April 26 - Shakespeare and the plague

On this day in Tudor history, 26th April 1564, the Bard, William Shakespeare, was baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. This was just three months before the plague hit the town, wiping out a fifth of its population. Fortunately for him, and us, Shakespeare didn't catch it - phew!

 

Find out more about the plague and its outbreak in Stratford-upon-Avon in today's talk from Claire Ridgway, author of "On This Day in Tudor History".

 

Also on this day in Tudor history, 26th April 1540, Catherine Carey, daughter of Mary Boleyn and niece of the late Queen Anne Boleyn, married Francis Knollys.

It is not known whether the marriage was a love match, but it appears to have been a very happy and successful marriage, and resulted in 14 children. You can find out more about them in last year’s video - https://youtu.be/c_rcS3AX7nk 

 

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

https://youtu.be/fbY5itlDUeY

 

And on this day in 1536, in the lead up to Anne Boleyn's fall, Queen Anne Boleyn met with her chaplain, Matthew Parker. The words that she spoke to him that day had such an impact on him that they stayed with him for the rest of his life. Find out more about this in my video on 26th April 1536 - https://youtu.be/2pgryv6sz3g