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Year: 2009

Oatlands exhibition now open

The exhibition that I mentioned in this post from August is now open. Here is the website for the Elmbridge Museum, which is hosting the exhibition.

Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Surrey Comet about the exhibition:

Oatlands Underfoot: Stones and Stories From a Forgotten Palace, was opened on September 26 by the mayor of Elmbridge, Councillor James Vickers.

It reveals the story of Oatlands Palace, which was built by Henry VIII and once stood near the centre of Weybridge.

Coun Vickers said:

Update on archaeological investigation of Bosworth Field

I’ve posted about this ongoing investigation a few times in the past and I’m not too surprised that it is now looking like the traditional site for the battle is incorrect. Some of the early results were pointing in that direction. I’m looking forward to reading the final report!

From The Telegraph:

For hundreds of years history followers have visited Ambion Hill in Leicestershire, believing it to be the site of the Battle of Bosworth, which marked the end of the War of the Roses and the beginning of the reign of the Tudors.

… Richard Knox, curator of Bosworth Battlefield, said it was now likely that the proper site was on low-lying ground between the villages of Shenton, Stoke Golding and Dadlington, first proposed by the historian Peter Foss in 1990.

The key to the mystery is likely to be finding the former marshland that Henry is said to have used to his advantage to attack the vastly larger army of his enemy from the flanks.

Investigations there have found ancient names given to the area such as Fenn Hole and Fenn Meadow, and a team is currently scouring the area with metal detectors.

Mr Knox said:

Picture of the Week #38

Chirk Castle in northern Wales, on the border with England. Photo May 2000.

Chirk was built in the late 13th century as part of Edward I’s conquest of Wales and has been nearly continuously occupied since then. The castle passed through many important medieval families until ending up in the hands of Thomas Stanley at the beginning of the Tudor period. After his execution, the castle became property of the crown. In 1563 Elizabeth I granted the castle to her favorite, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester. After his death, the castle was bought by Thomas Myddelton in 1595 and his descendants have lived in the castle ever since.

John Dee Quatercentenary Conference

This would be a fun conference to attend –

From The Guardian:

Scholars seek to rescue image of John Dee, last royal wizard

He was accused of sorcery, but many claim John Dee was one of the most original thinkers of his day

A group of international scholars are meeting in Cambridge today to rescue the reputation of the last royal wizard, Dr John Dee, from the false charge of sorcery that has dogged him for 400 years

Catch-up post

Yeah, it’s time for another catch-up post since I’ve been busy and I wasn’t feeling well for a few days, which is always a bad combination for productivity!

* Leanda deLisle has an article in the September issue The New Criterion entitled Faking Jane about the Spinola letter which purported to have an eyewitness description of Lady Jane Grey. Some of you might be able to access it through libraries, but you can also buy the individual article for $3. There has also been some discussion of the article over on the Q&A blog.

* Dame Judi Dench is looking to recreate The Rose theater in the north of England with the set from Shakespeare in Love. I think I had a news article about her saving the set back in the pre-blog days, but it apparently didn’t make it over when I switched from the old “News and Events” page to the blog.

* A rare Elizabethan hammerbeam roof in a barn at Westenhanger Castle has been restored by English Hertiage.

* And finally – a neat story from The Telegraph about How two Tudor lion statues came home to Hampton Court. Many years ago someone sent me some photos of some similar statues that they were looking for more information on and unfortunately now I can’t find the email or photos. I had to go through and clear out a lot of that stuff at one point so I might have deleted them. But it makes me wonder how many other things like this are still out there waiting to be found!

Other Worlds: Rare Astronomical Works exhibition

I hope you all will allow me the small indulgence of bragging on an exhibition near and dear to my heart! The Harry Ransom Center on the University of Texas campus (my alma mater and current employer) has put on the exhibit Other Worlds: Rare Astronomical Works in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy. Some of the works on display do coincide with the Tudor period though, so it isn’t totally off-topic! Up at the top is a photo I took of the HRC’s copy of Copernicus’ “De Revolutionibus”, printed in 1543 (the photo was from a different exhibition earlier this year).

More information is available here

And by the way, if any of you are in the area and visit the HRC, they also have an exhibit on Edgar Allen Poe on right now too, celebrating the bicentennial of his birth. See what I mean about all the cool things with anniversaries this year?