Home 2008 (Page 3)

Year: 2008

Exhibition on Henry VIII’s 500th anniversary in New York

The Grolier Club in New York will be holding an exhibition from March 4 to May 2, 2009 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne. This is the first big exhibition I’ve heard about to celebrate the anniversary here in the States, so I hope some of you get a chance to see it. They are going to have some really neat things there!

I have three PDFs with information about the exhibition, which you can download at the links below:
Press Release
Exhibition Highlights
Image Sheets (2.3 MB file)

Open thread – Suggestions for future book discussions

After the success of Foose’s “live blogging” of Starkey’s new book on Henry VIII, I’ve had a couple of folks suggest we do some more. If you have a suggestion for another book that we can do as a group discussion, please post it in the comments and I’ll work out a proposed schedule. To start with, I’d like to stick to NON-fiction books, although if this is successful and we continue it for a while we can certainly branch into fiction.

[The discussions will actually take place on the Q&A blog]

Update on Kenilworth Gardens

As most of you probably know by now, I’m a big fan of the project to recreate the Elizabethan gardens at Kenilworth Castle, based on archaeology and the accounts from Elizabeth’s famous visit in 1575.

Here’s an article from Building Design online about the architecture firm doing the gardens and the project in general, including some neat pictures (small version of one of them above).

In 1575, Elizabeth I

Telegraph article on Syon monastery and Katherine Palmer

From the Telegraph Online:

Among the eminent people added this month to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (that endless labyrinth stuffed with curiosities) is a woman from the Tudor age who stands out for the strength of her perseverance against calamities. Her name was Katherine Palmer.

She was born early in the reign of Henry VIII. Her mother’s family had lived at Ightham Mote, the stone, timber and moated house in Kent, now in the care of the National Trust. Katherine gave up life among the gentry to join the monastery of Syon at Isleworth, on the Thames, where the Duke of Northumberland’s house now stands.

Syon was unusual because it was ruled by a woman, as a double foundation of 60 nuns, and a separate house of 24 brothers, some of whom acted as chaplains to the nuns. At this abbey, each half walled around in its own cloisters, nuns and monks lived a life of contemplative prayer.

…

These houses of prayer, trusted by successive kings and least in need of reform, were among the first targets for Henry VIII’s resentment over the matter of the divorce of Katharine of Aragon and his desire for plunder. Richard Reynolds, a monk of Syon, was hanged, drawn and quartered along with the Prior of the London Charterhouse and his fellows on May 4 1535.

Syon held together until 1539, when it was suppressed through Thomas Cromwell’s energy. Alone among English nunneries of which we have records, the sisters continued to live as best they could under the rule of their foundress in small groups, at first in England, then abroad. Katherine Palmer was a leader in these attempts.

Full article

Tip o’ the wimple to Foose for the recommendation of the article

Portrait of Elizabeth I from early in her reign re-discovered

Makes me wonder what other treasures are still waiting to be found in these country houses!

From The Times Online:

A portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, completed just months after she came to the throne, has been found in a dusty and dirty condition in a country house in East Sussex.

Elizabeth became queen 450 years ago next month. The picture shows her as a simply dressed woman in her mid-twenties with a pale face. It is a far cry from later portraits where she is depicted in full regalia after defeating the Spanish Armada.

Its discovery is being hailed by historians because only two other portraits of Elizabeth in the first few years of her reign are known to exist. There are many from later in her reign, including 10 in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Even more tantalising is that x-rays of the painting have revealed another, earlier picture of the queen beneath.

Full article (with photo of the portrait and the x-ray)

Archaeologists find medieval foundations at Hampton Court

From Mail Online:

Archaeologists working at Hampton Court Palace have uncovered the earliest foundations ever found at King Henry VIII’s famous royal residence.

The significant 13th century building remains predate any other finds made at the palace by nearly 200 years.

The unexpected discoveries were made during excavations as part of a project to recreate Henry VIII’s Tudor 16th century courtyards.

Stone foundations and walls of a substantial medieval structure measuring 10metres by 25metres were found in Base Court, the largest interior courtyard of the Tudor palace.

….

The project to represent Base Court for the 500th anniversary of King Henry VIII’s accession to the throne will be complete by March 2009.

This will then herald the beginning of a series of exhibitions, events and activities to mark the historic anniversary.

Full article (with some neat overhead pictures of the excavations)

Renaissance Faces exhibit at the National Gallery in London

From Metro.co.uk

If portraits capture not just appearance but the soul then what are we to make of the cherubically grinning, charmingly animated features of a young Henry VIII? Guido Mazzoni’s Laughing Boy is believed to be a bust of the chubby-faced prince – and if the portrait’s soul-penetrating properties are to be believed, moral corruption seems a long way off.

Full article (short, but I chose this one because it has a nice photo of the bust mentioned above)

National Gallery website

Member of the Scottish Parliament seeks return of MQOS’ body

I was going to pass on this particular story since it will probably end up being one that is a bunch of talk that nothing ever comes of, but I couldn’t resist pointing out the historical error at the start of the article.

From the BBC:

A Nationalist MSP has called for the remains of Mary Queen of Scots to be returned to Scotland.

The Catholic monarch’s body has lain at Westminster Abbey in London since she was executed on the orders of her cousin Elizabeth I of England in 1587.

South of Scotland MSP Christine Grahame is to make a motion to the Scottish Parliament later this week demanding the body be repatriated.

Composer James MacMillan and Lib Dem MSP Hugh O’Donnell backed the call.

The phrasing implies that Mary was buried at the Abbey right after her execution, which isn’t correct – she was originally buried at Peterborough Cathedral. Her body was moved to Westminster Abbey during her son James I’s reign. Oh well, I guess I should just be glad that they didn’t call her “Bloody Mary” or say that she was Elizabeth I’s sister, both of which are errors I’ve caught in news articles before.

Full article

Edited to add: Just in case anyone reads the sentence up at the top and thinks that I *do* want something to come of it, I want to clarify that I don’t. James wanted his mother buried in the Abbey and that’s where I think she should stay. 🙂

The Forty-Year-Old Virgin Queen

Regular readers will know that I get a kick out of Tudor/Elizabethan references in popular culture, so I thought this little bit of “The Starter Wife” where Debra Messing imagines herself as Elizabeth I was cute. You can see the clip here or by clicking on the screen capture above.

Tip of the red-colored wig to Sonja Marie for the link!

(original link no longer works and was removed because it was bringing in a lot of spam)

iTunesU

With the news that Cambridge and Oxford have joined in, I thought it was time to bring attention to iTunesU for anyone who hasn’t heard of it before now. Basically, colleges and universities have started joining in with Apple to podcast audio and video of lectures, as well as information about their schools for potential students, etc. Some universities have been doing things like this through their own websites, but having them all under one umbrella at iTunes is pretty useful.

I haven’t had a chance to check for any Tudor history specific lectures yet, so if anyone finds some please post them in the comments. I downloaded the 50 minute “Monarchy” lecture by David Starkey (over 400MB!) from Cambridge but I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet.

More on the Tudor collar auction

I originally blogged about this item back in August, although the original auction date and estimated price have changed.

From The BBC:

The only known surviving chain of office from the time of Henry VIII is being put up for auction.

The king gave the gold Coleridge Collar to one of his closest advisers, Sir Edward Montagu, around 1546.

The chains showed allegiance to the monarch and the intricacy of the design and quality of the metal signified the status of the wearer.

It is expected to fetch

Search for a Tudor carnation

Here’s a neat article from The Telegraph that caught my eye last week:

The grim and impressive ruined battlements of Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire seem an unlikely setting for a garden of fragrance. But if English Heritage’s latest restoration project goes to plan, visitors moving from the dank environs of the Norman Keep into the light will be greeted by a waft of spicy clove scent, just as Elizabeth I was when she visited in July 1575.
…
John Watkins, head of gardens and landscapes at English Heritage, is patiently unpicking the genetic profile of a prized carnation that will occupy pedestalled clay pots at the top and bottom of the stairs. His study of engravings of contemporary gardens by Dutchman Hans Vredeman de Vries revealed that urns bearing plant rarities appear in strategic spots – and in some he could discern a trelliswork of willow holding carnations at nose height.

“The carnation was very much a fashionable plant at the time, introduced in 1540,” says Watkins. “It came over from the Turkish court and was probably Dianthus caryophyllus, the true carnation found in mountains around the Mediterranean. The true carnation has a very distinct, spicy nutmeg-clove fragrance. The pinks we know today are much sweeter.”

Full article

Excerpt and a review of Henry: Virtuous Prince David Starkey

First, the excerpt, at the Times Online:

David Starkey offers a fresh vision of Henry VIII

Before he was a brutal dictator, he was a virtuous king: in a new biography, David Starkey offers a fresh vision of Henry VIII

Henry and I go back a long way.

My first essays at Cambridge were on his grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. My doctoral dissertation was a study of his privy chamber and its staff. One of them, William Compton, has a part here.

Full excerpt

And next is John Guy’s review of the book, also from The Times online:

Here, ready for the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession, is the first volume of David Starkey’s two-volume life of the king, which has been eagerly awaited for at least 10 years.

Moving, round 2

Hopefully the final time for a while!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’ll be moving into my new place this weekend and will check in to approve comments and post news when time allows. I’m not in as much of a rush in this move, since I don’t have to clear out so someone else can move in, like with the first one. I’m probably going to float between the two places for the next week since I haven’t set up the cable and internet at the new place yet. Boy will I be happy when this is finished!