Armchair Traveller Archives | The Tudor Travel Guide

Armchair Traveller | Dorset | John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset | Margaret Beauchamp, 1st Duchess of Somerset | PEOPLE | Places by County | Road-Trip Traveller | Tudor Tombs

John and Margaret Beaufort, 1st Duke and Duchess of Somerset.

Name and Title: John Beaufort and Margaret Beauchamp, 1st Duke (also 3rd Earl of Somerset) and Duchess of Somerset (also Lady St John and Lady Welles).

Born: John Beaufort b.1404; Margaret Beauchamp c. 1410

Died: John Beaufort Died: 3 May 1444, London. Margaret Beauchamp Died: before 3 June 1482.

Buried: Wimborne Minster, Dorset.

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Armchair Traveller | Elizabeth of York | Gloucestershire | Gloucestershire | Henry VII | PEOPLE | Road-Trip Traveller

The 1502 Progress: Woolaston, Gloucestershire

On 28 August, the Queen’s Chamber Books for Elizabeth of York records, ‘Itm the same day to the mariners that conveyed the Quenes grace over the Severn besides Chepstowe’. The temptation is to immediately conclude that a ferry conducted the King and Queen across the River Severn into England at the point where the current bridge spans the river, close to the foot of Chepstow Castle, where the royal couple had been lodged. While this might be true, further close inspection of a later entry in the Chamber Book (dated 27 September) clarifies that the Queen moved from Chepstow to ‘Walstone’ before arriving at the next stop: Berkeley Castle.

This entry is a retrospective payment made to ‘Robert Alyn for his costes prepayring logging for the Quene from Ragland to Chepstowe by the space of twoo dayes, from Chepstowe to Walstone, ij dayes, from Walstone to Berkeley, ij dayes.’…

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Armchair Traveller | Chepstow CAstle | Earls of Worcester | Elizabeth of York | Henry VII | PEOPLE | Road-Trip Traveller

The 1502 Progress: Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire

After travelling for around four weeks, and lodging for a week at Raglan Castle, Elizabeth of York and Henry VII began their homebound journey.

Bordering Wales and England, Chepstow Castle sits atop of the cliffs overlooking the River Wye in Monmouthshire’s Wye Valley. it was the next stop on the 1502 progress.

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Armchair Traveller | PEOPLE | Places by County | Road-Trip Traveller | Robert Dudley | Sir William ap Thomas | Tudor Tombs | Warwickshire

Sir William ap Thomas of Raglan Castle, Monmouthshire

Medieval Tomb:

Name and Title: Sir William ap Thomas

Born: Sometime in the 1380s.

Died: 3 May 1445, London.

Buried: St Mary’s Priory, Abergavenny, Wales.

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Armchair Traveller | Elizabeth of York | Henry VII | Monmouthshire | PEOPLE | Raglan Castle | Road-Trip Traveller | Sir Walter Herbert | Sir William Herbert

The 1502 Progress: Raglan Castle, Monmouthshire

Raglan Castle: Arrival and Family Ties

When Elizabeth and Henry left Troy after five days of hospitality, they had only a short seven-mile journey in a south-westerley direction to reach their next destination, Raglan Castle (or ‘Ragland’ as it was known until at least the early nineteenth century).

An 1801 account of the road from Monmouth to Raglan describes the scenery the royal couple would have encountered as they began their journey, ‘On leaving Monmouth the road leads for near two miles thro’ a pleasant enclosed valley, skirted by gentle swellings, clothed or cultivated to their summits but gaining the higher ground at Wonastow. The view unfolds itself in a beautiful and extensive manner, over a rich and fertile country…’

The royal party arrived at Raglan Castle on or around 19 August. Their stay there was the apex and, in many ways, the centrepiece of the visit with its incumbent lord, the King’s loyal and erstwhile brother-in-arms, Sir Walter Herbert, playing host…

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Armchair Traveller | PEOPLE | Places by County | Road-Trip Traveller | Robert Dudley | Tudor Tombs | Warwickshire

William Cecil, Lord Burghley

Tudor Tomb:

Name and Title: Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Born: 24 June 1532

Died: 4 September 1548.

Buried: The Beauchamp Chapel, St Mary’s Church, Warwick.

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Armchair Traveller | Elizabeth of York | Henry VII | Monmouthshire | PEOPLE | Road-Trip Traveller

The 1502 Progress: Troy House, Monmouth, Monmouthshire

Having stayed at Flaxley Abbey overnight, the following day, on the 14 August, the royal cavalcade was on the move again. Troy House was around 15 miles southwest of Flaxley, just a few miles over the Welsh border. The medieval manor house belonged to the powerful Herbert family. It sat in a wide, shallow valley, close to the small village of Mitchel Troy and overlooking the town of Monmouth, which lay just one mile to the north. Here, a twelfth-century castle, in which Henry V had been born in 1386, dominated a strategically important convergence of two rivers: the River Monnow and the River Wye…

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Armchair Traveller | PEOPLE | Places by County | Road-Trip Traveller | Robert Dudley | Tudor Tombs | Warwickshire

Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick

Tudor Tomb:

Name and Title: Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick

Born: c 1530

Died: 21 February 1590.

Buried: The Beauchamp Chapel, St Mary’s Church, Warwick.

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Armchair Traveller | PEOPLE | Places by County | Road-Trip Traveller | Robert Dudley | Tudor Tombs | Warwickshire

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Tudor Tomb:

Name and Title: Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Born: 24 June 1532

Died: 4 September 1548.

Buried: The Beauchamp Chapel, St Mary’s Church, Warwick.

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Armchair Traveller | Elizabeth of York | Gloucestershire | Henry VII | PEOPLE | Places by County

The 1502 Progress: Flaxley Abbey, Gloucestershire

The 1502 Progress of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, continued…
Having stayed overnight at Over, the royal party continued their journey the following morning, 13 August. The cavalcade was heading south-west towards another overnight stop, this time at Flaxley Abbey.

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