Headline History, a history education website in the UK, occasionally has a “hot seat” where students can chat with a historical figure. In June, the featured person will be William Shakespeare. You can find out more on their website: http://www.headlinehistory.co.uk/

I have been getting news alerts on this story for a few days, but I was waiting for one of the stories to actually run a picture of the portrait before I posted it. Thankfully the BBC finally came through! The portrait is a large version of a relatively well-known miniature of Thomas Wyatt the Younger, which you can see here.

From the BBC article:

A recently rediscovered painting by Hans Holbein is expected to fetch between £2m and £3m at auction.
The Portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger, painted in about 1541, will go on sale at Sotheby’s in London in July.

Its identity is thought to have been unknown for more than 200 years, before it was confirmed earlier this year.

Full article

Other articles:

From The Telegraph

From The Independent

After taking about three weeks longer to do than I had originally planned, I finally have the first episode of TudorCast posted. Head on over to the TudorCast page to learn more about it!

Philippa Gregory continues on with writing about the Tudors, this time going a few years after the death of Anne Boleyn. It won’t be released until September in th UK and December in the US, but you can pre-order through Amazon at the links below.

From The Herald

A descendant of James Bothwell, who was famed for raping and abducting Mary Queen of Scots and murdering her husband, is attempting to restore his reputation.
Sir Alastair Buchan-Hepburn is undergoing DNA testing to establish that remains held in Denmark are those of the fourth earl of Bothwell, to whom he is related. He hopes to bring his ancestor’s remains back to Scotland for a Christian burial.

Full article

I wasn’t planning on doing blow-by-blow coverage of all the news of the new film, but I had to share this since it is such a lovely picture.

Full article and photo

The BBC Keith Michell “Six Wives of Henry VIII” series from the 1970s has been re-issued on DVD, this time with an added bonus feature of “The Other Boleyn Girl” based on the Philippa Gregory novel.

Yes, I’ve finally been bitten by the podcasting bug! For those of you who don’t know what a podcast is, this Wikipedia article is pretty good at explaining it all. I’m still working on writing up all the instructions for how to subscribe and adding links to the iTunes directory etc., but if you have iTunes and are familiar with podcasts, you can just search the directory for “TudorCast” and it will show up.

Here is the website for the podcast, which has all the show information and direct links to the mp3s, as well as the links for subscribing with a podcast grabber: http://tudorhistory.org/podcast/

I only have the introductory episode up so far, but the first full episode is in the works. Stay tuned!

From the BBC:

Portraits of Henry VIII, his third wife Jane Seymour and their son Edward are to be hung together for the first time since Henry himself owned them.
…
The works by 16th Century court painter Hans Holbein the Younger will go on display in an exhibition at the Tate Britain in London in September.
…
It will feature 30 portrait drawings, six paintings and several miniatures from the Royal Collection, along with some of Holbein’s jewellery designs.

Full article

Update 1: more links

Another article from the Independent

And from the Guardian

And from The Times

Update 2: one more…

From the Telegraph

Update 3:
I completely forgot to add a link to the Tate and their own page for the exhibition (including ticket information). Here it is -
Holbein in England: 28 September 2006 – 7 January 2007

From Reuters:

Sam Neill, Jeremy Northam and Henry Cavill have joined the cast of Showtime’s Henry VIII drama “The Tudors.”
…
Neill will play Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII’s most important government minister, who possessed great power until he failed to secure for Henry a divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

Northam will play famed lawyer, writer and politician Sir Thomas More, who is chiefly remembered for his principled refusal to accept Henry VIII’s claim to be the supreme head of the Church of England, a decision that ended his political career and led to his execution as a traitor.

Cavill will play Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Brandon was Henry VIII’s closest friend, but their friendship was sorely tested when Brandon secretly married Henry’s favorite sister, the beautiful Princess Mary Tudor.

Full article

I’m excited to see Sam Neill in the cast, although he might not be rotund enough for Wolsey!