Philip Mould Ltd. is offering the above 18th century portrait of Anne Boleyn for sale. Click here or the picture for more information on the painting.
By the way, if you haven’t looked through the whole site, I recommend it. There are some other 16th century-related works for sale and be sure to check out the Image Library.
Tip of the Tudor flat cap to Roland for the news on the AB portrait!
The second season of “The Tudors” will be out on DVD in the US on December 30. Not quite in time for Christmas, but close enough.
Here’s the US Amazon pre-order link. Amazon UK info is down a few posts.
I received an email from author Carlyn Beccia about her new young adult non-fiction work “The Raucous Royals”, which looks like loads of fun. It includes some of our favorite royals as well.
Here’s the website for the book, her blog (which is in my RSS reader!) and You Tube channel with a trailer for the book.
Here are the usual Amazon affiliate links (US on the left, UK on the right):
Both estimates are out of my price range, but would be interesting to have!
First up is a Tudor “Esses collar” that will be auctioned at Christie’s in December and is expected to go for £1,000,000 (about $1,850,000 US at today’s exchange rate).
From The Indpendent:
The merciless punishments Henry VIII meted out to his enemies have been well documented. Less is known about how, on the rarer occasions when the king was happy with the service of his courtiers or the country’s most eminent noblemen, he liked to give them a golden livery collar or heavy chain as a token of his gratitude.
Henry VIII only awarded around 20 of the chains. They were all engraved with the characters SS, referring to the Latin religious creed, Spiritus Sanctus (Holy Spirit), though none were believed to have survived in their entirety.
Now, however, the first complete “collar of the Esses”, as they were known, has been discovered in the family home of the Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The collar was presented to Edward Montagu, the then Lord Chief Justice, by King Henry in the 1540s.
And second is another clipping of hair, this time from Mary Queen of Scots. This one is expected to fetch about £3000. You can see the item here at the website of the Lyon and Turnbull auction house.
Update: The lock of hair ended up selling for £7200, purchased by an anonymous bidder.
No official announcement on the US release yet, but I’ll post it when I hear something. The release date for the UK discs is October 13, 2008. (Pre-order link at Amazon UK)
I’m feeling better, although still not 100%, but things are stacking up so I’ll be posting some news items as time permits today. Thanks for the good wishes everyone!
I posted something on the Q&A blog, but I thought I should post it here too — I woke up last Thursday with a scratchy throat which has now developed into a full-blown cold. I thought I was improving, but I seem to have taken a step backwards today. So anyway, updates will be a little slow until I’m feeling better. I think I’m just going to curl up in bed with the Olympics tonight and leave the computer in another room…
My friend Heather Thomas, who runs ElizabethI.org, is making arrangements to have flowers sent to Hatfield to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Elizabeth I’s accession to the throne. If you would like to contribute, please visit her website for more information: http://www.elizabethi.org/flowers.html
After being part of a cow shed for a while…
From the BBC:
Tudor wooden panelling, missing from a castle for more than 300 years, is to be returned to its home after once being part of a farmer’s cow shed.
It was among items taken from Monmouthshire’s Raglan Castle during the Civil War in the 17th Century.
But the large panel, once owned by a courtier of Henry VIII, was found after it was sold by a collector, who bought it from a farm for £5 in the 1950s.
The panel is now to go on show at the castle’s new visitor centre.
Full article (with a picture - be sure to click for the full view to see the rest of the carving)
And another article from Wales Online
English Heritage, in association with the History Channel, has launched EHTV. There is a variety of subjects and time periods covered and you can also subscribe to it as a video podcast.
I’m not sure what started it, but I’ve noticed an uptick in the interest of this legendary Hungarian countess, who was a contemporary of Elizabeth I.
I received a note from the author of this new book on the countess, with US Amazon link below.
A very interesting diplomat in Tudor history… check out his bio for free this week!
Not until 2011 though. Maybe the exchange rate will have improved enough by then for me to travel over. 
From the BBC:
Illustrated books once owned by English monarchs are to go on public display for the first time.
About 150 medieval and Renaissance books and other literary artefacts will be put on display at the British Library in London in 2011.
They are among almost 2,000 manuscripts donated to the British Museum by King George II in 1757.
The exhibition follows a major research project supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
…
Manuscripts featured in the exhibition will include a copy of Philippe de Mezieres’s letter to Richard II and the Shrewsbury Book of romances presented to Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, as a gift for their marriage in 1445.
Tip of the gable hood to Kathy for the link
From the BBC:
An archaeological dig has recovered what is thought to be the remains of the theatre where Shakespeare’s plays were first performed.
The Theatre was found in excavations by the Museum of London at a site in Shoreditch, east London, being prepared for the building of a new theatre.
It was one of London’s first dedicated playhouses when it opened in 1576.
It was dismantled and its timbers taken to the South Bank, where they were used to construct The Globe in 1599.
A spokesman for the Museum of London said it had long been known that an open air playhouse, called The Theatre, stood in this area, but traces of its exact location had proved elusive.
I’m guessing that no matter how inaccurate the history in the series is, we won’t be seeing Anne of Cleves doing a soul or R&B number.
From the BBC:
Singer Joss Stone is to play Anne of Cleves in the third season of The Tudors, the BBC has confirmed.
It will be the first TV acting role for the 22-year-old, who made her debut in fantasy film Eragon in 2006.
…
The third series of the Tudors will follow the King as he weds third Queen Jane Seymour, played by Anita Briem, and then Anne of Cleves.A daughter of a German nobleman, Anne was betrothed to Henry in a marriage treaty after the King was shown a portrait of her.
Claude of France was the Queen Anne and Mary Boleyn served during their time at the French court. Her prayer book went on display at the Morgan Library & Museum back in May.
From the article:
In May, a tiny, exquisite volume went on display at the Morgan Library & Museum: a prayer book made for Queen Claude of France, who was born in the penultimate year of the fifteenth century. Claude, a near-contemporary of Anne Boleyn, who served her at the French court as a prepubescent lady-in-waiting, was betrothed at the age of six to her cousin François, the Duke of Angoulême and heir-presumptive to the French throne. She was wed at fourteen. She went on to bear seven royal children, including a son who became Henry II of France, and she died at twenty-four.
The name of the artist, of whose works only about a dozen survive, is lost to history, but scholars speak of the Claude Master, because of the quality of this, his greatest work. His palette tends toward soft roses and mauves—in an image of the Virgin’s coronation, Christ and his mother wear matching amethyst-colored gowns, trimmed in gold—and the brushwork is stippled, as if it were the effort of a mouse-size Seurat. “It’s an amazing creation,” Wieck said. “And, of course, Claude’s eyes were very young.”
Tip o’ the French Hood to Foose for the link
