The UK National Archives has an on-line exhibition for the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne: Henry VIII – Power, Passion, Parchment. The exhibition features some documents that you can zoom in on and examine up close.
And here is an article from the Telegraph on the exhibition – Salacious claims of Anne Boleyn’s incest in Henry VIII documents placed online
AP photo
This is pretty cool… I can have both a history and tech geek-out!
From The Telegraph:
Scientists have managed to “virtually restore” the faded hues of his 28ft long tapestry using coloured light beams.
The Manchester University researchers looked at the back of the heavy wool and silk tapestry, which has been less affected by sunlight, to gauge what the original colours might have been.
They then measured the colour of every yarn on the front and used computer software to calculate how much of the original pigments of woad (blue), weld (yellow) and madder (red) had been lost.
High-definition projectors have now been used to beam two million pixels of different coloured light on to the tapestry.
Also check out the BBC story, with videos
The book for Henry VIII: Man and Monarch at the British Library will be released next week in the UK.
Here are the Amazon.co.uk order links (paperback and hardcover):
And the US order link (I think they will just be sending it from the UK, since it doesn’t look like there is specifically a US edition at this time):
The Queens Garden, one of the many lovely gardens at Sudeley Castle. May 1998.
The Banqueting Hall ruins can be seen to the right.
Hampton Court Palace‘s 500th anniversary events will start this Friday, and there is a lot going on!
Here are some highlights:
The Henry VIII talks at Hampton Court Palace
And of course, I have to link to the shopping. Here’s the web store for the Historic Royal Palaces – I love the “Divorced, Beheaded, Survived” charm bracelet. There is also a neat one with each of the wives’ badges.
This just goes to show you how many things may still be hiding in archives, libraries, attics, etc.
From The Guardian:
A drawing of Henry VIII’s famous victory over the French at the “Siege of Boulogne” in 1544 is to go on public display for the first time in more than 400 years after lying undiscovered and mislabelled in the British Library archives.
The image, drawn by a “war artist” commissioned to record the Tudor king’s military achievements, dates to 1545 and is one of four “views” documenting Henry’s second invasion of France.
For centuries art historians have pondered why there was never a final picture showing the surrender of the city. Just three drawings survived, one showing Henry landing in Calais, another of him on the way to Boulogne, and a third of the siege in progress.
“Everybody just assumed that the end of the siege had not been done,” Peter Barber, head of map collections at the British Library, told the Observer. But due to a cataloguing error the existence of a fourth drawing had gone unnoticed. It only came to light when Barber began re-cataloguing the manuscripts of Sir Robert Cotton, which had been left to the nation by his grandson, Sir John Cotton, in 1702 and passed to the British Museum on its founding in 1753.
The drawing will be on display at the British Library’s “Henry VIII: Man and Monarch” exhibition
Showtime has created a fun, tongue-in-cheek blog for “The Tudors” – Pop Tudors – History, recapped. No spoilers.
I particularly like the flowchart for 16th century marital dispute resolution. 🙂
Newly-discovered portrait by Matt Groening the Elder
[Yes, I know it’s lame to use something that I did a long time ago, but I didn’t have a chance to Photoshop something new for April Fools’ Day!]
Then head on over to the Lady Jane Grey Reference Site blog and submit them! The deadline is April 15.
And best wishes to Ms. de Lisle on that lower back trouble!
[Update – Please submit the questions at the link above, not at this site]
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
News from the Old Royal Navy College at Greenwich:
A weekend of Tudor-themed festivities will take place in Greenwich to help mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII
Carved sign in Richmond. May 2000.
Since yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Elizabeth I, I chose this image from part of the remaining section of Richmond Palace, where she died in 1603.
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).
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)
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.
Amazon links (of course… I always feel like I’m bashing you guys over the head with these things!)
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:
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.
[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.]
I found it through this page on E!Online, but I’m also pasting the direct video link below. I have no idea if people outside the US will be able to see this or not though.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid16752303001/bctid16739530001
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
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!
