Today in 1558 Mary I’s 5th Parliament opened, and one of its first points of business was to grant subsidies to Mary to make up for the loss of Calais. Calais, which, though French, had been controlled by England since 1346, fell two weeks before, on January 8.
But today we are also marking the death of Miles Coverdale in 1569, Bishop of Exeter, almoner to Katherine Parr, and translator of the Bible. He studied at Cambridge, and by the 1520’s he was in Antwerp with fellow translator William Tyndale. In 1537 Thomas Cromwell asked him to work on a translation that was based off of the work of both Coverale and Tyndale, and have it printed in Paris. But there was trouble with the Inquisition, and the printers had to leave Paris, though they had some copies saved. In 1539 6,000 copies were printed, meaning that each church in England could have a copy of the Bible in English. Coverdale left England as the conservatives at court became more prominent, and came back during the reign of Edward VI when he was almoner to the Dowager Queen Katherine Parr. He fled eventually to Geneva during Mary’s reign, coming back under Elizabeth in 1559.
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 link:
English Reformation
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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.