On this day in history, 25th October…
1529 – Thomas More became Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor after Cardinal Wolsey had been forced to surrender the Great Seal on the 17th October. See “Sir Thomas More Becomes Lord Chancellor” for more on this.
1532 – Henry VIII arrived back at Calais with Francis I to a 3,000 gun salute. Francis I sent Anne Boleyn a diamond via the Provost of Paris but she was nowhere to be seen, she was waiting to make a dramatic entrance on the 27th.
1536 – Four chaplains of Poverty were appointed by the Pilgrimage of Grace rebels: Barnard Townley (chancellor to the Bishop of Carlisle and rector of Caldbeck), Christopher Blenkow (vicar of Edenhall), Christopher Slee (vicar of Castle Sowerby) and pluralist Roland Threlkeld. M L Bush points out that the rebels threatened them with execution if they failed in their duty, which was “to instruct the commons ‘concerning faith'”. Also on this day in 1536, and the following day, a special mass, called the Captains’ Mass was performed at Penrith Church.
You can read more about this in M L Bush’s “The Pilgrimage of Grace: A Study of the Rebels Armies of October 1536”.
1555 – A worn out Charles V abdicated a number of his titles, giving his son Philip control of the Low Countries.