In the October 5th newsletter from Alison Weir’s site at Random House (linked above), she mentions that the next non-fiction book she is working on will be about Katherine Swynford, mother of the Beaufort line that Henry VII was descended from. Most people will probably be familiar with the 1950s historical fiction book Katherine by Anya Seton, which is to the best of my knowledge the only book about Katherine around. It will be nice to see a non-fiction book about Katherine and to see all the sources she has been able to dig up on this too-little-known Tudor ancestor!

(Thanks to Monia for the link!)

The above link takes you to a website about a new book resulting from collaborative work on the Seventh Window of Sint Janskerk in Gouda, Netherlands, which was donated by Mary I and her husband Philip II. There is also a CD available of detailed photos of the window and its cartoon. Click above for more information on the project!

Click the link above for the webpage up at PBS.org for the new Elizabeth I drama! There is one photo on that page, but also check the main page for Masterpiece Theatre for another photo up at the top right. She is pictured with a crown and her hair loose, so my guess is it’s part of the coronation.

One of the two new mini-series about Elizabeth I will be running on PBS in the US as part of Masterpiece Theatre in November. Look for The Virgin Queen starring Anne-Marie Duff on Sunday Nov. 13 and 20. Check your local listings at PBS.org for exact times.

No word yet on the Helen Mirren version, which recently aired in the UK, but I’ll update if I find any information!

I’ve reorganized, updated and added to the links section over the past few weeks. A few of the things I’ve done on the reorg – I’ve compressed the pages that separately linked to the monarchs, six wives, etc. into one page, with the exception of Elizabeth/Elizabethan England and Shakespeare/Stratford/Globe stuff, since they were pretty lengthy. I also added a British History page down in the Other Resources and a Writing and Research Resources page. And finally, I expanded what was included in some of the existing pages, such as adding manuscripts to the online book and texts page.

I still have lots of bookmarks to sort through, but I wanted to get what I had finished up, since I might not get around to working on them again for a little while.

I’m going to start posting the old news stuff that is still relevant to the blog and probably delete the old pages. Anything that appears with a date stamp from before March 2005 will be an archive post. It will take me a while to sort through about six years of posts, so expect them to show up gradually. They will show up on the left bar under “Archives” according to the month they were originally added in. Thankfully Blogger allows you to change the time and date on posts, so I can “force” them to go to the archives instead of showing up as a new post.

I’ve added a few new products over at the Cafe Press store for the site (link above). I added the mini-button (1 inch diameter w/ Tudor Rose emblem), a white baseball cap, and rectangular magnets. I’m still working on the calendars and should have at least the one page version up this week, but the 12 month one is taking a while to put together.

Due out next year (April in the UK… info on other locations when I get it) is Alison Weir’s first historical novel, called “Innocent Traitor” about Lady Jane Grey.

Here is some more about the relics brought up from the Mary Rose, from The Guardian.

To follow up on yesterday’s news about the Tudor Rose figurehead from the Mary Rose, here are two articles about the other items that have been recovered on this set of dives: from the BBC (with video) and from The Guardian.

Divers brought up the Tudor Rose last week while surveying the site before attempting to raise an anchor from the wreck. The above link goes to an article on The Guardian website.

You can learn more about the Mary Rose and its history at www.maryrose.org

If you’re lucky enough to be in and around London for these -

The National Portrait Gallery London will host a talk about the Sittow portrait of Henry VII (yes, the 7th… who doesn’t get nearly as much attention as his son and grandchildren!), which will be celebrating its 500th anniversary. The lecture will be by Dr. Tarnya Cooper, who is the curator of the 16th century paintings at the gallery. Check it out Thursday 27 October at 1:10pm!

David Starkey will be giving a public lecture on the 9th of November 2005 at 7pm on “The Private Life of Henry VIII”. The venue is the Skeel Lecture Theatre the Queen Mary University of London.

As part of a film project, a fox was let loose in the National Portrait Gallery in London and then followed with the closed circuit TV. The video is available on the Channel 4 website. You can also download the video there (file size is approx. 50 MB). The fox and/or the artist had good taste… they started in the Tudor galleries! If you have never had a chance to get to the NPG, this is your chance to see where a lot of the famous Tudor portraits hang.