Around 11 o'clock in the morning, on Saturday 22 September 1576, Essex "was ready to yield up to the ghost"; prayers were said out loud by his chaplain, with Waterhouse present at his deathbed, "holding him by the hands". The chaplain continued to pray "until, at the name of Jesus 'he held up both his hands, and with that fell asleep...as meekly as a lamb'". Just before noon, after bearing three weeks of pain and dehydration "with marvellous fortitude", Essex died "calmly" at

St Swithin's Church was situated on Candlewick Street, the original name for Cannon Street, located just within the boundaries of Walbrook Ward. Also known as 'St Swithun London Stone', the church, dedicated to the 9th century Bishop of Winchester, stood on the south-west corner of St Swithin's Lane, adjoining a house which, in the early years of the 16th century, was inhabited by Edmund Dudley.

Having given birth to her youngest child, Margaret, two years previously in July 1560, the Countess of Bedford had returned to court, and resumed her duties within the Royal Household and the queen's Privy Chamber. And it was at Greenwich during this busy summer period that Margaret appears to have contracted the disease which would claim her life: smallpox.

On the morning of 17 August 1510, a large crowd gathered on Tower Hill, a large area of open land, overlooking the Tower of London, in anticipation of a double execution. One of the victims that had been led from his cell within the nearby Tower of London was Edmund Dudley, Henry VII's controversial chief financial agent, who had been sentenced to death, convicted on charges of constructive treason.

On 07 August 1574, whilst Elizabeth I and her Royal Court were in the midst of the queen's annual summer progress, one of the Ladies of the Royal Household, Douglas Howard, Lady Sheffield, who had remained behind, gave birth to a baby boy at Sheen House, located within the grounds of Richmond Palace, Surrey.