In addition to being the anniversary of Henry VII’s death and Henry VIII’s accession to the throne (and his marriage to Catherine of Aragon), it is also the 500th anniversary of the death of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. Christ’s College, Cambridge was founded by Margaret and they will be holding an event on June 27 in her honor including talks, evensong, a banquet and more.
Lady Margaret also endowed a professorship of Divinity at Cambridge (also one at Oxford, I think), whose distinguished incumbents included John Fisher (later executed by her grandson), Erasmus, and Whitgift, Elizabeth’s Archbishop of Canterbury.
Her benefactions were very much of her age. I am amused by the contrast between the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity and a recent murder case in the United States, where the alleged murderer was described as the Coca-Cola Professor of Marketing at the University of Georgia. Today’s corporate benefactions are very much of our age, too.
However, theology and canon law were the fast track to the ecclesiastical and political big time in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, so perhaps Lady Margaret’s generosity had its hard-headed business side.