Thomas More’s cell in the Bell Tower in the Tower of London. Photo June 2000.

During the millennium celebrations, the Tower had a special display on Thomas More (with his hair shirt among other items) and opened the Bell Tower to the public. If I remember correctly, they escorted us in small groups through the private residences/offices and then up in to the tower. I seem to recall it being a tight fit, and of course, a working and living space, so not really appropriate to being open all the time. I’m glad I got a chance to see it while I did!

Because it’s getting late and I’m tired, here are the other three things I wanted to post tonight, all in one post:

* Alison Weir, Arguing the Case for Anne Boleyn – Interview and book excerpt at NPR

* The British Library’s new Timelines: Sources from History – Neat timelines with document images, and the few that I looked at included links where you could print or download a PDF of the documents.

* Middle Temple Hall launched a new website with some cool virtual tours. The Hall is one of the Inns of Court and was constructed between 1563 and 1572. It was also the site of the first performance of Twelfth Night in 1602.

If you recall this post from last October, archaeologists have found evidence for what was probably the actual site of the Battle of Bosworth and now that information is set to be revealed at a conference on February 20. The Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre has information on the event and a document with the program. The Heritage Centre is also planning to open a new exhibition called “Bosworth Battlefield Lost and Found” on February 22.

There is also an article in the March issue of BBC History Magazine, as well as an article by Leanda de Lisle about Lady Jane Grey. I’ll have to make sure I remember to pick one up!

This hasn’t been published yet, but I thought I would go ahead and ask if any of you have read this? It looks interesting:

Review from The Times Online:

Robert Winder may just have redefined literary chutzpah. Not only has he produced a novel with Shakespeare as its principal character, he has also put into it the complete text of Shakespeare’s supposed last play, made up by Winder but modestly described as the Bard’s “masterpiece”. The Final Act in the novel’s title refers partly to the concluding phase of Shakespeare’s life and partly to this culminating dramatic production, conceived as an act of defiance. For Shakespeare, in this novel, is a radical with a conscience. A democrat disgusted by regal corruption, he fears his life’s work might be seen merely as an apologia for tyranny. In Richard III, he celebrated the advent of Henry Tudor, father to the monster he calls “Henry the Ape”. Now, with The Tragicall History of Henry VII, he intends to put the record straight about the Tudors.

Full article

Nursery scene from the Henry VII tower at Pembroke Castle. Photo May 2003.

Okay, so maybe this is a little cheesy, but since Henry VII’s birthday is tomorrow I figured what the heck. And I love that medieval chair Margaret is sitting on!

This is very cool! I first saw mention of this collaboration in this Birmingham Post article:

Solihull National Trust property added to Google street view

It was a case of try before you buy but now you can see before going.

Baddesley Clinton, near Solihull, is one of the newest National Trust properties which has been added to Google Street View, available through Google Maps.

The atmospheric house dates from 15th century and visitors can discover the priest’s holes used to hide persecuted Jesuit priests in the 1590s, as well as view the Elizabethan interiors.

Those thinking of spending a Sunday afternoon there can go a specially created online tour or view some of the other 19 locations including Berrington Hall in Herefordshire, Lyme Park in Cheshire and Stonehenge in Wiltshire, which have been added.

The images were taken last summer using the Google Trike, a three wheeled bike fitted with a Street View camera.

Full article (with a link to the maps page for Baddesley Clinton at the bottom)

And here’s the link to the page with links to all the National Trust properties available.

I posted when Deborah Kerr died in 2007 about how I came across “Young Bess” early in my early teens, so I of course have to mention it again with the news that Jean Simmons died yesterday. And as with Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons is probably mostly known for other roles, but it’s always “Young Bess” that I think of. She’ll always be a young Queen Elizabeth I to me!

Jean Simmons’ Obituary from The Telegraph and The New York Times

Oh, and for my fellow geeks who are also fans of Felicia Day, why did it take me so long to realize that it was a young Jean Simmons that she reminded me of? Geez I’m thick sometimes. (See this photo if you don’t know who I’m talking about. And then watch The Guild!)

St. James’s Palace, London. Photo May 1998.

Perhaps because it isn’t open to the public I tend to forget about St. James’s, even though it was built by Henry VIII and quite a bit of the Tudor palace survives. You can learn more about the Palace at the official website of The British Monarchy.

I had fun doing the 2008 tally of the most common themes in the questions submitted to the Q&A blog, so I thought I would do it again with the 2009 submissions.

The total number of submission emails that I still had in my saved box from 2009 was 465, although not all of those ended up posted to the blog.

Anne Boleyn, once again, was Queen (if you’ll pardon the pun) of the Q&A blog with inquiries into every part of her life and death. The rest of her family cropped up quite a bit too, although I don’t think quite as much as they did in 2008. I think a lot of the interest continues to come from people watching and reading fiction about Anne, Mary, Jane (Parker/Boleyn/Rochford), George and their parents. The rest of the wives also cropped up a bit, but even combined I don’t think they got close to Anne!

Although there were still questions on the subject, the interest in possible mistresses and bastards of Henry VIII seems to have fallen off from 2008 and earlier. The Greys (of course Jane in particular) were asked about a bit and Mary I seems to have come up more, perhaps because of her character on “The Tudors”?

One thing that struck me were a large number of questions related to tangible items of the Tudors that still survive, be it buildings, personal and household items, portraits, modern descendants, fashion and jewelry and above all – tombs, graves and remains. I don’t know if we’re just a morbid lot or what, but graves and bones were very popular topics last year! Kind of related to the bones and bodies was an interest in medical issues, both physical and psychological. Trying to diagnose long-dead people with certain diseases (of the body or mind) is difficult at best, but I have to admit that the speculation is kind of fun.

A lot of questions had to do with the factual basis of fictional representations of the Tudors (tv, books, movies) and how reliable some non-fiction works are. With regards to the fiction, it’s great to see people wanting to dig deeper into the real history.

And finally, I’m guessing that a lot of teachers were doing Tudor crime and punishment this year since that showed up a fair amount and was almost always for a school project.

I’m looking forward to seeing what questions 2010 brings!

Yeah…. I’m not so sure how I feel about this. I’m not a Mary “fan” by any stretch of the imagination, but I really hate to see people of history reduced to stereotypes. I know the job of The London Dungeon is to entertain through horror, but this just kind of rubs me the wrong way.

The London Dungeon is turning the temperature up this February half term with a flaming new experience – Bloody Mary: Killer Queen featuring one of England’s most feared rulers – Mary Tudor, the deadliest daughter of Henry VIII . This Killer Queen was nicknamed Bloody Mary for ordering around 300 horrifying murders in her brief but brutal five year reign (1553-1558). Guests are transported back to London in 1556 where the fanatically Catholic Queen is burning Protestants at the stake. Special effects conjure up the sights, screams and overwhelming stench of fiery execution as another helpless “heretic” endures one of the most painful deaths known to man – being slowly burnt alive.

(Above text excerpted from a press release at Travel Daily)

Before I could write up a post about this, one showed up at the Mary Tudor: Renaissance Queen blog so head over there for more intelligent commentary than I can offer right now.

First up is a time lapse of the initial building work on the new museum for The Mary Rose. I love how the ships in the port go up and down on the tide – it makes them look like toys in a bathtub!

And Adieu from Henry 8.0

I had to shudder at Henry’s treatment of Catherine’s iPod nano though! I got a green one for Christmas and I love it… I’d hate to see it shoved into a jar of chocolate spread.

Tomb of Cardinal Reginald Pole at Canterbury Cathedral. Photo May 2003.

Sorry to do another “link dump” post so close on the heels of the last one but it’s just a lot quicker this way (and I’m sure you all don’t want to be bombarded with a bunch of posts at once).

* National Portrait Gallery on the Iconography of Lady Jane Grey

Here’s the article from Art Daily about it and here’s a little information from the National Portrait Gallery’s website. And just a reminder that Painting History – Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey will be opening at the National Gallery (around the corner from the NPG) at the end of February.

* Large medieval waterwheel uncovered at Greenwich

It’s a little before the Tudors, but I’m a sucker for medieval archaeological finds. Here’s an article (with a few pictures) from Medieval News.

* Showtime picks up a series on The Borgias

According to Variety Showtime is looking to continue playing in the Renaissance with a new series about The Borgias. Jeremy Irons will be starring so I’ll probably be watching!

I’m clearing out all the articles that I have saved over the past couple of weeks and dumping them all into this post:

* Debunking the Myth of Lady Jane Grey

Thought-provoking article by Leanda de Lisle at Intelligent Life (a lifestyle and culture magazine from The Economist)

* Mary Rose Trust photos on Wikipedia

Mary Rose Trust releases photographs onto Wikipedia
Unseen Mary Rose pictures revealed in groundbreaking Wikipedia deal

* Exhibition features documents suggesting Shakespeare was Catholic

Shakespeare was a ’secret Catholic’ new exhibition shows

* Greenwich to become a Royal Borough in 2012

This honors its long connection with the English and British monarchy (lots of Tudor connections there!). The other Royal Boroughs are Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, and Windsor and Maidenhead.

Greenwich Becomes Royal Borough
Queen to grant Greenwich Royal Borough status for Diamond Jubilee

* Catch up on “The Tudors”

Season Three is now available on iTunes (this link goes to the Showtime site, which has a link to the iTunes store)
Unfortunately I didn’t see it in time for the first episode, but Showtime is replaying all of the previous seasons in a lead-up to the season 4 premiere in April. Here’s a link to the schedule.

And finally…

* 2010 sees the 450th anniversary of the refoundation of Westminster Abbey

The history of Westminster Abbey, London – The coming year is the 450th anniversary of Elizabeth I’s refoundation of Westminster Abbey as the collegiate church we know today

[I caught a few errors in the first paragraph after the ad in the middle of the article. I'm going to post a comment on the article and hopefully someone will see it and correct it.]

The Old Palace at Hatfield with part of the recreated Tudor garden. Photo May 2000.

That’s what I get for putting off some of those maintenance tasks so long! I keep thinking I have another batch of links to add somewhere, so there might be a few more up soon.

And, if anyone I had a link to had a Geocities site that went away when it closed last year, would you please send me the new links? I tried to track down a few of them but was unsuccessful. Drop me an email at lara@tudorhistory.org (you can also try leaving a link in the comments but sometimes those get tagged as spam and I don’t always catch the things incorrectly tagged). Thanks!

I’m not making any resolutions this year, but I will make a promise to blog more! I’ve also been doing some “behind the scenes” stuff on the rest of the site over my break from work, as well as finally working on my review of “Wolf Hall” (short review – I liked it a lot!). I knew going in that 2009 was going to be an extraordinarily busy year for me but there were times that it still managed to surprise me. (I still can’t believe how nuts parts of October were.) I think 2010 will also be busy, but hopefully not quite as much as 2009 was!

Patterned brick chimneys at Hampton Court Palace. Photo May 2000.

Because a lot of us have cold weather right now, a reminder of how the Tudors kept warm in winter.

I can’t believe we’re at POTW #52, meaning that I’ve been posting every week for a whole year. And there are still lots of photos out there for me to keep putting up – and hopefully I’ll add to the collection in the next few years.

I’m recycling the image from the past couple of years, but here they are again, our favorite family decked out in holiday cheer:

And here’s Henry 8.0 trying to order Christmas puddings:

Henry in that hat looks kind of like the version in the “family photo” up top. And Henry going on about The Stig – love it! (Yes, I’m a Top Gear fan.)

And last but not least, here’s an article about how Henry VIII really celebrated the holidays, from the Mail Online:

Stuffed peacock, fake snow and lashings of dancing girls… Henry VIII had a VERY merry Christmas indeed!

Five hundred years ago this Christmas, there was a new king on the throne of England. He was 18 years old, as handsome as a prince in a fairytale, sporty and over 6ft.

He spoke elegant French and Italian – and Latin, of course, like all educated people – wrote his own songs and sang them himself.
He was credited with a sweet nature and was in love with his wife. So, what would you give the young Henry VIII for Christmas? What was there left for him to want?

Full article