Tudor Minute May 18, 1593: Accusations against Christopher Marlowe

Today in 1593 the playwright Thomas Kyd gave evidence against Christopher Marlowe.

There is still a lot of mystery around the death of Marlowe – who was one of the greatest playwrights of the time, and whose light was extinguished way too soon when he was murdered shortly after this event. Either way, Kyd had been arrested on May 15, and tortured, suspected of treason. When he was told that heretical documents were found in his room, he signed a letter saying that they actually belonged to Marlowe – he had shared rooms with Marlowe before.

Marlowe was arrested on May 20, but he was able to post bail. He was then mysteriously killed in a bar brawl, ten days later.

That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com.

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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop.

She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 30 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history (how exciting when she got to interview Alison for the first time!). In addition to history, she is passionate about travel, and has lived in 3 countries and 4 states (not counting her perpetual state of confusion), and her family (who help her host her YouTube channel occasionally).

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