Today in 1588, the 130 ships of the Spanish Armada (above), the greatest naval force the world had ever seen, set sail from Lisbon on a mission from God and the Pope to conquer England for Catholicism. Its decisive defeat, which owed as much to the English weather as the English navy, was all the proof England needed that God and the Pope were not on the same side.
It is the feast of St Bernard of Montjoux, the one the dogs are named after. He was an 11th century evangelist in the Alps where he built hospices and rest houses for travellers on the Great and Little St Bernard Passes, and got rid of bandits. He has long been the patron saint of skiers, and has recently taken on snowboarders too.
Today in 1858 saw the birth of Thomas Espin, who grew up to be both a keen astronomer and a Durham County vicar. From his vicarage observatory, he discovered thousands of binary stars, as well as red giants. He is probably the only vicar to have a crater – Espin Crater – named after him on the Moon.
Today in 1533, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declared the marriage of King Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn valid. A few days earlier, he had ruled Henry’s existing marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, invalid. Cranmer had been promoted over the heads of all the English bishops to become Archbishop, thanks to the intervention of the Boleyn family – which must have reassured everyone that there was absolutely no conflict of interest whatsoever.
Today in 1999, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece The Last Supper was put back on public display in Milan, Italy. Leonardo completed the painting, on the wall of a monastery, in 1498, and sadly, very little of what he actually painted remains.
Image: Rijksmuseum