1549 – Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector, was ordered to leave Windsor Castle and give himself up. He had moved there with the young Edward VI on the 6th October, from Hampton Court Palace, after learning that his protectorship was in danger.
1562 – Elizabeth I became unwell at Hampton Court Palace. She decided to take a bath but the illness turned out to be smallpox “and the cold caught by leaving her bath for the air resulted in so violent a fever that on the seventh day she was given up.” Elizabeth very nearly died from the disease but fortunately recovered and it was as she was recovering that she ordered her council to make Dudley protector of the kingdom and made clear that “as God was her witness nothing improper had ever passed between them.”
Notes and Sources
- Elizabeth I: A Life, David Loades, p144
