Tudor History with Claire Ridgway

Queen Elizabeth I is remembered as Gloriana, England’s Virgin Queen and ruler of a golden age. But before the crown came danger. Born the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth went from celebrated princess to declared illegitimate, from royal heir to political suspect. Under her half-sister Mary I, she was imprisoned in the Tower of London, interrogated for treason, and at one point believed she would not survive the ...

Was Anne Boleyn really too socially inferior to marry Henry Percy, heir to the powerful Earldom of Northumberland? For centuries, Anne Boleyn has been portrayed as an ambitious social climber, a woman of comparatively humble origins who dared to reach beyond her station. According to popular tradition, her relationship with Henry Percy was doomed because she was simply too low. But the historical evidence tells a very different s...

In May 1536, Anne Boleyn went from Queen of England to execution in just eighteen days. It remains one of the most shocking political collapses in English history - a moment that destroyed families, reshaped the Tudor court, and sent shockwaves across Europe. Having researched Anne Boleyn’s life and fall since 2009, I still find these events deeply affecting. Each return to the primary sources - letters, trial records, ambassador...

When you hear the name Mary I, you probably hear one phrase: “Bloody Mary”. A queen of fire and fear. A religious fanatic. A failure compared to Elizabeth I. But that version of Mary is a shortcut, and it isn’t good history. Before the burnings, Mary was Henry VIII’s celebrated heir. A princess educated to rule. A woman who endured humiliation, illegitimacy, and political coercion, and survived. In 1553, when Edward VI died and ...

What really happened during Mary Boleyn’s lost years? Between 1513 and 1522, Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn, slips in and out of the historical record, leaving behind one of the most debated gaps in Tudor history. Over time, that silence has been filled with confident claims: that she served Queen Catherine of Aragon, that she was present at court throughout the period, and most famously, that she was the mistress of King Fran...

When Anne Boleyn returned to England from France in late 1521, she wasn’t coming back for love, ambition, or a crown. She was being recalled for politics. Her return was prompted not by royal interest, but by a proposed marriage, a diplomatic solution to a dangerous inheritance dispute in Ireland. If that plan had gone ahead, Anne might have become Countess of Ormond, living at Kilkenny Castle. No queenship. No religious revolut...

Hare brains. Hedgehog testicles. Mouse skin. Live pigeons. Tudor remedies are famous for sounding grotesque, and ridiculous. But were they really nonsense? In this second part of A Beginner’s Guide to Tudor Medicine, we explore the strangest cures of the sixteenth century, and uncover the surprising truth: some of them actually worked. You’ll learn: – Why remedies were designed to move “imbalances” through the body – Which Tudor...

• Anne’s seven formative years at the French court
• The oft-quoted remarks attributed to Francis I
• The claim tha...

Lady Jane Grey is usually remembered as a tragic pawn, a frightened girl forced onto the throne by ambitious men. But that story simply doesn’t hold up.

When Jane was told she was queen, she wept and insisted that Mary was the rightful heir. Yet once she learned that Edward VI had named her, she made a deliberate choice. She embraced the crown as God’s will, and she ruled.

This video reveals a very different Jane:

• The teen...

• Blickling Hall as the heart of the family’s Norfolk roots, and the probable birthplace of Anne...