 906.
15 ib. No. 1284.
16 ib. No. 2729.
17 ib. No. 2982.
18 Calendar, iv. p. 125.
19 ib. p. 568.
20 ib. Nos. 1501, 1550, 1592.
21 ib. p. 1331.
22 ib. Nos. 6043, 6085.
23 Calendar, ii. Nos. 1230, 1269, iv. 3728, 3937, 5097.
24 ib. iv. 6111, 6154-5, 6163.
25 Calendar, iv. 6571, 6579.
26 ib. v. No. 62.
27 ib. No. 850.
28 ERASMI Epp. lib. xxix. 34, 43, 48.
29 Calendar, vii. 980.
30 Manuscript in Public Record Office.




Source:
Gairdner, James. "Sir Thomas Boleyn."
       Dictionary of National Biography. Vol V.
       Leslie Stephen, Ed.
       New York: Macmillan and Co., 1886. 321-323.




Other Local Resources:


Books for further study:

Ives, Eric. The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn.
           Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.

Weir, Alison. Henry VIII: The King and His Court.
           New York: Ballantine, 2001.

Wilson, Derek. In the Lion's Court: Power, Ambition,
           and Sudden Death in the Reign of Henry VIII.
           New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001.




Thomas Boleyn on the Web:


Backto Anne Boleyn
Backto King Henry VIII
Backto Renaissance English Literature
Backto Luminarium Encyclopedia


Site ©1996-2023 Anniina Jokinen. All rights reserved.
This page was created on April 9, 2007. Last updated April 11, 2023.







Index of Encyclopedia Entries:

Medieval Cosmology
Prices of Items in Medieval England

Edward II
Isabella of France, Queen of England
Piers Gaveston
Thomas of Brotherton, E. of Norfolk
Edmund of Woodstock, E. of Kent
Thomas, Earl of Lancaster
Henry of Lancaster, Earl of Lancaster
Henry of Grosmont, Duke of Lancaster
Roger Mortimer, Earl of March
Hugh le Despenser the Younger
Bartholomew, Lord Burghersh, elder

Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)

Edward III
Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England
Edward, Black Prince of Wales
John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall
The Battle of Crécy, 1346
The Siege of Calais, 1346-7
The Battle of Poitiers, 1356
Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster
Edmund of Langley, Duke of York
Thomas of Woodstock, Gloucester
Richard of York, E. of Cambridge
Richard Fitzalan, 3. Earl of Arundel
Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March
The Good Parliament, 1376
Richard II
The Peasants' Revolt, 1381
Lords Appellant, 1388
Richard Fitzalan, 4. Earl of Arundel
Archbishop Thomas Arundel
Thomas de Beauchamp, E. Warwick
Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford
Ralph Neville, E. of Westmorland
Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk
Edmund Mortimer, 3. Earl of March
Roger Mortimer, 4. Earl of March
John Holland, Duke of Exeter
Michael de la Pole, E. Suffolk
Hugh de Stafford, 2. E. Stafford
Henry IV
Edward, Duke of York
Edmund Mortimer, 5. Earl of March
Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland
Sir Henry Percy, "Harry Hotspur"
Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester
Owen Glendower
The Battle of Shrewsbury, 1403
Archbishop Richard Scrope
Thomas Mowbray, 3. E. Nottingham
John Mowbray, 2. Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Fitzalan, 5. Earl of Arundel
Henry V
Thomas, Duke of Clarence
John, Duke of Bedford
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury
Richard, Earl of Cambridge
Henry, Baron Scrope of Masham
William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk
Thomas Montacute, E. Salisbury
Richard Beauchamp, E. of Warwick
Henry Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick
Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter
Cardinal Henry Beaufort
John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset
Sir John Fastolf
John Holland, 2. Duke of Exeter
Archbishop John Stafford
Archbishop John Kemp
Catherine of Valois
Owen Tudor
John Fitzalan, 7. Earl of Arundel
John, Lord Tiptoft

Charles VII, King of France
Joan of Arc
Louis XI, King of France
Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy
The Battle of Agincourt, 1415
The Battle of Castillon, 1453



The Wars of the Roses 1455-1485
Causes of the Wars of the Roses
The House of Lancaster
The House of York
The House of Beaufort
The House of Neville

The First Battle of St. Albans, 1455
The Battle of Blore Heath, 1459
The Rout of Ludford, 1459
The Battle of Northampton, 1460
The Battle of Wakefield, 1460
The Battle of Mortimer's Cross, 1461
The 2nd Battle of St. Albans, 1461
The Battle of Towton, 1461
The Battle of Hedgeley Moor, 1464
The Battle of Hexham, 1464
The Battle of Edgecote, 1469
The Battle of Losecoat Field, 1470
The Battle of Barnet, 1471
The Battle of Tewkesbury, 1471
The Treaty of Pecquigny, 1475
The Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485
The Battle of Stoke Field, 1487

Henry VI
Margaret of Anjou
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York
Edward IV
Elizabeth Woodville
Richard Woodville, 1. Earl Rivers
Anthony Woodville, 2. Earl Rivers
Jane Shore
Edward V
Richard III
George, Duke of Clarence

Ralph Neville, 2. Earl of Westmorland
Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick
Edward Neville, Baron Bergavenny
William Neville, Lord Fauconberg
Robert Neville, Bishop of Salisbury
John Neville, Marquis of Montagu
George Neville, Archbishop of York
John Beaufort, 1. Duke Somerset
Edmund Beaufort, 2. Duke Somerset
Henry Beaufort, 3. Duke of Somerset
Edmund Beaufort, 4. Duke Somerset
Margaret Beaufort
Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond
Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke
Humphrey Stafford, D. Buckingham
Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham
Humphrey Stafford, E. of Devon
Thomas, Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby
Sir William Stanley
Archbishop Thomas Bourchier
Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex
John Mowbray, 3. Duke of Norfolk
John Mowbray, 4. Duke of Norfolk
John Howard, Duke of Norfolk
Henry Percy, 2. E. Northumberland
Henry Percy, 3. E. Northumberland
Henry Percy, 4. E. Northumberland
William, Lord Hastings
Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter
William Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel
William Herbert, 1. Earl of Pembroke
John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
Thomas de Clifford, 8. Baron Clifford
John de Clifford, 9. Baron Clifford
John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester
Thomas Grey, 1. Marquis Dorset
Sir Andrew Trollop
Archbishop John Morton
Edward Plantagenet, E. of Warwick
John Talbot, 2. E. Shrewsbury
John Talbot, 3. E. Shrewsbury
John de la Pole, 2. Duke of Suffolk
John de la Pole, E. of Lincoln
Edmund de la Pole, E. of Suffolk
Richard de la Pole
John Sutton, Baron Dudley
James Butler, 5. Earl of Ormonde
Sir James Tyrell
Edmund Grey, first Earl of Kent
George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent
John, 5th Baron Scrope of Bolton
James Touchet, 7th Baron Audley
Walter Blount, Lord Mountjoy
Robert Hungerford, Lord Moleyns
Thomas, Lord Scales
John, Lord Lovel and Holand
Francis Lovell, Viscount Lovell
Sir Richard Ratcliffe
William Catesby
Ralph, 4th Lord Cromwell
Jack Cade's Rebellion, 1450


Tudor Period

King Henry VII
Queen Elizabeth of York
Arthur, Prince of Wales
Lambert Simnel
Perkin Warbeck
The Battle of Blackheath, 1497

King Ferdinand II of Aragon
Queen Isabella of Castile
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

King Henry VIII
Queen Catherine of Aragon
Queen Anne Boleyn
Queen Jane Seymour
Queen Anne of Cleves
Queen Catherine Howard
Queen Katherine Parr

King Edward VI
Queen Mary I
Queen Elizabeth I
Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond

Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland
James IV, King of Scotland
The Battle of Flodden Field, 1513
James V, King of Scotland
Mary of Guise, Queen of Scotland

Mary Tudor, Queen of France
Louis XII, King of France
Francis I, King of France
The Battle of the Spurs, 1513
Field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Eustace Chapuys, Imperial Ambassador
The Siege of Boulogne, 1544

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex
Thomas, Lord Audley
Thomas Wriothesley, E. Southampton
Sir Richard Rich

Edward Stafford, D. of Buckingham
Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk
Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire
George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford
John Russell, Earl of Bedford
Thomas Grey, 2. Marquis of Dorset
Henry Grey, D. of Suffolk
Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester
George Talbot, 4. E. Shrewsbury
Francis Talbot, 5. E. Shrewsbury
Henry Algernon Percy,
     5th Earl of Northumberland
Henry Algernon Percy,
     6th Earl of Northumberland
Ralph Neville, 4. E. Westmorland
Henry Neville, 5. E. Westmorland
William Paulet, Marquis of Winchester
Sir Francis Bryan
Sir Nicholas Carew
John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford
Thomas Seymour, Lord Admiral
Edward Seymour, Protector Somerset
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury
Henry Pole, Lord Montague
Sir Geoffrey Pole
Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland
Henry Manners, Earl of Rutland
Henry Bourchier, 2. Earl of Essex
Robert Radcliffe, 1. Earl of Sussex
Henry Radcliffe, 2. Earl of Sussex
George Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon
Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter
George Neville, Baron Bergavenny
Sir Edward Neville
William, Lord Paget
William Sandys, Baron Sandys
William Fitzwilliam, E. Southampton
Sir Anthony Browne
Sir Thomas Wriothesley
Sir William Kingston
George Brooke, Lord Cobham
Sir Richard Southwell
Thomas Fiennes, 9th Lord Dacre
Sir Francis Weston
Henry Norris
Lady Jane Grey
Sir Thomas Arundel
Sir Richard Sackville
Sir William Petre
Sir John Cheke
Walter Haddon, L.L.D
Sir Peter Carew
Sir John Mason
Nicholas Wotton
John Taylor
Sir Thomas Wyatt, the Younger

Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio
Cardinal Reginald Pole
Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester
Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London
Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London
John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester
John Aylmer, Bishop of London
Thomas Linacre
William Grocyn
Archbishop William Warham
Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham
Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester
Edward Fox, Bishop of Hereford

Pope Julius II
Pope Leo X
Pope Clement VII
Pope Paul III
Pope Pius V

Pico della Mirandola
Desiderius Erasmus
Martin Bucer
Richard Pace
Christopher Saint-German
Thomas Tallis
Elizabeth Barton, the Nun of Kent
Hans Holbein, the Younger
The Sweating Sickness

Dissolution of the Monasteries
Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536
Robert Aske
Anne Askew
Lord Thomas Darcy
Sir Robert Constable

Oath of Supremacy
The Act of Supremacy, 1534
The First Act of Succession, 1534
The Third Act of Succession, 1544
The Ten Articles, 1536
The Six Articles, 1539
The Second Statute of Repeal, 1555
The Act of Supremacy, 1559
Articles Touching Preachers, 1583

Queen Elizabeth I
William Cecil, Lord Burghley
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury
Sir Francis Walsingham
Sir Nicholas Bacon
Sir Thomas Bromley

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick
Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon
Sir Thomas Egerton, Viscount Brackley
Sir Francis Knollys
Katherine "Kat" Ashley
Lettice Knollys, Countess of Leicester
George Talbot, 6. E. of Shrewsbury
Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury
Gilbert Talbot, 7. E. of Shrewsbury
Sir Henry Sidney
Sir Robert Sidney
Archbishop Matthew Parker
Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich
Sir Christopher Hatton
Edward Courtenay, E. Devonshire
Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland
Thomas Radcliffe, 3. Earl of Sussex
Henry Radcliffe, 4. Earl of Sussex
Robert Radcliffe, 5. Earl of Sussex
William Parr, Marquis of Northampton
Henry Wriothesley, 2. Southampton
Henry Wriothesley, 3. Southampton
Charles Neville, 6. E. Westmorland
Thomas Percy, 7. E. Northumberland
Henry Percy, 8. E. Northumberland
Henry Percy, 9. E. Nothumberland
William Herbert, 1. Earl of Pembroke
Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk
Henry Howard, 1. Earl of Northampton
Thomas Howard, 1. Earl of Suffolk
Henry Hastings, 3. E. of Huntingdon
Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland
Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland
Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland
Henry FitzAlan, 12. Earl of Arundel
Thomas, Earl Arundell of Wardour
Edward Somerset, E. of Worcester
William Davison
Sir Walter Mildmay
Sir Ralph Sadler
Sir Amyas Paulet
Gilbert Gifford
Anthony Browne, Viscount Montague
François, Duke of Alençon & Anjou

Mary, Queen of Scots
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell
Anthony Babington and the Babington Plot
John Knox

Philip II of Spain
The Spanish Armada, 1588
Sir Francis Drake
Sir John Hawkins

William Camden
Archbishop Whitgift
Martin Marprelate Controversy
John Penry (Martin Marprelate)
Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury
John Dee, Alchemist

Philip Henslowe
Edward Alleyn
The Blackfriars Theatre
The Fortune Theatre
The Rose Theatre
The Swan Theatre
Children's Companies
The Admiral's Men
The Lord Chamberlain's Men
Citizen Comedy
The Isle of Dogs, 1597

Common Law
Court of Common Pleas
Court of King's Bench
Court of Star Chamber
Council of the North
Fleet Prison
Assize
Attainder
First Fruits & Tenths
Livery and Maintenance
Oyer and terminer
Praemunire


The Stuarts

King James I of England
Anne of Denmark
Henry, Prince of Wales
The Gunpowder Plot, 1605
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset
Arabella Stuart, Lady Lennox

William Alabaster
Bishop Hall
Bishop Thomas Morton
Archbishop William Laud
John Selden
Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford
Henry Lawes

King Charles I
Queen Henrietta Maria

Long Parliament
Rump Parliament
Kentish Petition, 1642

Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford
John Digby, Earl of Bristol
George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax
Robert Devereux, 3rd E. of Essex
Robert Sidney, 2. E. of Leicester
Algernon Percy, E. of Northumberland
Henry Montagu, Earl of Manchester
Edward Montagu, 2. Earl of Manchester

The Restoration

King Charles II
King James II
Test Acts

Greenwich Palace
Hatfield House
Richmond Palace
Windsor Palace
Woodstock Manor

The Cinque Ports
Mermaid Tavern
Malmsey Wine
Great Fire of London, 1666
Merchant Taylors' School
Westminster School
The Sanctuary at Westminster
"Sanctuary"


Images:

Chart of the English Succession from William I through Henry VII

Medieval English Drama

London c1480, MS Royal 16
London, 1510, the earliest view in print
Map of England from Saxton's Descriptio Angliae, 1579
London in late 16th century
Location Map of Elizabethan London
Plan of the Bankside, Southwark, in Shakespeare's time
Detail of Norden's Map of the Bankside, 1593
Bull and Bear Baiting Rings from the Agas Map (1569-1590, pub. 1631)
Sketch of the Swan Theatre, c. 1596
Westminster in the Seventeenth Century, by Hollar
Visscher's View of London, 1616
Larger Visscher's View in Sections
c. 1690. View of London Churches, after the Great Fire
The Yard of the Tabard Inn from Thornbury, Old and New London




Site copyright ©1996-2023 Anniina Jokinen. All Rights Reserved.