Of the many executions ordered by Henry VIII, surely the most horrifying was that of sixty-seven-year-old Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, hacked to pieces on the scaffold by a blundering headsman. From the start, Margaret’s life had been marred by tragedy and violence: her father, George, Duke of Clarence, had been executed at the order [read more]
Mary had become Queen of England in 1553, and she had married Philip of Spain in July 1554. She was at 37 years old at the time, and that was considered to be near the end of her childbearing age. So if she wanted to have children, and she did desperately, she would need to [read more]
Catherine was born in 1638 into the House of Braganza; Portugal’s most important noble family. In 1640, Catherine’s father was proclaimed King John IV of Portugal after a revolt of the nobility led to the deposition of the Habsburg King Philip III of Portugal and IV of Spain. Catherine had a quiet and sheltered childhood, [read more]
Æthelflæd’s date of birth is not recorded, but her parents were Alfred the Great and his Queen Ealhswith. She had a brother, named Edward the Elder. Her father was the fifth son of King Ethelwulf, and he was never expected to become King. By 865 three of brothers were dead and the only surviving one [read more]
Though by now we’ve had quite a few Queens in their own right in the United Kingdom, none of these women were ever created Princess of Wales in their own right. Henry VIII faced a dilemma when his only surviving child by Catherine of Aragon proved to be a healthy girl. Though we now know [read more]
One of her godparents was Catherine of York, who was by then the only surviving child of Edward IV and thus Mary’s great-aunt. Catherine had married William Courtenay, later 1st Earl of Devon, in 1495. Her grandson Edward was later seen as a suitable husband for Mary. Mary was an inveterate gambler, and she had [read more]
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