On 25 February 1601, 35 year-old Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, was taken to a scaffold that had been erected within the Tower of London, and executed after being found guilty of high treason for his primary role in the failed 'Essex's Rebellion' earlier in the month.

On This Day (24 February) in 1603, Katherine Carey, Countess of Nottingham, died at Arundel House.

On 21 February 1590, only a short time after undergoing a lower leg amputation, Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, died at Bedford House.

On 16 February 1587, Elizabethan courtier, soldier and poet Sir Philip Sidney was interred at 'Old' St Paul's Cathedral.

On This Day (13 Feb) in 1608, Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury, Elizabethan courtier and builder, known as 'Bess of Hardwick', died.