Nicholas Ridley

Walking “Tudor” England

Aug 10, 2021

battles, buildings, genealogy, law, religion, television reviews, travel

“Bloody Mary”, “Tudors”, Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves, Arthur “Tudor”, Ashdown Forest, attainder, Austin Friars, bear-baiting, Bishops of London, Bridewell Palace, brothels, Cambridge, cannon, Channel Five, Christopher Hatton, Clifford’s Tower, conspiracies, dancing, de heretico comburendo, Dutch refugees, East Midlands, Edmund Bonner, Edward of Buckingham, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, excommunication, executions, exile, fire, Framlingham Castle, Fulham Palace, Greenwich Palace, Grey-Dudley rebellion, Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes, Hampton Court, Henry Earl of Huntingdon, Henry Grey Duke of Suffolk, Henry VIII, Hever Castle, James VI/I, Jane, John Dudley Duke of Northumberland, John Foxe, John Howard Duke of Norfolk, Katherine Howard, Kenilworth Castle, Kenninghall, Kett Rebellion, Leicester, London, Lord Chancellor, Lord Guildford Dudley, Margaret Clitherow, Mary Stuart, Mass, Michelham Priory, naval power, Nicholas Ridley, Northern Earls’ Rebellion, Norwich, Penshurst Place, Pilgrimage of Grace, Pontefract, Portsmouth, recusants, Ripon Cathedral, Robert Aske, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, royal barges, royal hunting estates, Rushton Triangular Lodge, severed heads, Sir Henry Dudley, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Thomas Tresham, Sir Walter Raleigh, Southwark, St. Mary’s Abbey, Stamford, Suzannah Lipscomb, The Globe, Thomas Howard 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Stafford, tobacco, torture, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Will Kemp, William Cecil, William Shakespeare, Wyatt Rebellion, Yorkshire Museum

Suzannah Lipscomb has just completed another series on Channel Five, this time visiting the sites related to the “Tudors”. In the first episode, she concentrated on Henry VIII and the naval power he inherited from John Howard, Duke of Norfolk. The second was principally about the penultimate “Tudor”, Mary I, as well as Edward VI…
Further travels in enemy territory: Oxford

Oct 16, 2020

anniversaries, buildings, culture, humour, religion, television reviews

Ashmolean Museum, Beccles, Bocarno Prison, C.S. Lewis, Cambridge University, Christ Church Cathedral Oxford., Crick, DNA, Dorothy Hodgkin, eagle and child, Endeavour Morse, football, Four Candles, Headington, heresy, Hugh Latimer, J.R.R. Tolkein, Last Bus to Woodstock, Manor Ground, Martyrs’ Memorial, Matilda, Nicholas Ridley, Oxford, Oxford High School for Boys, Oxford Prison. Oxford Castle, Oxford United, Pitt-Rivers Museum, Ronnie Barker, St. Michael at the north gate, The Wench is Dead, Thomas Cranmer, Watson

Oxford (Oxenford) is obviously a compact and historic city although visiting specific buildings at short notice is difficult at present. Christ Church Cathedral (England’s smallest for the largest diocese) and the Ashmolean Museum (currently organising a Rembrandt exhibition) were unbookable whilst the Pitt-Rivers Museum didn’t open until September. I went for the Bank Holiday weekend…
The Bishop, the MP, the scientist, the historian and the brewer

Oct 16, 2019

anniversaries, buildings, genealogy, law, religion

brewing, chaplains, clerical celibacy, de heretico comburendo, Edward IV, Edward VI, Essex, executions, Henry VIII, Hugh Latimer, illegitimacy, Jasper Ridley, JD Wetherspoon, John Knox, Mary I, Matt Ridley, MPs, Nicholas Ridley, Nicholas Ridley MP, Northumbria, Old St. Paul’s, Oxford, Professor Jane Ridley, Ralph Shaa, sermons, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Tewkesbury, Thomas Cranmer, University of Buckingham, Victoria

The preacher at St. Paul’s stated that the late King’s surviving issue were illegitimate. On this occasion, it wasn’t Dr. Ralph Shaa on 22nd June 1483 about Edward IV’s sons but Rt. Rev. Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London and Westminster, on 9 July 1553 about Henry VIII’s daughters, at which time Jane was proclaimed. As…
More musical connections?

Feb 9, 2019

anniversaries, religion, travel

Archbishop Cranmer, Balliol College, BBC Radio, executions, Gloucester, Hadleigh, heresy, Hugh Latimer, Ian Hislop, John Foxe, John Hooper, Marian persecution, Martyrs’ Memorial, Mary I, Nicholas Ridley, nursery rhymes, Oxford, Patrick Hamilton, Robert Ferrar, Rowland Tayler, Scotland, St. Andrews, St. David’s, Three Blind Mice, Wales

This nursery rhyme, although not mediaeval, is early modern and is supposed to refer to a monarch just a few places after Richard III. Here (left) we have the Martyrs’ Memorial near Balliol College, Oxford, that commemorates three of Mary I’s most prominent victims: Archbishop Cranmer and Bishops Latimer and Ridley. They were not the only…
The Royal martyr

Nov 30, 2017

anniversaries, genealogy, religion

Aldham Common, Archbishop Cranmer, Carmarthen, de heretico comburendo, Gloucester, Hadleigh, Hugh Latimer, James II, James V, John Hooper, Martin Luther, Mary I, Nicholas Ridley, Oxford, Patrick Hamilton, Robert Ferrar, Rowland Tayler, Scotland, St. Andrews

If you wish to visit the site of a heresy execution or a memorial to a victim in England and Wales, there are several options, most of which date from Mary I’s reign. Aldham Common in Hadleigh commemorates the town’s Rector, Rowland Tayler. Oxford marks an Archbishop, Cranmer, together with Bishops Latimer and Ridley, whilst…

Nicholas Ridley

Walking “Tudor” England

Further travels in enemy territory: Oxford

The Bishop, the MP, the scientist, the historian and the brewer

More musical connections?

The Royal martyr