These should probably each get a post of their own, but I’m being lazy…

First, from The Independent:

The way we used to eat: The Tudor kitchen

They didn’t have tomatoes, potatoes – or chocolate. So what did the Tudors cook? Tim Walker steps back in time to find out

Jorge Kelman, a stout fellow in 16th century garb – which includes a codpiece – breaks off from straining his aromatic apple purée to make sure I note this down correctly: “The Tudors did not disguise raw meat with spices,” he insists. “I can’t tell you how many people get that wrong.” His colleague Mark Hawtree, whose face is framed by a beard like a bawdy Shakespearean actor’s, can’t help but join in. “What would be the point?” he says. Nutmeg, he has just explained, was sourced by the Tudors from an island 600 miles north of Australia: at least one very long sea voyage from London. “Spices were expensive. Meat was cheap. It wouldn’t make any sense!”
…
Hampton Court is gearing up to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession next year, so today we’re revisiting the 1530s, following the instructions of A Noble Book of Cookery, one of just two surviving cook books published under Henry’s rule. “The books are ambiguous,” Meltonville explains. “They have no measurements; they just say take this and that, put them together and cook it. They aren’t like modern cookery books – they’re a cook’s aide-memoire.”

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Next up, from This is London, Elizabethan silver items going up for auction:

Carpetright founder Lord Harris of Peckham is set to add to his fortune when the items are auctioned at Christie’s next month,

Items under the hammer include a rare Elizabethan ostrich-egg cup and cover, known as The Whitfield Cup, which is expected to fetch up to £800,000. The carved 26in-high object was made in 1590 by Elizabeth I’s jeweller, John Spilman of London, at a time when ostrich eggs were prized.

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And finally, a story on the Elizabethan inspiration for James Bond, from The Telegraph:

A diary has come to light detailing the exploits of John Bond, an Elizabethan secret agent whose family motto is “Non Sufficit Orbis” – The World Is Not Enough.

The Bond family are based in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, where Fleming went to prep school.
It was here, at the Durnford School, that he first started hearing Boy’s Own stories that inspired his most famous creation.

Experts believe he would have picked up the legendary tales of John Bond whose family are extremely well known in the area.

The journal, which has remained in the family but has previously been unseen in public, was written by Denis Bond, John Bond’s son.

Full article