May 7 - The wife Bothwell divorced to marry Mary, Queen of Scots

 

On 7th May 1567, eight days before James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, married Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic court granted him a divorce from his wife, Lady Jean Gordon.

 

Who was Jean Gordon? Why did Bothwell divorce her? And what happened to Jean afterwards?

 

Find out more about Bothwell and Jean's marriage, and about Jean's life, in today's talk from Claire Ridgway, author of "On This Day in Tudor History".

 

April 29 video - https://youtu.be/trdexa_EwUM

 

Bothwell's death - https://youtu.be/XRU_nEsUxFw 

 

You can see this podcast as a video at the following link:

https://youtu.be/H4NJetrgmhg

 

Also on this day in Tudor history, 7th May 1535, after a year of imprisonment in awful conditions at the Tower of London, John Fisher, former Bishop of Rochester, was visited at the Tower of London and tricked into saying something that would lead to his brutal end. Find out more in last year’s video - https://youtu.be/vmgMvS_JZlw 

And on this day in 1536, in the fall of Anne Boleyn, the queen’s chaplain was accosted and searched on his arrival back in England from the Continent. Why? Find out in last year’s video - https://youtu.be/tk6hHmiv_2E