Well, one version of the calendar that CafePress offers at least… Right now I have the “Calendar Print” version, which is on one 11″ x 17″ sheet. The design is the Tudor Rose with “Tudor England” above and “1485-1603″ below and signatures of the Tudor Kings and Queens (including the Six Wies) on either side of the central design. I had a lot of fun putting it together!

I’m still hoping to get the 12-month calendar version out with photos of Tudor-related places on each month, but I’m having a hard time deciding what to put on them. I’ve made four photo montages so far, but I’m not 100% happy with them, so it might just be photos and a short explanation of what place it is and/or the significance to Tudor history or some such…

Oh, I also forgot to mention it, but a week or so ago I added a black t-shirt with the Tudor Rose emblem to the store as well. The only drawback is that the base price for the shirts it pretty high, so once I added my mark-up, it’s pretty expensive. But it’s a pretty sharp looking shirt!

I’m assuming that the large spike in hits I received yesterday and today are a result of people clicking from the Masterpiece Theatre webpage for “The Virgin Queen” and/or searching around on the web after watching the program. I wish I had had the time to spruce things up a bit before the increased traffic, but as usual, real life got in the way. Anyway, I hope you enjoy looking around and I hope that you decide to learn more about Elizabeth I and the Tudors in general if you didn’t already have an interest!

I recieved this about a week ago. I’m not really into the Shakespeare authorship debate, but I know from emails that some of my readers are!

Shakespeare and Welsh literary police

Further ‘Shakespeare portrait is a fake’, ( Catriona Davies 28/10/2005) et al., octogenarian Welsh vicar, author and broadcaster, the Rev Aelwyn Roberts of Llandegai, North Wales, has told me there is nothing new about mysteries surrounding Shakespeare. He says that in his whodunnit ‘Operation Woolsack’ (later on ITV as the “Swan of Ogwen” in the early 90s) he used police investigation techniques, not academic textual criticism, to establish who the genuine bard might have been — perhaps even the Welshman, Archbishop John of York, buried at Llandegai church. He tells me that King James I was John’s patron (and perhaps more), and gave him many royal gifts and honours for his ’services to English literature’ while he was secluded for nine years in Walgrave, Northamptonshire. He says the first ‘Shakespeare’ folio was published precisely when (1623) John left Walgrave for Westminster. But where are John’s writings? There was a mysterious fire, 40 years after John’s death, at Westminster Abbey library, opposite Parliament. Only John’s books and two bundles of handwritten English poems were destroyed — a mediaeval, spin coverup? Aelwyn says he still has a few early proof copies (signed in green by himself) of ‘Operation Woolsack’ and you can email him for one at aelwyn@aelwynroberts.wanadoo.co.uk — £6.50 inc p&p.

Dr P.D. O’Neill (email withheld).

I’ve finally got the new blogs listed on the main page and up and running. I still need to add the link to the instructions for submitting to the Q&A, but I should have that up soon.

I’ve removed the Awards page, since it was old and out of date and taking up space on the main page. I’ve also re-organized the order of the links on the right hand side. And last but not least, I’ve changed the title graphic to TudorHistory.org, instead of just the Tudor History that was there before. I feel it’s more consistent that way.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Okay, so this isn’t specifically Tudor, but he did die in 1543, during the reign of Henry VIII. Plus, indulge a history geek with a degree in astronomy… : )

Hopefully in the next day or so I’ll be ready to launch two new blogs that I’ve been working on adding to this site.

The first will be a Question and Answer blog to replace the Query page that is up now. I’ll have a detailed explanation of its intended purpose and how it use it up shortly. I think it will be the best solution for folks who don’t want to join the discussion lists, but still have questions they want answered.

The other blog will be just a personal one. I’ve had one on my homepage for a while, but it’s mainly been for updating friends and family about stuff like vacations and the storm damage to our house back in March. But, it wasn’t really what I was looking for in a personal “outlet” blog. Since my friends, family and my boyfriend really get tired of hearing me go on about some things, I thought a personal blog at the Tudor site would be a good answer. I have one or two more things to test, but I should have it linked to the main page and on this blog in the next day or so.