Skip to content
Curated category

16th-century English knights

  • Richard Page (courtier)In 1522, Richard Page took his seat as a Justice of the Peace for Surrey. This local appointment marked his transition from private service to public…
  • Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of NorthumberlandThomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, stood on a scaffold in York on the 22nd of August 1572 and refused to save his own life.
  • George Boleyn, Viscount RochfordGeorge Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, stepped onto Tower Hill on the morning of the 17th of May 1536 to face the axe. The crowd watching was, by all accounts…
  • John Dudley, 1st Duke of NorthumberlandJohn Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, died on the 22nd of August 1553 with a curious phrase on his lips: "I have deserved a thousand deaths." He had just…
  • Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of SomersetEdward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, rose from a minor English noble family to become the effective ruler of England for two years, all because his sister…
  • Francis WestonFrancis Weston was beheaded on Tower Hill on the 17th of May 1536, twenty-five years old and still protesting his innocence.
  • William Cecil, 1st Baron BurghleyWilliam Cecil arrived in the world on the 13th of September 1520 within the quiet village of Bourne, Lincolnshire. His father Sir Richard Cecil owned the…
  • Ralph Warren (Lord Mayor)Sir Ralph Warren holds a distinction that only a handful of men in the history of London have ever achieved: he served as Lord Mayor of the city not once…
  • Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of LeicesterRobert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, was buried with a letter. Queen Elizabeth I had received it six days before his death on the 4th of September 1588, and…
  • Francis DrakeTo the Spanish, Sir Francis Drake was El Draque, the Dragon, a pirate to be feared. To the English, he was a hero. He was the man who, between 1577 and 1580…
  • Henry Carey, 1st Baron HunsdonHenry Carey entered the world on the 4th of March 1526 as the second child of William Carey and Mary Boleyn. His mother was the sister of Anne Boleyn, who…
  • Walter RaleighWalter Raleigh spent the final morning of his life handling the axe that was about to kill him. "This is a sharp Medicine," he reportedly said, "but it is a…
  • Henry Percy, 5th Earl of NorthumberlandHenry Algernon Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, died in debt at Wressle Castle on the 19th of May 1527 - yet he ranked among the richest magnates in…
  • Philip SidneyPhilip Sidney died on the 17th of October 1586, at the age of 31, from a wound to the thigh he had received at the Battle of Zutphen.
  • Richard EmpsonRichard Empson died on the 17th of August 1510 with an axe, not a trial verdict, as the final word on his career. A lawyer who rose from Northamptonshire…
  • William Carey (courtier)William Carey died on the 22nd of June 1528, and the man who recorded his passing captured something strange about the moment.
  • Henry Percy, 6th Earl of NorthumberlandHenry Percy entered the household of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey as a young page, learning the ways of aristocratic society in the early 1500s.
  • Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of WiltshireHe was born in about 1477 at Hever Castle in Kent. His father Sir William Boleyn had purchased Blickling Hall in Norfolk from his own father Sir Geoffrey…
  • Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and SomersetHenry FitzRoy entered the world in June 1519, born to Henry VIII and his mistress Elizabeth Blount. The timing of this birth was calculated with precision to…
  • Thomas LucySir Thomas Lucy was knighted in 1565 not by Queen Elizabeth herself, but by her favourite, Robert Dudley, the 1st Earl of Leicester, acting at the queen's…