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Month: March 2009

Catch-up post

These are mostly updates to previous topics, so I’m just going to lump them all together:

* Henry, Mind of a Tyrant by David Starkey will be running on Channel 4 in the UK on Mondays in April. You can listen to a stream of the soundtrack by Philip Sheppard on the composer’s website

* A new painting of the Mary Rose that was reconstructed with new information of examination of the wreck and artifacts.

* Rediscovering Henry VIII – An article by David Starkey from the Times Online about the upcoming British Library exhibition Henry VIII: Man and Monarch that he is the guest curator of.

* Two articles about information that may have been lost during the restoration of the Cobbe portrait (that may or may not be of Shakespeare): Forsooth, restorers botched up bald bard William Shakespeare from The Guardian and Restorers ‘wiped away’ precious details from rare William Shakespeare portraits from The Telegraph

More stamps and first day covers

Actually, the stamps themselves are the same, but the cover is different.

First up are some larger images of the two sets from the Royal Mail (click on each thumbnail to see a bigger version):

And here is the press release from Royal Mail (PDF).

And here is another first day cover, this time from Bletchley Park (which some of you might know from the WW2 code-breaking efforts), highlighting Tudor spymasters and code breakers. The first day covers are available from the Bletchley Park post office. Proceeds will go to the Bletchley Park preservation fund. You can get more info from the press release here (PDF).

Reconstruction of a face from The Mary Rose

And it is possibly the face of someone responsible (in part) for the sinking.

From The Daily Mail:

The face of the man who may have sunk the Mary Rose has been recreated more than 400 years after Henry VIII’s flagship went to the bottom of the Solent.

For centuries, historians have been unable to explain the loss of the Mary Rose in July 1545, which sank very close to land during a battle with the French.

Evidence from the wreck of the ship suggests it turned with its gunports open, was hit by a squall and swamped by a wave that poured in so fast the ship sank without trace within seconds.

Only a handful of the more than 400 crew and soldiers aboard the Mary Rose survived. Although the remains of more than 170 individuals were recovered, few could be identified as specific members of the crew.

The head of the man has been remodelled by internationally renowned forensic artist Richard Neave from a skull recovered from the wreck.

He was found with a bosun’s call, a whistle, which signified seniority and could prove he was at least partly responsible for the disaster.

It would have been the bosun’s job to ensure gun ports were closed.

Full article (with pictures)

House of Treason: The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Dynasty

From The Daily Mail:

Power, treason and the best legs in court

HOUSE OF TREASON BY ROBERT HUTCHINSON

What is treason? In Tudor times, as in Stalin’s, it is the charge by which anyone whom a tyrant fears as a rival can be permanently removed – by execution.

The Howards, Dukes of Norfolk, were not only rich and powerful, they were extremely vain. They called themselves ‘right high and mighty princes’. They built themselves palaces with tennis courts – the indoor sort.

And out of the four successive fathers and sons considered here, two were beheaded and two came within an ace of having their arrogant heads severed.

There were no more regular guests in the Tower of London than the high and mighty Howards.

Add to this that two of Henry VIII’s wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, beheaded for cuckolding him, were Howards – well, Anne’s mother was – and you have a full house of losers in the lethal game of musical chairs that was the Tudor court.

You might say they had it coming. But you might also say they were victims of Tudor paranoia – the Howards were powers behind the throne, so no wonder Henry and Elizabeth felt insecure.

Full article

Amazon links (of course… I always feel like I’m bashing you guys over the head with these things!)

Stamps honoring the Tudors and the Mary Rose

More neat collectibles for those of you who are trying to keep up! I bought the Elizabeth 450 and Henry VIII 500 coins from the Royal Mint, but I so far have managed to hold off on all the cool stamps (we’ll see how long my resistance lasts).

All of these are from Buckingham First Day Covers and can be ordered at their website. Here is the press release for these covers (PDF).

The images below go to larger versions:



Petition to extend “The Tudors”

I received this through the submission form for the Q&A blog, but it really belongs here. I personally feel that they wrote themselves into a corner by changing everything about Henry VIII’s sisters, and therefore losing many of the dramatic story lines of Jane Grey, Katherine Grey, Mary Queen of Scots, etc. I don’t see how they could honestly work those people back into the story as potential heirs to the throne when they’ve eliminated the basis for their claims to the throne.

But, if you’re interested in asking Showtime to continue the series, please see the information below.

God Save “The Tudors”!!

According to Robert Greenblatt, entertainment president of the U.S. pay-TV channel Showtime, “The Tudors” final season “will be the final two wives”, season 4.

Please, help keep the Tudors alive. By signing the petition you are asking Showtime to extend The Tudors for 2-3 more seasons, following season 4. We are asking to see the reigns of the infamous and beloved Edward IV, Mary I, and Elizabeth I.

Come one, come all! Help save “The Tudors”, from getting the AXE! Please, click on the link provided and sign the petition.

Thank you.

http://www.gopetition.com/online/26277.html

[Updated – I’ve decided to close this thread to any additional comments. Nikki’s second comment came in while I was writing my own comment closing the thread, so I allowed it to be the final one. Please understand my reasoning for closing this thread – people have had their say and I don’t want it to continue on to a full-out argument on the issue.]

Reverse-engineering Henry VIII

I came across this article about some of the technology used to scan four suits of Henry VIII’s armor from various times in his life.

From TCT Magazine:

Henry VIII Reverse Engineered by The Scan Team & Konica Minolta

Royal Armouries are staging an exhibition in conjunction with Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) at the Tower of London to mark the 500th anniversary of his coronation. The exhibition will offer an accurate illustration of the King throughout his reign. Fortunately a number of Henry

Fourth Blogiversary!

I missed the exact day (March 14), but this is close enough. It was four years ago that I switched my old “News and Updates” page to what it obviously needed to be – a blog. It basically had been a “manual” blog (with no comments other than email feedback to me) since July 1997, and I was able to pull in some of the more interesting old posts to fill out the new blog.

Thanks to everyone who stops by!

Picture of the Week #11

Model of the Tower of London. May 2003.

Although I have several photos of this model from three separate trips to the Tower, I’ve never remembered to take a photo of the information on it. If you know what year in the Tower’s history this model is supposed to recreate, please add a comment! I want to say it was supposed to be some time late in Henry VIII’s reign, but I just can’t remember for sure.

While I was searching the page for the Tower at Historic Royal Palaces, I noticed that they have a model of the medieval Tower from the time of the Peasant’s Revolt, which sounds neat. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t there on my last visit (2003).

More “discovered” Shakespeare

This time it is some written works –

From The Telegraph:

Academic ‘discovers’ six works by William Shakespeare

An academic claims to have discovered six previously unrecognised works by William Shakespeare.

Dr John Casson claims to have unearthed Shakespeare’s first published poem, the Phaeton sonnet, his first comedy, Mucedorus, and his first tragedies, Locrine and Arden of Faversham.

He also explores the plays Thomas of Woodstock and A Yorkshire Tragedy, and claims to prove that a ‘lost play’ called Cardenio is a genuine work by Shakespeare and fellow playwright John Fletcher.

Dr Casson spent three years studying writings thought to be connected to Shakespeare and poring over the life and letters of aristocrat Sir Henry Neville, considered by some academics to be the latest candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays.

He has published his findings in a book, titled Enter Pursued by a Bear.

“Some people have said, ‘we don’t know if this is by William Shakespeare’, so I’ve been able to study them and say ‘yes, here’s the evidence for Shakespeare but here’s also the evidence for Neville,’ so I’ve been able to link the two,” Dr Casson said.

“I started off looking at works where we weren’t sure whether they were by Shakespeare or not and I tested them to see if there was any evidence for Henry Neville.

“I’ve found evidence pouring out and I’ve been able to show Shakespeare’s development from his early days.”
…
Dr Casson, an independent researcher and psychotherapist, said: “The folio on display contains what many think are the complete works of Shakespeare, but I have discovered six new plays that are all by the Bard, but which never made it into this 400-year-old collection.”

He added: “What we thought were the first plays by Shakespeare appeared anonymously in the early 1590s.

Full article

And for anyone interested in getting the book, here are the Amazon links from my affiliate store:

Follow up on Shakespeare portrait

There were a lot of follow-up articles on this possible new portrait, but I thought this particular one (with some interesting comparison images) was good.

From The Times Online:

Shakespeare Unfound(ed)?
The real identity of the sitter for the new “Shakespeare” portrait

A claim by the eminent Shakespearean Stanley Wells that a Jacobean painting from the family collection of Mr Alec Cobbe, long held in Ireland, is a

Henry VIII “a real mummy’s boy”

From The Daily Mail:

King Henry VIII was a real mummy’s boy, his handwriting suggests.

According to historian Dr David Starkey, his handwriting was so similar to his mother’s it can be assumed he was emotionally dependent on women.

An exhibition opening next month at the British Library compares and contrasts his handwriting to his younger sister Mary and their mother, Elizabeth of York.

Dr Starkey revealed to the Sunday Times: ‘Henry was brought up very, very unusually, in a female household.’

All have the same bold, square and rather laboured forms of writing, which is unlike the writing of most men in the royal court of that period.

Dr Starkey has deduced that the young prince must have been taught to write by his mother in what were unheard of circumstances for nobility, let alone royalty, in those times.

Full article

Elizabeth I’s translation works published

These two volumes continue the work started with the excellent Elizabeth I: Collected Works edited by Leah Marcus, et. al. and Elizabeth I: Autograph Compositions and Foreign Language Originals, edited by Janel Muler et. al.

The first volume is already out and covers 1544-1589 and the second volume is to be published soon and covers 1592-1598. I’m hoping that these will someday come out in paperback like the Collected Works eventually did, since they tend to be cheaper and not take up as much room (both of which are big issues for me!).

And of course, Amazon affiliate store links below (just for the new translation volumes… if you want to support the site and buy the other ones, you can click through the links on the right.)

Follow-up on Elizabeth of York portrait

Henry VIII’s mother unveiled

The link above from the BBC News site has a video of the unveiling.

As expected, it is a variation on the Elizabeth in the red dress portrait that we’re familiar with. In fact, I think I was correct in my guess that Hever bought this portrait. When they show a close-up of the portrait in the video you can see the painted round bottom, the same as the link above.

I’ll add additional links in this post as they come in.

Previous post on this topic

New Book – Mistresses of Henry VIII by Kelly Hart

I received an email from The History Press about this upcoming book, which sounds interesting. And it will save me the trouble of trying to assemble that “mistresses timeline” I mentioned in a thread on the Q&A blog! It is due out on April 6 in the UK and June 1 in the US (according to Amazon). Text from the information sheet is copied below.

The Mistresses of Henry VIII by Kelly Hart

April 2009 is the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII

Picture of the Week #10

Stage of Shakespeare’s Globe in London. June 2000.

In honor of the possible new portrait and the additional news from the dig at the first theater, I decided to post this photo from one of my visits to the Globe. I took the tour on my trip in 1998, but didn’t get to see a play that time. However, when we were planning the big Tudor Talk meet-up in 2000, one of the list members who also volunteered at the Globe got us tickets for Hamlet, which was fabulous. We had two separate boxes for the approximately 20 people, split into two groups opposite each other. I was in the box on the middle level and second from the right of the stage in the photo. They were the fancy seats… no groundlings in our group!