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[tudorsource]

Happy Birthday Queen Elizabeth II

You come from a long line of admirable women. The men…ehh.

Queen Elizabeth turns 89 years old today, April 21, 2015. (Photo credit CNN)

[tudorsource]

How to Die in Tudor England

No beheading by the King. No plague that wipes out you and your neighbors. Not even a starvation. This article (published 2011 by BBC) honors Henry’s fallen subjects who had the audacity to die with originality. Enjoy the read. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-13762313

Death by Maypole, anyone?

[tudorsource]

Henry’s Acts of Succession...Third Time’s a Charm

Today in 1534, the children of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were declared the legitimate heirs to the throne of England, officially excluding Henry’s first daughter, Mary. That was Henry’s First Act of Succession. But we know how that turned out. Anne fell out of favor, was executed, and her daughter Elizabeth met the same fate as Mary...declared illegitimate. All of this required a Second Act of Succession.

Finally, along came Edward, son to Henry and Jane Seymour, giving England and Henry their rightful male heir. 

But Henry was nothing if not paranoid. Toward the end of his life he decided the Tudor line should not rest solely on one young boy, and once again included his daughters in the line of succession. Henry’s Third Act of Succession declared his heirs as Edward, Mary and then Elizabeth...in that order. None of them produced offspring, and each of them ruled England in turn.

Interestingly, the Third Act of Succession, while it returned his daughters to the official Tudor line, did not remove their illegitimate status. So when Mary took the throne after Edward’s death, she became England’s first female monarch, as well as its first illegitimately born monarch. But that didn’t sit well with Mary and her first act in Parliament was to reinstate the marriage of Henry to her mother Catherine of Aragon as valid, thereby making her birth legitimate once again.

Which means, of course, the trailblazing of an illegitimate heir would be passed to Elizabeth. Now that’s another story...

http://tudorsource.com/blog/post/2015/03/23/64