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| Northamptonshire |
 Northamptonshire
lies in central England. In
1974 the Soke of Peterborough was incorporated
into Cambridgeshire.
Towns include the county seat of Northampton. |
| Historic
Events |
| Major
Battles |
In
1645 the Battle
of Naseby was a decisive battle of the English
Civil Wars,
a conflict from 1642-51 between supporters of the monarchy and
supporters of Parliament. The Parliamentarians under Sir Thomas
Fairfax
defeated the Royalists under Charles
I
and captured the king's baggage train. This proved to be decisive
as in the train the King kept his personal correspondence and
the letters showed proof of his duplicity in dealing with Parliament,
a significant factor in his later downfall.
Charles
I
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| Monarchs |
|
Scottish House of Stewart |
House of Stewart |
In
1587 Mary,
Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay
Castle where she had been held since the previous year.
She had ruled Scotland from the age of one week in 1542, until
her forced abdication in favour of her son James VI in 1567.
Shortly afterwards she sought refuge in England but was to spend
the rest of her life as a prisoner of her cousin Elizabeth I
who eventually ordered her execution. Originally buried at Peterborough
Cathedral, in 1612 her son James, since 1603 also King of England,
had her body moved to Westminster
Abbey.
Mary,
Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots
Monarchs
buried at Westminster Abbey
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| Royal
Consorts and Heirs |
|
House of Lancaster |
Henry IV's first wife Mary de
Bohun died in childbirth at Peterborough
Castle (then in Northamptonshire)
in 1394. Her husband became King in 1399. She was the mother
of the future Henry V.
|
| House
of York |
Elizabeth
Woodville, future Queen to Edward
IV, was born at Grafton Regis in 1437 and in 1464 married Edward
there. She remained Queen until her husband's death in 1483
and was the mother to Edward V.
Elizabeth
Woodville
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|
House of Tudor |
Henry VIII's first wife Catherine
of Aragon was buried at Peterborough
Cathedral (then in Northamptonshire) in 1536. She had married
Henry's elder brother Prince Arthur in 1501 but he died the
following year. In 1509 she married Henry VIII giving birth
to the future Mary I in 1516. She remained Queen until 1533
when Henry secretly married Anne Boleyn in frustration at the
Catholic Church in Rome not granting him a divorce. This was
to lead to the Reformation when Henry broke with the Pope and
set about creating the Church of England.
Catherine
of Aragon
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Writers
and Poets
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The poet John
Dryden was born at the vicarage at Aldwinkle
in 1631. He became the first official Poet
Laureate
in 1668 when he succeeded Sir William D'Avenant. He had to relinquish
the post which was normally held for life in 1688 during the Glorious
Revolution and in 1689 Thomas Shadwell succeeded him.
John
Dryden
Glorious Revolution
Poets
laureate
Either be wholly slaves or wholly
free.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)
J.L.
Carr, the author of A Month in the Country, died in
Kettering in 1994.
J.L.
Carr
... - the first breath of autumn was in
the air, a prodigal feeling, a feeling of wanting, taking, and keeping
before it is too late.
A
Month in the Country (1980)
We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours
for ever - the way things looked, that church alone in the fields,
a bed on a belfry floor, a remembered voice, the touch of a hand,
a loved face. They've gone and you can only wait for the pain to
pass.
A
Month in the Country (1980)
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