From the BBC:

The world’s last surviving 16th Century warship has been awarded a £21m grant.
Henry VIII’s flagship the Mary Rose, housed at Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard, was raised from the bottom of the Solent, in 1982.

Fears the national treasure would be sold for firewood if the funding bid failed clouded the 25th anniversary of the ship’s raising last October.

The Heritage Lottery Fund grant will be used to complete its conservation and build a museum around the vessel.

Full article

The Guardian also has an article, with a link to a nice slideshow that has images of what the museum will look like.

Updated to add: Check out the official site for the Mary Rose to see more images of the new museum

USA Today has published an excerpt of Chapter One from Julia Fox’s “Jane Boleyn” on their website, for those of you who are interested.

As reminder, the book is about Jane Parker, Lady Rochford, who was married to George Boleyn, brother of Anne.

The Academy Award nominations were announced today and “Elizabeth The Golden Age” received 2 nominations. Cate Blanchett was nominated once again for her portrayal of Elizabeth I and the film also received a nomination for Costume Design.

The full list of nominations is available on their website.

From the Royal Mint website:

The Royal Mint has struck a new commemorative £5 coin for 2008 with a specially designed reverse celebrating the 450th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth I. The Brilliant Uncirculated crown-sized coin bears a portrait of Elizabeth and is displayed in an attractive folder rich in imagery and background information on the reign of one of the best-loved British monarchs.

Here’s the link directly to the Queen Elizabeth coin and presentation folder.

“Elizabeth The Golden Age” picked up several nominations for BAFTAs. Congrats!

Full list of nominations

Via the BBC:

An almost 500-year-old lock of hair thought to have come from one of Henry VIII’s wives has sold for £2,160.

Its buyer, Charles Hudson, lives on the Wyke Manor estate in Worcestershire, which he said was once home to the hair’s original owner, Catherine Parr.

Full article with picture

Tip o’ the French hood to Beth on the TudorTalk list for posting the link!

Well, “The Tudors” and “Elizabeth The Golden Age” didn’t bring home any Golden Globes, but Cate Blanchett did win for another film. You can see a full list of all the winners on the Golden Globes website.

Yeah, I know, we’re nearly a week into the new year, but the December podcast is finally posted. Hopefully my voice doesn’t sound too bad on the recording… I’m mostly better now but I still have a cough and some nasal drainage, which is still messing with my voice a little. But I don’t think most people would be able to tell.

Well, a lock of it at least? If so, it will be up for auction, with a collection of other interesting things, in a couple of weeks. Here’s the AP article, but a Google news search will turn up more.

Above is the new season’s poster.

As mentioned in the title, the second season will start March 30. As always, more information can be found (with videos, etc.) at the official Showtime website for the show!

Here’s a neat time-lapse of the set-up and demonstration of a Tudor dinner at Hampton Court Palace. Be sure to check out the other Tudor foodie videos from the same person!

Tip of the gable food to Gillian at the Food History blog