I once again have fallen behind on a few news items, so I’m going to combine them all in this post!

First up is the auction of a portrait of Elizabeth I yesterday at Sotheby’s. The painting had been expected to go for at most £1,000,000 (US $2,000,000), but in fact fetched £2,596,500 (around US $5,200,000). More info on the painting is available at ArtDaily and the BBC. Both links have pictures. For even more information, go to the Sotheby’s website and look for “Important British Paintings” under the Auction Results. You will have to register with their site to see the page, but they have a great zoom-able image of the painting and an extensive catalogue entry.

Next up… The link to the soundtrack from “The Tudors” is now up on Amazon. Links to pre-order for my Amazon affiliate store are below:

Next up, a review from The Telegraph of “Jane Boleyn – The Infamous Lady Rochford” by Julia Fox, which I posted about back in September. The book still isn’t out here in the US, but has been available in the UK for a while. By the way, the author of the review is Jessie Childs, who has a Tudor book of her own out on Henry Howard. I thought I had posted about the book on the blog, but I couldn’t find any old links to it, so I’m posting Amazon links for it here. Ms. Childs was kind enough to send me a copy of the book over the summer, but I’m ashamed to say I still haven’t had a chance to read it! Hopefully I’ll get caught up on some reading over the winter break from work.

(Thanks to Annie for sending the link to the review… I had meant to post about it earlier and it got lost in the shuffle, so it was a good reminder!)

I would like to wish all my fellow Americans a Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had a chance to spend it with family and friends. I would also like to give thanks to all of you who read the site and listen to the podcast!

Way cool!

From This Is London:

[F]or 68-year-old Walter, who has spent the last four years painstakingly hand-crafting mullioned windows, stained glass, medieval-style carvings, you name it – it’s the realisation of a lifelong dream.

… Walter’s pride and joy is the only faithful recreation of a Tudor home in Britain, right down to his piece de resistance – the Oriel window, or two-storey bay window that pokes out into the road at the front and necessitated quite a lot of smoothing of ruffled neighbours’ feathers.

At the moment, there are no stairs, no proper floors, no loo – there will be modern plumbing – but there are mountains of wood and notebooks full of his immaculate drawings everywhere.

Full article (with pictures)

And the poster:

A very attractive trio! I have to admit that I still haven’t read the book, but I do hope to see the movie. I’m really curious to see Natalie Portman’s performance as Anne. There are a couple of shots in the trailer that are quite interesting… especially Anne in coronation robes and regalia in a pose quite similar to her daughter’s 26 years later.

There is only a short article about this on the Daily Post site, but it’s good to hear that the window has been restored. Unfortunately only three small fragments from the original window were able to be incorporated into the new one.

Article link

Original blog post on the vandalism

ACK! I totally forgot to post this Friday afternoon/evening and just now remembered it.

Here’s the graphical output for the results (click for a larger version)

And here are the raw numbers — there were a total of 213 votes cast, so here’s how the responses break down in actual votes and percentages (winner in bold):

Who is your favorite Tudor monarch?
Henry VII – 7 votes, 3.3%
Henry VIII – 62 votes, 29.1%
Edward VI – 0 votes, 0% (poor Edward!)
Jane Grey – 10 votes, 4.7%
Mary I – 4 votes, 1.9%
Elizabeth I – 130 votes, 61%

If you could go back in time and witness just one of the following events, which would it be?
The Battle of Bosworth Field – 14 votes, 6.6%
The wedding of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII – 43 votes, 20.2%
The Field of Cloth of Gold – 54 votes, 25.5%
The coronation of Elizabeth I – 77 votes, 36.2%
The defeat of the Spanish Armada – 25 votes, 11.7%

Did you study the Tudors at school (any education level)?
Yes – 128 votes, 60.1%
No – 85 votes, 39.9%

Have you ever attended or participated in a Renaissance Faire or historical re-enactment activity?
Yes – 114 votes, 53.5%
No – 99 votes, 46.5%

Do you have a Tudor-related tattoo?
Yes – 7
No – 206 votes, 96.7%

I just sent off emails to the 5 randomly chosen winners of the give-away for merchandise from “The Tudors” television series, so if you entered, keep an eye on your email!

I’ll post the outcome of the survey later today…. some interesting results. Only seven people of 213 admitted to Tudor tattoos.

Updated to add: Just in case anyone was interested in how the winners were chosen… I pasted the email addresses into an Excel spreadsheet, so there was a number for each address. Then I went to Random.org and had it generate 5 numbers in the range that the addresses covered (1 to 185, I think). And that’s how they were chosen. If it had been less than 100, I might have gone the “slips of paper” route, but I really didn’t feel like cutting nearly 200 email address out!

Thanks to Kathy for the note on this one:

Varese Sarabnde will be releasing the soundtrack of “The Tudors” in December. More info from their Upcoming Releases page.

And this is an interesting link from Linda about British Tourism taking advantage of popular movies. Here’s the Yahoo story and the special page on Elizabeth:The Golden Age tourism.

Now I just wish the exchange rate would be more favorable for those of us in the US to to travel to Britain *sigh*.