Skip to content
Curated category

English pretenders to the French throne

  • Henry VIIIHenry VIII once dressed all in yellow, with a white feather in his bonnet, the day after he learned that Catherine of Aragon had died.
  • Richard III of EnglandRichard III was born on the 2nd of October 1452 at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, the youngest of twelve children to survive infancy, and he died…
  • Elizabeth IAt Tilbury in Essex on the 8th of August 1588, Elizabeth I rode before her militias wearing a silver breastplate over a white velvet dress.
  • William III of EnglandWilliam III of England was born eight days after his father died. That timing shaped everything. When stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange died of…
  • Henry VII of EnglandHenry VII was born on the 28th of January 1457 at Pembroke Castle, the posthumous son of a father who had already been dead three months by the time he drew…
  • Mary I of EnglandMary Tudor entered the world on the 18th of February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich. She was the only child of King Henry VIII and his first…
  • James VI and IJames VI and I was born on the 19th of June 1566 inside Edinburgh Castle, the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
  • Edward IIIEdward III was born at Windsor Castle on the 13th of November 1312, and a contemporary prophecy described him as "the boar that would come out of Windsor".
  • Lady Jane GreyJane Grey sat in the presence of her father or mother, speaking, keeping silence, sitting, standing, going, eating, drinking, merrily or sadly.
  • Philip II of SpainPhilip II of Spain was born on the 21st of May 1527 at the Palacio de Pimentel in Valladolid, and by the time he died on the 13th of September 1598, he had…
  • Charles I of EnglandCharles I walked to his own execution on the morning of the 30th of January 1649 wearing two shirts. He had chosen them deliberately: the day was bitter…
  • Edward VIEdward VI was born on the 12th of October 1537 at Hampton Court Palace, and the entire realm erupted in celebration. Bonfires blazed across England.