24 May 1425 - Death of Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany, Scottish politician 

24 May 1487- The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign.

24 May 1522-Birth of John Jewel, English bishop 

24 May 1533- Charles V. to his Ambassador in France.

Since his last, touching the marriage of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, has received letters from his ambassadors, stating that it has certainly taken place, and that the Queen has been forbidden to call herself Queen, and the Princess to write to her, &c. The people of England are scandalised at the King's barbarity. Is to show these things to Francis, and urge him as a Christian prince, and as related to Katharine by his wife, to denounce this marriage, or at least not to countenance it in any way or interfere with justice. He is also to deliver the Emperor's letters to the Queen, and urge her to use her best efforts in the matter. De Leyva writes that Montferrat is reduced all but Alba. Barcelona, 24 May 1533.

24 May 1536-John Thorneton to Lord [Erskine?].

Came hither (Antwerp) on the 14th instant. As I could not easily obtain posting to go myself to Rome, I have sent my errands by the post, who has promised to be in Rome and deliver my errands there this night, and I trust to have answer in 15 days, when I will return to Scotland with diligence. I hope your Lordship has obtained me the safe-conduct to pass through England which you promised me, but I have heard nothing thereof.

Your Lordship will do the King our master great and singular pleasure, and have me indebted to you by sending it as soon as possible to Mons. Camillo Tadiattote's (?) bank here in Antwerp, where I am lodging. The merchants of London write that there will be no difficulty in sending it here if it be sped. I dare not return without it through England, as Mr. Cromwell's writing serves only for Calais and Dover, "and tha ar ellis out of handes and deliverit quhen I come over, and sua quhen I return againe, but [a salve] conductte I am war not of before and inclusit in ane horse net, quhilk God [keep] me fra in Ingland, and your L. ma put remeidy and ye pleise." Will gladly pay all the expenses. I hope to be ready to depart in WhitSunday week. There are three or four Scotch ships in Zealand ready to depart, "bot tha ar mor to aventur in, and grant apperans of breking of wey . . . . . . betwix France and the Imperator."

Both Italy and Almain are furnishing the Emperor with men-of-war and necessaries. Sixty thousand men are passed to the Emperor's army, which will number 100,000 men. He has joined it himself. The 13th instant he was beside Placentia, 40 miles from Milan. I have sent to Scotland by sea copies of a writing I got from Rome, and of the Emperor's oration made before the Pope. The count Palatine has come with 13,000 men. Some say he passes to recover Denmark. The duke of Gueldres with 6,000 men is besieging Grinning, in Holland, and 3,000 men of this country have gone to defend it. All that he does is by the solicitation of France. They reck little of his intelligence with the Turk, who seeks to invade Hungary this year. A Scotchman, who lately came from Reusbrige, says that many of the Lutherans are turned again to the right faith because of the poverty and mischief that came amongst them since they erred. At Nuremberg, which was the worst, mass, matins, and all divine service are sung as before. There is an ambassador from England at Frankfort, who was with the duke of Saxony. I trust he is a bishop returning to England. They will not let him pass without the Emperor's command.

At Frankfort a friar who had married a nun and had fair bairns with her, after coming from the preaching ran her through with a sword, and hanged himself in his own house; and, "on the morn," Barbour, who was a chief Lutheran, cut his own throat with a razor.

In this country they are very good Christian people and devout. Many who were noted Lutherans before consider the sect to be dead, because they see their deeds and intentions to be evil. Commend me to Master Adam Mur (?), Sir Jo. Ker, and all friends. Hantverpe, in Vigilia Ascensionis, 1536.

24 May 1543-Nicolaus Copernicus publishes proof of a sun-centered solar system. He dies just after publication.

24 May 1546 – Letters were sent from Privy Council to Anne Askew and her estranged husband Thomas Kyme, ordering them to appear in front of the council within fourteen days.

24 May 1562 – Holinshed's Chronicle reported that on this day, a "monstrous birth" occured at Chichester in Sussex..

24 May 1576 - Birth of Elizabeth Chamberlain,Lady Berkeley,she was an English courtier and arts patroness, the only child of George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, and Elizabeth Spencer.

24 May 1612 - Death of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury,he was and the son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and Mildred Cooke. His half-brother was Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter and philosopher Francis Bacon was his first cousin.

source:http://www.thetudormonarch.com/,http://www.british-history.ac.uk/

23 May 1430-Joan of Arc is Sold to English and Condemned to Die for Heresy

23 May 1533 - King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon's marriage declared null and void 

23 May 1533-Charles V. to Ferdinand of Hungary.

I wrote on the 12th what I had learned about the marriage (l'esposement) of the king of England to Anne Boleyn. I have since received letters from my ambassador, by which you will see that the said marriage is accomplished, and that the King holds her as his wife and queen of England. Although the injury done to the Queen and Princess is extreme, and there is little hope of bringing Henry to reason, considering the delays and subterfuges used by him and the Pope, yet after careful consideration it has been thought best to persist in the demand for justice, as you will see by the copy of our despatches to Rome and England ; and that you also should send some one to Rome to urge the matter. I write also to the king of Portugal to do the like. * Barcelona, 23 May 1533.

23 May 1533-The Bailly of Troyes to Francis I.

The king of England desires him to suggest to Francis that he ought to inform the Germans about the interview with the Pope, lest they should suspect something would be arranged to their prejudice.

He has heard from his ambassador in France that Francis thinks that the late statute forbidding appeals to Rome in matrimonial cases may hinder the interview, and render it more difficult. He says he was forced to it by the unjust censures issued against him by the Pope, who has acted not like a judge or a party, but an enemy, as Norfolk will explain more fully. Sends a copy of grievances, which the King gave him. The archbishop of Canterbury is at work on the King's great affair, to decide whether the other queen is his wife or no. Expects the sentence in three days. Asked that it might be delayed till the Pope's arrival at Nice, which was refused ; and then that it might be kept secret until he had met the French king ; which the King said was impossible, for it must be published before the Queen's coronation, which will take place on Whitsunday. He does not wish the Pope to give a sentence, or do anything to cause discussion about the inheritance of the child of which the Queen is pregnant. He intends the child, if a son, to be the sole heir of the kingdom. The sentence of the archbishop of Canterbury must therefore precede any other that may be given by the Pope. He said also that it would be more honorable for the Pope to consent to the Archbishop's sentence than to give it himself, considering how he has acted.

Norfolk "ne s'y trouve moins empesché que moy," as he can show the French king when he sees him.

Fr. Headed : Copie d'une lettre escripte au Roy par M. le Bailly de Troyes, du 23 May 1533.

23 May 1533-Cranmer to Henry VIII.

Today, 23 May, I have given sentence in your great and weighty cause. I send a copy thereof by the bearer, Ric. Watkyns. As I was advertised by the letters of Mr. Thurlesbye, your chaplain, that it was your pleasure that I should cause your counsel to conceive a procuracy concerning the second marriage, I have sent the letters to them, and required them to act accordingly. I desire to know your pleasure concerning the second matrimony as soon as you and your counsel are perfectly resolved therein, for the time of the coronation is so near at hand that the matter requires good expedition. Dunstaple, 23 May.

23 May 1533-The Divorce.

Notification of the sentence of divorce between Hen. VIII. and Katharine of Arragon pronounced by archbishop Cranmer. Dated in the monastery of Dunstable, 23 May 1533. Present, Gervase prior of the said monastery, Simon Haynes, S.T.P., John Newman, M.A., and others.

The matrimony between the King and the lady Katharine being dissolved by sufficient authority, all pactions made for the same marriage are also dissolved and of none effect. That is, the jointure shall return again to the King's use, and the money paid to him by her friends shall be repaid to her.

The matrimony being dissolved, the lady Katharine shall return to the commodity and profits of the first matrimony, and the pactions of the same, made with prince Arthur, and shall enjoy the jointure assigned to her thereby, notwithstanding any quittance or renunciation made in the second pact. For as these renunciations were agreed unto for a sure trust and hope to enjoy the commodities and pactions of the second marriage, which now she cannot enjoy, unless without fault she should be deprived of both, equity and right restore her to the first. This, we think, by our poor learning, to be according both to canon and civil law, unless there are any other treaties and pactions which we have not seen.

For the more clear declaration hereof, we think that when a matrimony is dissolved, if there is no paction of a further bond, then by law the money paid by the woman or her friends shall be restored to her, and the jointure return to the man and his heirs. In this case there is an especial pact that she shall enjoy her jointure durante vita, so that the said jointure is due to her by the pact, and the money paid by her and her friends by the law.

23 May 1547 – Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset, father of Lady Jane Grey, installed as a Knight of the Garter.

23 May 1554 - After two months of terror at the Tower of London Elizabeth was finally released on Saturday 19 May.  However she was not given her freedom. She was placed under the equivalent of 'house arrest' at the Royal residence at Woodstock. Her 'jailor' was to be Sir Henry Bedingfield.  imprisoned at Woodstock. Elizabeth had not expected to be released and was suspicious of the circumstances surrounding her release from the Tower.

source:http://www.british-history.ac.uk/,http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/,wikipedia

22 May 1455- Start of the Wars of the Roses

22 May 1455-King Henry VI is taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans

22 May 1455 - Death of Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland.He was an English nobleman and military commander in the lead up to the Wars of the Roses. He was the son of Henry "Hotspur" Percy, and the grandson of Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland. His father and grandfather were killed in different rebellions against Henry IV in 1403 and 1405 respectively, and the young Henry spent his minority in exile in Scotland. Only after the death of Henry IV in 1413 was he reconciled with the Crown, and in 1416 he was created Earl of Northumberland.

22 May 1455 - Death of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset.He  was an English nobleman and an important figure in the Wars of the Roses and in the Hundred Years' War. He also succeeded in the title of 4th Earl of Somerset and was created 1st Earl of Dorset and 1st Marquess of Dorset (previously held by his father and later forfeited), and Count of Mortain. He was known for his deadly rivalry with Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York.

22 May 1490 - Death of Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent.He was an English administrator,nobleman and magnate, and the son of Sir John Grey and Constance Holland.

22 May 1537 -  Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset sworn in as a Privy Councillor

22 May 1538 - Friar John Forrest burned at the stake, the only Catholic to burn during Henry VIII's reign

22 May 1539 - Birth of  Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford.He was the eldest son of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, by his second wife Anne Stanhope. He is most noted for incurring the displeasure of Queen Elizabeth by more than one clandestine marriage.His first wife was Lady Catherine Grey, the younger sister of Lady Jane Grey and granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary

source:http://www.thetudormonarch.com/,wikipedia

21 May 1471-King Henry VI is killed in the Tower of London.

21 May 1471-Edward IV takes the throne.

21 May 1524-Death of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk.He was the only son of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, by his first wife, Katherine Moleyns. The Duke was the grandfather of both Queen Anne Boleyn and Queen Katherine Howard and the great grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I. He served four monarchs as a soldier and statesman.

21 May 1527 -Birth of Philip II of Spain.He was King of Spain (second Philip to Castille, first to Aragon and the fourth to Navarre) from 1556 and of Portugal from 1581 (as Philip I, Filipe I). From 1554 he was King of Naples and Sicily as well as Duke of Milan. During his marriage to Queen Mary I , he was also King of England and Ireland.

21 may 1534-Archbishop Lee and Tunstall to Henry VIII.

This day we repaired to the princess Dowager, when “I the archbishop of York, for an introduction to declare to her the effect of our commission, said to her:”—1, that you had often sent me and others of her council to declare to her the invalidity of your marriage with her; 2, that carnal knowledge, which is the great key of the matter, is sufficiently proved in the law, and admitted by some of her council; 3, that on proof of this you and she were divorced; 4, that she was thereupon admonished to give up the name of queen and not account herself your wife; 5, that you had contracted a new marriage with your dearest wife queen Anne; 6, that as fair issue is already sprung of this marriage, and more likely to follow, Parliament has made acts for the succession, and against all that would impugn it; for which reason we were sent to make her understand the purport of these acts, lest she should incur a penalty by ignorance. “Which thing being thus declared to her, she, being therewith in great choler and agony, and always interrupting our words,” made answer: 1, that she held the marriage between your Highness and her good, and would always account herself your lawful wife; 2, she denied that there was ever carnal knowledge between her and prince Arthur, and said they lied falsely that so said; 3, she declared she was not bound to stand to the divorce made by my lord of Canterbury, whom she called a shadow, and though he had given sentence against her, the Pope had given it in her favor, whom she took for Christ's vicar; 4, that she would never leave the name of queen; 5, that this marriage made after her appeal which she made by your Highness's leave, is of no value; 6, that she is not bound to the acts of Parliament, as she is your wife and not subject to you, and the acts were made by your subjects in your favor who are a party.

Tunstall, in reply to an observation that she made, that he and the rest of her counsel had always told her her matter was just, said the point on which they had been consulted when the Legates were here was only upon the validity of the bull and brief; but divers other questions had arisen and been debated by the chief universities of Christendom, among others by that of Bologna, the Pope's own town, and it was concluded that on the death of a brother who had carnal knowledge with his wife, no dispensation would enable the brother living to marry her. The Pope, too, had never maintained the contrary, but said at Marseilles that if you would send thither a proxy, he would give sentence for your Highness against her; and according to an epistle decretal sent hither by Campeggio, the Legates were to pronounce for the divorce if marriage and carnal knowledge had been had between prince Arthur and her; proofs of which were brought in before the Legates, and since before the Convocations of this realm and by them allowed; so that the Pope's sentence to the contrary was not valid. Tunstall had accordingly altered his opinion, and advised her to do the same; especially as the sentence to which she attaches so much importance was given after the King's appeal to the General Council. Refer to my lord of Chester, Mr. Almoner and Mr. Bedell to report further of her obstinacy, as they have very substantially ordered themselves in the execution of the premises. Huntingdon, 21 May.

21 may 1534- [Instructions to Persons sent to Katharine of Arragon.]

R. O. Her protestation that her first marriage was not consummated cannot be received in opposition to the presumptions of law and the depositions to the contrary, and the consummation is to be taken as sufficiently proved. The King marvels greatly that she persists in it. Touching her adherence to the bishop of Rome's sentence in her favor, this sentence is of no effect, being given after the King's appeal to the General Council, and by one who has no jurisdiction in the realm to define the legitimation or succession of princes. As to her desire to have her confessor, two chaplains, her physician, apothecary and two men servants, with as many women as the King pleases to appoint, who shall take no oath but to the King and to her, and none other woman, she must open her mind more plainly; “for which purpose they now do come unto her.” The King may perhaps grant some of her desires, but he must perceive that she will show such a reasonableness in her suit and demands that due conformity and obedience may ensue. If she desires to have this oath administered as to the King and to herself as dowager of prince Arthur, he might perhaps be induced thereto, but she cannot have them sworn to her as queen, for it is contrary to the King's conscience and to the laws. If she refuse this way, they think verily they must put her and all the foresaid folk to the act of the statute.

Her offer to remain in any gentleman's house with the said persons unsworn, is reputed to be dissembled and derogatory to the King's honor, but if she will abandon the title of queen, he will be contented to treat her honorably with what company she desires, and other pleasures appertaining to the honor of his dearest sister, but he cannot allow any of his native subjects to refuse to take the oath.

21 may 1535-Arrest of William Tyndale

21 May 1553 - Marriage of Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley

21 May 1554 – Queen Mary I grants a royal charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England.

source:http://www.british-history.ac.uk/,wikipedia

20 May 1535 - The imprisoned Bishop John Fisher was made a Cardinal by Pope Paul III.

20 May 1536 – Betrothal of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour.

Chapuys to Granvelle.

Wrote yesterday very fully to the Emperor and Granvelle. Has just been informed, the bearer of this having already mounted, that Mrs. Semel came secretly by river this morning to the King's lodging, and that the promise and betrothal (desponsacion) was made at 9 o'clock. The King means it to be kept secret till Whitsuntide; but everybody begins already to murmur by suspicion, and several affirm that long before the death of the other there was some arrangement which sounds ill in the ears of the people; who will certainly be displeased at what has been told me, if it be true, viz., that yesterday the King, immediately on receiving news of the decapitation of the putain entered his barge and went to the said Semel, whom he has lodged a mile from him, in a house by the river. Cannot write to the Emperor for the haste of the courier, but will send particulars to him shortly. London, 20 May 1536.

1609 - Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.