At four o’clock on the afternoon of 22nd August 1545, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, magnate, courtier, soldier and King Henry VIII’s great friend, died of unknown causes at Guildford as he prepared to lead an army to Boulogne.
Although as his biographer, Sarah Bryson, points out, Suffolk requested to be buried at Tattershall, in Lincoln, he was buried at the king’s expense in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 9th September 1545.
Click here to read a brief bio of Suffolk.
Sarah Bryson’s book, Charles Brandon: The King’s Man, is an excellent read on this fascinating Tudor man, as is Steven Gunn’s Charles Brandon: Henry VIII’s Closest Friend.
Trivia: Suffolk’s father was also killed on this day in history. On 22nd August 1485, at the Battle of Bosworth, Sir William Brandon, Henry Tudor’s standard bearer, was cut down by Richard III’s men.
