Today in 1555 Robert Holgate died. He was the Archbishop of York, and in his life he brought to the fore one of the major issues between Protestants and Catholics, which was the idea of a clergy that could get married. He was the first Protestant Archbishop of York, and he was also the first to get married.
He was President of the Council in the North, but proved unable to put down the Seamer rebellion in 1549, and was replaced by Francis Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. He would see much of the wealth of the York minster be stripped as Edward VI moved the Protestant reformation further and destroyed any lingering signs of Catholicism.
After Edward VI died, his sister, the Catholic Mary assumed the throne in 1553, and Robert Holgate, to quote from the York Minster Chronicle, “Quickly shed his wife and his Protestant faith to save his skin.” In 1554 he was deprived of his title.
Robert Holgate died in London on the 15th of Nov 1555, and his body was buried in the Church of St. Sepulchre, Holborn, London.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th-century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.
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October is Reformation Month!
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.