Since I haven’t gotten around to a Sunday Short Takes for the last couple of weeks, here’s a midweek round-up:
* The new Fit for a King exhibit of 500 years of royal armour opens April 1 at The Tower of London. The exhibit will be on the top floor of the White Tower.
* The Anne Boleyn Files has started a calendar competition for photos of Tudor places they will be producing in 2012. Check out the details here!
* And also at the Anne Boleyn Files, a nice write-up of a lecture by David Starkey on Acton Court, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
Easter 2011 is right around the corner! How exciting!!
Some Tudor historians, like Ives, suggest that the royal progress of 1535 is when Anne Boleyn conceived her last ill-fated pregnancy. I suppose there isn’t any evidence extant to identify at exactly which manor house this occurred, but perhaps it might swell the funds to save Acton Court if it could be linked to this mysterious fetus, with its Retha Warnicke-inspired miasma of deformity and witchcraft.
I love the Stirling Castle room! Usually the settings for Mary Queen of Scots’ movies and fiction leave an impression of grim stone floors and soot-stained walls, with freezing people huddled in their plaids and bearskins in front of gigantic fireplaces – just general discomfort all round. This is so light and charming, quite Renaissance moderne!
I’ve put Stirling on my list of places that I must visit whenever I get back to Scotland. I have really enjoyed following the work they’ve been doing there over the past few years and it’s great to see how it has all finally come together.