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Family History Societies
Peterborough
Societies
Banbury
Historical Society
Northamptonshire
Association for
Local History
Northamptonshire
Record Society




 
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Themes Explorers and Adventurers Nobel Prize Winners
Actors/Actresses and Directors Famous People Places of Interest
Anglo-Saxons and Danes Historic Events Prime Ministers
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty Inventors and Scientists Royal Consorts and Heirs
Artists and Architects Monarchs World Heritage Sites
Composers National Parks Writers and Poets

Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire lies in central England. In 1974 the Soke of Peterborough was incorporated into Cambridgeshire.



 Towns include the county seat of Northampton.

Anglo-Saxons and Danes
Once part of the small kingdom of the Middle Angles.

Famous People
Diana, Princess of Wales was buried in 1997 at Althorp Park, one of her childhood homes.

Diana, Princess of Wales With her sons
 Althorp Park
 Time Magazine: The Time 100



 On the edge of the Althorp estate lies the village of Great Brington where the ancestors of America's first President George Washington are buried. They lived at Sulgrave Manor.

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


Monarchs

Scottish House of Stewart
The 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

House of York
The House of York
The last Yorkist King of England Richard III, was born at Fotheringhay Castle in 1452. He ruled from 1483 until his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

 Richard III



 Edward IV married Elizabeth Woodville at Grafton Regis in 1464.

 Edward IV Elizabeth Woodville


Nobel Prize Winners

Physiology or Medicine
The molecular biologist Francis H.C. Crick was born near Northampton in 1916. In 1962 he shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with the New Zealand-born Maurice Wilkins and the American James D. Watson for their ground-breaking research into DNA which lead to the discovery of its double helix structure. He and Wilkins both died in 2004.

Francis H.C. Crick Francis H.C. Crick Maurice Wilkins
 Time Magazine: The Time 100

Almost all aspects of life are engineered at the molecular level, and without understanding molecules we can only have a very sketchy understanding of life itself.
What Mad Pursuit (1988)


Places of Interest

Castles
Fotheringhay Castle

Cathedrals and Abbeys
Peterborough Cathedral

 Peterborough Cathedral in 1795 Peterborough Cathedral in 1795

Stately Homes and Palaces
Althorp Park

 Althorp Park


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 and so she was never Queen but had given birth to the future Henry V in 1387.

Henry IV

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 Edward IV


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 Henry VIII
 Peterborough Cathedral in 1795 Peterborough Cathedral in 1795


Writers and Poets
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
The Glorious Revolution
 The poet laureates


Either be wholly slaves or wholly free.
The Hind and the Panther (1687)

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