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Knights of the Garter

  • Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber was born on the 22nd of March 1948 at Westminster Hospital in London. His father William worked as a composer and organist while his…
  • Henry VIIIHenry VIII was born on the 28th of June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, Kent. He entered the world as the third child and second son of King…
  • Winston ChurchillOn the 30th of November 1874, Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born at his family's ancestral home, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
  • Richard III of EnglandOn the 2nd of October 1452, a boy named Richard was born inside the stone walls of Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire.
  • Harold WilsonJames Harold Wilson stood on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street as an eight-year-old boy in a photograph that would later become famous.
  • Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of NorthumberlandThomas Percy stood eight years old when the executioner's blade fell at Tyburn on the 2nd of June 1537. His father, Sir Thomas Percy, had led a rebellion…
  • John Dudley, 1st Duke of NorthumberlandJohn Dudley was seven years old when his father, Edmund Dudley, was executed for high treason in 1510. The new king, Henry VIII, needed scapegoats for the…
  • Charles V, Holy Roman EmperorThe year 1500 marked the arrival of Charles in the Prinsenhof of Ghent, a Flemish city within the Habsburg Netherlands. A poet at the court reported that…
  • Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of WellingtonArthur Wellesley entered the world on the 1st of May 1769 within a townhouse at 6 Merrion Street in Dublin. The exact date and location remain disputed by…
  • William III of EnglandOn the 4th of November 1650, a boy named William Henry was born in The Hague. His father died eight days before the birth from smallpox.
  • Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of SomersetEdward Seymour was born around the year 1500. He entered the household of Mary Tudor, Queen of France, in 1514 at about fourteen years old.
  • 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…
  • James VI and IJames Charles Stuart was born on the 19th of June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle. He became King of Scotland at the age of thirteen months after his mother, Mary…
  • Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of LeicesterOn the 6th of July 1553, King Edward VI died and Robert Dudley led a force of three hundred men into Norfolk. He sought to stop Mary I from taking the…
  • Edward IIIOn the 25th of January 1327, a fourteen-year-old boy named Edward was proclaimed king in London. His father, King Edward II, had been forced to relinquish…
  • Benjamin DisraeliBenjamin D'Israeli was born on the 21st of December 1804 at 6 King's Road, Bedford Row, Bloomsbury. His family carried a Sephardic Jewish mercantile…
  • Francis I of FranceFrancis I of France was born on the 12th of September 1494 at the Château de Cognac, a man whose physical features would become as legendary as his political…
  • Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of EssexRobert Devereux entered the world on the 10th of November 1565 at Netherwood in Herefordshire. He was the eldest son of Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex…
  • Maximilian I, Holy Roman EmperorOn the 22nd of March 1459, a child named Maximilian was born at Wiener Neustadt. His father Frederick III held the title Holy Roman Emperor, yet their family…
  • Clement AttleeClement Richard Attlee was born on the 3rd of January 1883 in Putney, Surrey. He grew up in a two-storey villa with a large garden and tennis court.
  • Henry II of FranceHenry and his elder brother Francis spent over four years in captivity in Spain as hostages. This arrangement secured the release of their father, King…
  • Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of SalisburyRobert Cecil stood barely five feet tall with a spine curved by scoliosis. Queen Elizabeth I called him my pygmy while King James I nicknamed him my little…
  • 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…
  • John Russell, 1st Earl RussellJohn Russell entered the world on the 18th of August 1792 as the third son of John Russell, who would become the sixth Duke of Bedford.
  • Sigismund, Holy Roman EmperorBorn on the 15th of February 1368 in Nuremberg or Prague, Sigismund entered a world already shaped by imperial ambition.
  • Charles I of EnglandCharles Stuart entered the world at Dunfermline Palace on the 19th of November 1600 as the second son of King James VI of Scotland.
  • Nicholas Carew (courtier)Nicholas Carew entered the household of the future King Henry VIII at six years old. He shared his education with the boy who would become England's most…
  • Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of NorfolkThomas Howard entered the world on the 10th of March 1473, born into a family that had recently lost everything. His grandfather John Howard died at Bosworth…
  • John Howard, 1st Duke of NorfolkJohn Howard entered the world around 1425 as the son of Sir Robert Howard and Margaret de Mowbray. His father held Tendring Hall in Stoke-by-Nayland…
  • William Paulet, 1st Marquess of WinchesterWilliam Paulet emerged from the manor of Paulet near Bridgwater in Somerset around 1483 or 1485. His father Sir John Paulet held command against Cornish…
  • Thomas CromwellThomas Cromwell is thought to have been born by or around 1485 in Putney, then a village in Surrey providing a ferry service across the Thames upstream from…
  • Henry Percy, 5th Earl of NorthumberlandHenry Algernon Percy entered the world on the 13th of January 1477. He was the son of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, and Maud Herbert.
  • Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of SouthamptonHenry Wriothesley entered the world on the 6th of October 1573 at Cowdray House in Sussex. He was the only son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton…
  • Austen ChamberlainAusten Chamberlain was born on the 16th of October 1863 in Birmingham. He entered the world as the second child and eldest son of Joseph Chamberlain, a…
  • Manuel I of PortugalManuel I was born in Alcochete on the 31st of May 1469. He entered a world already fractured by blood and suspicion among Portuguese noble families.
  • Arthur, Prince of WalesHenry VII became King of England upon defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. He needed to secure his hold on the throne and…
  • William KingstonWilliam Kingston appeared as a yeoman of the guard before June 1509. He served under Sir Richard Wingfield at the French court early in 1520.
  • Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of SuffolkCharles Brandon entered the world in 1484, born into a family defined by loyalty and blood. His father, Sir William Brandon, served as Henry Tudor's…
  • 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…
  • Frederick II of DenmarkOn the 1st of July 1534, a boy named Frederick was born inside Haderslevhus Castle. His father Christian III had just become King of Denmark three days…