Hey, this is Heather from the Renaissance English History Podcast, and this is your Tudor Minute for August 21.
Today in 1536 Robert Sherbourne, the Bishop of Chichester died. Chichester is a small city in west Sussex, and I spent a lovely weekend there staying at a hotel above a pub near to the Cathedral, which I highly recommend. Moving on, it’s an interesting study in reactions to the Reformation. Sherborne had resigned in June, just a few months before he died, so he never witnessed the full scale of the Reformation. Before he resigned, though, he had been a faithful servant of Henry VIII, and had traveled to Rome to get the dispensation Henry needed in order to marry his brother’s widow. He’d been bishop for almost 30 years when the Reformation began. He was a patron of the arts, and especially supported Lambert Barnard, and commissioned several paintings from him.
Chichester, though outwardly conforming, largely stayed Catholic through the end of the 16th century. There are stories of paintings and walls that were whitewashed under Edward during the day being repainted in secret at nighttime. The Cathedral and its grounds are wonderful to visit, and I highly recommend it if you’re nearby.
Bishop Sherborne died today. 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.
Links
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.