Acts of Succession
1534, 1536, 1543.Henry VIII used statutes to make the adjustments to the succession that his complicated matrimonial history necessitated. The first Act (25 Hen. VIII c. 22) declared Mary ...
Acts of Uniformity
A series of English laws intended to secure the legal and doctrinal basis of the Anglican Communion. The first (1549) made the Book of Common Prayer compulsory in church services, with severe ...
Babington plot
(1586)A conspiracy to coordinate a Spanish invasion of England with a rising of English Catholics, to assassinate Elizabeth I, and to replace her on the throne with Mary, Queen of Scots. Anthony ...
battle of Pinkie Cleugh
1547.One of the first decisions taken by Somerset when he became protector for Edward VI in 1547 was to settle the long‐running war against Scotland with a decisive blow. The Scots had rejected ...
Castelnau, Michel de, Sieur de la Mauvissière
(1520–91),French soldier and diplomat. He was born into a noble family in Touraine and as a young man fought in the Wars of Italy. He became a diplomat, in ...
Château de Chenonceaux
The chateau was built by Thomas Bohier between 1513 and 1521. The site is the river Cher, which the chateau spans. After the death of Bohier and his widow the ...
coinage
The WestByzantiumThe WestByzantiumInstrument of an exchange economy, as standard of values and principal means of payment, Money was not in exclusive use, everywhere and always, in the ...
David Beaton
(1494?–1546), archbishop of Saint Andrews (1539–1546), abbot of Arbroath (1524), bishop of Mirepoix (1537), cardinal (1538), and papal legate a Latere (1544) who led the Scottish ecclesiastical ...
David Rizzio
(1533–66)Italian-born secretary and adviser to Mary, Queen of Scots. He entered service at court in 1561 and by 1564 he had become her Secretary: he possibly arranged her marriage to his friend ...
duke of Clarence, Albert Victor Christian Edward
(1864–92).Clarence was the first son of Edward, prince of Wales. He seems to have been congenitally handicapped: at the age of 5 he was described as ‘languid and listless’. At 13 he went to Dartmouth ...
Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley
(c. 1532–88).Son of John Dudley, duke of Northumberland, Dudley became one of Elizabeth I's most prominent courtiers. Until his death in 1588, he was master of the queen's horse and a privy ...
Earl of Murray, James Stewart
(c.1531–1570),Regent of Scotland. An illegitimate son of James V, James Stewart was half-brother to Mary, Queen of Scots, whose marriage to the future Francis II he helped to negotiate ...
Edinburgh castle
Stands on Castle Rock dominating the city of Edinburgh and is approached across the Esplanade, the site of the annual military tattoo. It houses the crown jewels (Honours) of Scotland, and occupies a ...
Egmont
(1522–68)Flemish statesman and soldier. He was made statholder (governor) of Flanders and Artois in 1559. Although he was a member of Philip II of Spain's regency council, he opposed his sovereign's ...
Elizabeth I
[Na]English queen from ad 1558, of the House of Tudor. Born 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She died in 1603, aged 69, having reigned 44 years.
embroidery
Decorative surface stitching, usually in wool or silk, on fabric, practised in all parts of the world.
France: the ‘Auld Alliance’
The French connection, often whimsically known as the ‘Auld Alliance’, was an intermittent phenomenon but in the three centuries or so after 1296, it operated in four main areas: warriors ...
Francis II
(1544–60),King of France, the eldest son of King Henri II and Catherine de Médicis. In 1558, at the age of 14, he married the 16-year-old Mary, Queen of scots. ...
golf
Though the Dutch game of kolf has been claimed as the origin, the first undoubted reference to golf was in 1457 when the Scottish Parliament deplored its popularity, since it took young men away from ...
Gordon family, earls of Huntly
In 1444–5, Sir Alexander Seton of Gordon was created first earl of Huntly, and changed the family name to Gordon; thus was established one of the most powerful and influential ...
