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Archive Post: Mystery Lady May Be Queen

Mystery Lady May Be Queen
© Herald Sun
October 22, 1998

DNA tests by Melbourne scientists on a tiny tuft of red hair could unlock the secret of a 450 year old painting believed to be of Queen Elizabeth I, when she was nine. Geneticists at Monash University are analysing the hair, plucked from the original frame of the historic 1542 painting ‘Portrait of a Lady’, by renowned 16th century artist Hans Holbein. If the tests prove the hair is from a woman it could help confirm the identity of the woman in the picture as the young Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and future Queen of England.

The news coincides with the release of a major film on the life of the Tudor monarch, Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett.

It was Melbourne art historian and researcher Graeme Cameron who found the tiny strand of hair wedged in a crack in the painting’s elaborate original frame. “I went to brush it off but something made me stop and look at it a bit more closely” he said.

Mr Cameron was struck by the hairs age and the fact it was red – the colour of the then Princess Elizabeth’s hair. He said it was possible the hair could have come form either King Henry VIII himself or the artist Holbein, both of whom had red hair. “The hairs are quite ancient and shrivelled” he said. “Whoever it came from, it’s just amazing to think that it could have been there for that long”.

Mr Cameron who has been researching the painting for 20 years said the portrait had immense historical significance. “The Holbein portrait is an historical icon in its own right and represents the earliest image of Elizabeth I in existence” he said.

“It was potentially going to play a vital role in the politics of the day as a marriage portrait to secure an alliance between the English House of Tudor and the Scottish throne”.

Mr Cameron believes the artist painted the young Elizabeth to look much more mature and wiser than her years to increase her attractiveness to her potential suitor. The painting was sent to Scotland with Sir Lionel Duckett, one of the King’s advisers, but failed to win an alliance. It remained in the Duckett family for 300 years, largely forgotten until it was found in a private collection in 1952. The portrait is now owned by a private trust on the Isle of Man and is being restored.

Mr Cameron said the DNA test is just one of a battery of scientific tests being used to add further proof of the painting’s identity. If the DNA analysis reveals the hair to be female, he hopes to compare the genetic code with DNA samples from descendants of the Tudors.

Thanks to Jodie for snail-mailing this to me from down under!

Archive Post: Back from Britain 1998

I’m baaaccckkkk! I had a great trip, even if I did catch a cold on my way out of London… I just got my pictures back yesterday and I’ll start scanning as soon as I can. I had some problems with lens flare (I think the sun just wasn’t where I’m used to it, since England is 20 degrees further north than Austin, Texas) so some of my pictures didn’t come out as good as I had hoped. I did get some nice guidebooks and postcards though.

I have some news about upcoming Tudor-related movies and books in the news section. I picked up a copy of Alison Weir’s latest contribution to Tudor history: Elizabeth the Queen. It’s pretty good so far!

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Archive Post: New Years Resolution 1998

As part of my New Year’s Resolutions, I’ve decided that come heck or high water, I’m going to England !!!!! Right now, the plan is to leave on May 12th and return the 23rd. It’s not near enough time for me to do and see everything that I want to, but since I haven’t won the lottery, (yet… I’ve got to keep some optimism) I have to come back to Texas and work for a living! I plan on making the rounds of museums and of course the Tudor must-sees. Hopefully I’ll be able to replace a lot of the photos of castles and monuments with my own, and therefore completely avoid any possible copyright violations. : )

In the process of preparing for the trip, I’ve purchased several guides to London and Great Britain. One of the ones that I really like are the “Let’s Go” series. I’ve used them for travels in the US and I’ve found them quite useful. So, you can imagine how disappointed I was to find the following sentence in the history section of the London guide:

Referring to Henry VIII: “Despite eight marriages, Henry would never be blessed with a male heir.”

Well, I’m sure all of you can see the problems with this… I plan on writing them a little note to set them straight! After all, they do ask for reader feedback and corrections, and I feel it is my Tudor duty to let them know that they goofed!

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Archive Post: Henry VIII’s sauna found at Whitehall

The remains of King Henry VIII’s personal `Turkish’ steam bath have been identified in a new study of finds from his royal palace at Whitehall. The Turkish bath is thought to have been the first in Britain, complete with decorated tiled stove and steps leading down into a sunken stone pool.

Whitehall Palace in London was excavated in 1939, but the finds – including the sunken bath and hundreds of associated stove-tile fragments – were inadequately studied at the time, and were recognised as a Turkish bath only when re-examined by David Gaimster, a curator at the British Museum, and Simon Thurley, Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces. Speaking at a recent British Museum conference, Dr Gaimster said the discovery showed Henry VIII was adopting not only `the latest in Continental domestic design and technology’ but also a full Continental

Renaissance lifestyle. `The old-fashioned bathtub used at the beginning of his reign could not offer a greater contrast to the luxury sauna-bath arrangement introduced at Whitehall during the final decade of his life,’ he said. Steam baths, consisting of tiled stoves, baths, and occasionally beds and other furniture, were introduced to Europe in Germany in the later 15th century. In Britain they are known from records from the mid to later 16th century; and the Whitehall bathroom is recorded in an inventory of the palace dated 1543. The finds, however, provide the first archaeological evidence for the technology in Britain.

The tiles and the sunken bath were found associated with a small room in the king’s privy quarters. The wood-fired stove was classically designed with pediment and entablature, and was constructed of English-made green-glazed tiles which were moulded with Henry VIII’s royal arms and those of Edward Prince of Wales.

According to Dr Gaimster, the heraldic imagery suggests that Henry VIII’s modish bathroom may have been designed with a `public propagandist’ purpose in mind, despite being located within the inner sanctum of the royal quarters. The tiles and a reconstruction drawing of the stove are now on display in the new gallery of 15th to 18th Century Europe at the British Museum.

From British Archaeology news, April 1996.

Archive post: What’s New July 1997

What’s New? Everything!

Welcome to the new site. Everything from porky.as.utexas.edu/lara/tudor/tudor.html has moved here. In addition, you will probably notice a few new things if you have visited the old site. For instance, I am now coordinating a Pen Pal service. Also, there are new pictures and texts added in the Monarchs section. There are also areas for houses and castles, everyday life, maps and other new things. Browse and enjoy!

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