I wanted to get this final round-up of 2016 actually *in* 2016, hence the Saturday post. A lot of stories piled up in the final weeks of 2016 that I never got around to posting, so this is going to be a long one!
* Pembroke Castle study uncovers possible Henry VII birthplace
* Through foreign eyes: the forgotten ambassadors to the Tudor court
St. Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St. Edmunds. Photo May 2015.
Peterborough Cathedral. Photo May 2015.
Norwich Cathedral. Photo May 2015.
Nave of Rochester Cathedral, looking west. Photo May 2015.
For the last month of the year, I’m going to feature a photo each week from some of the cathedrals I visited last year.
Gardens at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Shottery, near Stratford-upon-Avon. Photo May 2015.
A little bit of green for those of you in places where real winter actually exists (which it definitely does NOT here in central Texas).
Books
A couple of books that have already been released in the UK are out in the US this month:
Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey by Nicola Tallis will be out December 6 in the US.
And Suzannah Lipscomb’s The King is Dead: The Last Will and Testament of Henry VIII that came out last year in the UK is finally getting a US release on December 20th.
One new release this month – First of the Tudors a novel about Jasper Tudor by Joanna Hickson is out December 1 in the UK and out early next year in the US (for the paperback release, it looks like you might be able to get the Kindle edition sooner).
And just in time for the holidays – a great gift idea for you or the Tudor-history lover in your life (or just a celebration of saying a big “Adios!!” to 2016) – The Tudor Planner!
Designed by Heather Teysko of the Renaissance English History Podcast, the planner features:
Each monthly page has a quote from a famous Tudor personality, and a This Month in Tudor History highlight. Plus a listening recommendation for an English Renaissance album for that month (because my particular passion is 16th century music). All of the recommendations are in a public Spotify playlist with the link so you can easily listen whenever you like. The weekly pages have events that happened that month in Tudor history.
Click here or the picture above for more information on how to order your own copy!
Continuing Exhibitions
Windsor Castle will host Shakespeare in the Royal Library from February 13 through January 1, 2017 and includes works of Shakespeare collected by the royal family, accounts of performances at Windsor Castle, and art by members of the royal family inspired by Shakespeare’s plays.
Shakespeare Documented – Celebrating 400 years of William Shakespeare with an online exhibition documenting Shakespeare in his own time. The partners in this exhibition include The Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, The British Library, The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and The National Archives. The exhibition will continue to expand throughout the year.
Looking through a green arch at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Shottery, near Stratford-upon-Avon. Photo May 2015
A bedroom in Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Shottery, near Stratford-upon-Avon. Photo May 2015.
Part of the kitchen area at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Shottery, near Stratford-upon-Avon. Photo May 2015.
How about a round-up of some now-very-outdated-news? 🙂
I’ve skipped the “Marlowe as Shakespeare Co-author” news stories since you couldn’t swing a dead poet without hitting those, so here are a few other things from the past month and a half (UGH) that might have slipped past people that I thought were interesting.
* Human bones mystery uncovered at Anglesey church – The bones were discovered during a project to clean and restore a rare alabaster stone tomb at St Gredifael’s Church near Menai Bridge. The tomb at Penmynydd is of Goronwy Tudur and his wife Myfanwy – part of Tudor family dynasty. – I visited the tomb myself back in 2000 so I was pleased to see that the it continues to be cared for. This was also the church where the stained glass window honoring the Tudor dynasty was smashed by vandals and then later restored.
Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Shottery, near Stratford-upon-Avon. Photo May 2015.
In honor of the marriage of Anne Hathaway’s marriage to William Shakespeare in November 1582, I’ll be featuring her family’s famous cottage this month.
Books
A few books that have already been released in the UK will be out in the US this month –
First up is The Tudors in 100 Objects by John Matusiak which was released August 1 in the UK and will be out in hardback in the US at the beginning of November:
And Sarah Gristwood’s Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth Century Europe which was released last month in the UK and at the end of this month in the US.
And in new books this month, Crown of Blood: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey by Nicola Tallis is out November 3 in the UK and will be out December 6 in the US.
Events
The second of this fall’s BBC History Magazine’s History Weekends is in York from November 18th to 20th.
Continuing Exhibitions
Ending soon – Will & Jane opened on August 6 and will run through November 6 and is the final of three exhibitions at the Folger Shakespeare Library, in addition to other events, during their year-long Wonder of Will celebrations.
Windsor Castle will host Shakespeare in the Royal Library from February 13 through January 1, 2017 and includes works of Shakespeare collected by the royal family, accounts of performances at Windsor Castle, and art by members of the royal family inspired by Shakespeare’s plays.
Shakespeare Documented – Celebrating 400 years of William Shakespeare with an online exhibition documenting Shakespeare in his own time. The partners in this exhibition include The Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, The British Library, The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and The National Archives. The exhibition will continue to expand throughout the year.
Henry VIII’s arms outside the Chapel Royal at Hampton Court Palace. Photo May 2015.
The arms on the other side of the door that honor Jane Seymour can be seen in Picture of the Week #352
The King’s Beasts along the entrance to the Great Gatehouse at Hampton Court Palace. Photo May 2015.
Portrait of Edward VI, attributed to William Scots c. 1550, hanging at Hampton Court Palace. Photo May 2015.
I haven’t done a whole lot of portraits as Pictures of the Week yet, but I got a number of decent photos of paintings at Hampton Court Palace last year so I’m going to start using some going forward. This one is of the birthday boy, Edward VI, born 479 years ago today!
Wine Fountain and Hampton Court Palace. Photo May 2015.
For October I’ll be featuring Hampton Court Palace in honor of the birth of Edward VI and the death of Jane Seymour. The wine fountain was one of several things that had changed since my visits in 1998 and 2000 which gave me a lot of new things to take pictures of (and boy did I take a lot of photos there last year…).
Books
Starting out with a number of books that slipped past me in the previous months…
First up is The Tudors in 100 Objects by John Matusiak which was released August 1 in the UK and will be out in hardback in the US at the beginning of November:
And Sean Cunningham’s Prince Arthur: The Tudor King Who Never Was came out in the US earlier than I expected, so it is now available!
One that I missed in August that is out in the UK and will be out October 9 in the US is Henry VII
Passageway at Hall’s Croft, Stratford-upon-Avon. Photo May 2015.
I’m a sucker for all the wooden interiors of these old houses so I’m glad to see a very modern fire extinguisher at the end of the hallway to protect them!
Good grief, I didn’t expect a month to go by before I got a chance to do one of these again… To say that things have been busy lately would be a wild understatement. The good news is that I’ve earned a fair amount of comp time but the bad news is that I have no idea when I will ever be able to use it!
But enough whinging from me – on to the news round-up!
* The Tudor London Tube Map – This one has already been going around social media for a while now, but it was so clever (and useful for planning a Tudor-themed trip to London) that I had to post it.
* Lost in the Great Fire: which London buildings disappeared in the 1666 blaze? – A look at some of the reasons that many Tudor (and earlier) buildings of London aren’t around to see anymore.
* Bosworth: the dawn of the Tudors – From childhood imprisonment in Brittany to the violent execution of Richard III in a Leicestershire field, Henry Tudor
