Inside Story Issue 59
25 July 1554
Queen Mary I marries Philip of Spain
Image: Unrequited love: Queen Mary and her elusive husband, Philip II of Spain, 1558 © Bridgeman Images.
Henry VIII’ s eldest daughter, Mary, came to throne in July 1553 determined to marry as soon as possible. She was deeply conventional in her views on the role of women and admitted that she ‘knew not how to make herself safe and arrange her affairs’ without a husband. The new Queen was also desperate for a child and painfully aware that, at the age of 37, time was running out.
Mary quickly declared her intention to marry 26-year-old Philip of Spain (son of Charles V); her choice being heavily influenced by her mother’s homeland. On seeing his portrait, Mary fell madly in love and refused to listen to the opposition from her council, who feared that England would become a mere satellite of the mighty Spanish empire. The match was also deeply unpopular with her subjects and sparked a rebellion led by Sir Thomas Wyatt in 1554, but the rebels were quickly suppressed, and Mary and Philip were married on 25 July in Winchester.
In August, the newlyweds moved to Hampton Court and within weeks Mary believed she had fallen pregnant. But the expected date of birth came and went, and Mary’s bloated stomach subsided, her false pregnancy probably the result of menstrual problems. Towards the end of her reign, Mary suffered another phantom pregnancy. This time, few people other than the Queen herself believed she was with child. The swelling in Mary’s stomach, which is evident in her funeral effigy that still survives at Westminster Abbey, was possibly caused by cancer.
Mary’s deep love for her husband was not reciprocated, and he spent long periods of their marriage abroad. She died in November 1558, at the age of 42, abandoned by her husband, who had refused to return to his dying wife’s side. Philip expressed ‘reasonable regret’ when told of her passing – but almost immediately made a proposal of marriage to her sister, Queen Elizabeth I.
15 August 1100
The Tower of London ‘welcomes’ its first state prisoner
Image: The Stapleton Collection/Bridgeman Images.
Ranulf Flambard, Bishop of Durham was an ambitious clerk and courtier in the reign of King William II (1087-1100 ). Surnamed Flambard, the ‘fire-raiser’, his voracity as the King’s chief tax collector was matched only by his personal greed.
Entrusted with raising revenue from church lands held illegally by the King, he ensured his own elevation to the powerful position of Bishop of Durham. When Henry I (1100-35) succeeded to the throne, he immediately imprisoned the much-hated tax gatherer, who was led in chains to the Tower of London.
However, the Tower’s first prisoner became its first escapee. On the feast of Candlemas, 2 February 1101, the ‘generous’ bishop laid on a great banquet for his guards, plying them with food and drink. When they were completely drunk and snoring soundly, Flambard escaped out of his prison in the White Tower, using a rope smuggled to him in a barrel of wine. Remarkably, Flambard eventually regained King Henry’s favour, returning to his post as Bishop of Durham for the remainder of his days.
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02 August 1786
King George III survives an assassination attempt
King George III reigned for over 60 years, making him our longest reigning male monarch a fact even more remarkable considering the number of assassination attempts he survived – including two in one day!
On 2 August 1786, while the King was stepping out of his carriage at St James’s Palace, domestic servant Margaret Nicholson approached him under the guise of presenting a petition. As the King reached for the paper, she lunged at him with an ivory-handled dessert knife.
Fortunately, the knife was blunt, and the King was unharmed. He remained remarkably calm, telling his guards ‘The poor creature is mad. Do not harm her. She has not hurt me.’
Image: The attempted assassination of George III as depicted by Robert Dighton, 1786 © Historic Royal Palaces.
Some years later, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in May 1800, a former soldier, James Hadfield fired two shots at the King who was standing in the royal box while the national anthem was being played. After missing his target, Hadfield is reported to have said to the King: ‘God bless your royal highness; I like you very well; you are a good fellow.’ The unflappable King ordered the performance to continue.
Earlier that day, at a review of the 1st Foot Guards in Hyde Park, a shot was fired which narrowly missed the King but struck a clerk in the Navy Office who was standing close by. And in 1803, Colonel Edward Despard and his accomplices were executed for a plot to seize the Tower of London, overthrow the government and assassinate the King.
Ultimately, these attempts did little more than highlight the King’s remarkable stoicism to simply ‘keep calm and carry on’.
23 August 1662
Triumph on the Thames
Image: Catherine of Braganza's 'Aqua Triumphalis', a monumental pageant held on the River Thames between Hampton Court and Whitehall on 23 August 1662 © Historic Royal Palaces.
Charles II and his new Portuguese wife Catherine of Braganza spent their honeymoon at Hampton Court Palace in May 1662. The event was marked by grand preparations including the creation of the Long Water canal, the refurbishment of the Queen’s lodgings and the provision of a great green velvet bed topped with plumes. However, the celebrations were overshadowed by one of the King’s many mistresses, Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, who arrived at the palace to give birth to her second child by him. The Queen was so shocked at being introduced to her husband’s mistress that she fainted!
Image: Barbara Villiers, Charles II’s notorious and much-admired mistress, by Samuel Cooper, 1661 © Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd 2026 | Royal Collection Trust.
After a three-month stay at the palace, Charles and Catherine left Hampton Court and travelled in a great river procession to London where the new Queen was welcomed by the Lord Mayor and citizens of London. The ‘Aqua Triumphalis’ as it was called, was described as ‘the most magnificent triumph that ever floated on the Thames’, with over 10,000 boats and barges ‘dress’d and adorn’d with all imaginable pomp’. The diarist, Samuel Pepys watched the spectacle from the top of the Banqueting House at Whitehall, but the real focus of his attention appears to have been the King’ s mistress, Lady Castlemaine, who once again stole the show.
That which pleased me best was, that my Lady Castlemaine stood over against us upon a piece of White Hall, where I glutted myself with looking on her
Samuel Pepys
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