Today in 1559 Elizabeth I left the Tower for Westminster where she would be crowned Queen in a litter covered with cloth of gold. An apocryphal story is that as she passed the Tower Menagerie, she praised God that he had delivered her from the lion’s den as he had also delivered Daniel. Along the way she was met with five pageants extolling her lineage, and Tudor inheritance, and her role as the keeper of the true religion in England.
Another important event that happened today was half a century earlier when Charles Brandon was sent to France to collect Henry VIII’s sister Mary, who was the Dowager Queen of France. Of course, this would go down in history when Charles and Mary got married in secret, one of the most memorable and romantic scandals of the Tudor period.
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.
Suggested links:
Episode 112: The Tower Menagerie
Episode 115: A chat with Tony Riches on Charles Brandon
Episode 108: Mary Tudor, Queen of France
From the shop:
Mary Tudor Tudor Women Charm Necklace
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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.