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Doing some updates

Depending on when you see this post, things might look a little – or a lot – different than normal. As I mentioned last week, I’ve been having some big problems behind the scenes with the blog and today it was so totally hosed I had to nuke everything and start fresh from a back-up file. However, the only back-up I could get to work is the one that preserved all the text, but not the theme design and layout. So I’m going to have to piece that back together. It might not end up looking exactly the same as before, but it should be close enough to be recognizable.

And if I can get that back to (mostly) normal, there will be a Sunday Short Takes later. And then a few glasses of wine… 🙂

Sunday Short Takes

I only had one news story this week but it’s a pretty important one so I wanted to mention it:

* King Richard lll to be reinterred in March 2015 – The date of the service in which Richard lll will be finally laid to rest will be Thursday 26th March 2015. This is one of three services which will remember the life and death of the only Monarch of England without a marked grave. The mortal remains of Richard lll will be received into the care of the Cathedral on the evening of 22nd March, will lie in repose for 3 days and will be reburied on the morning of Thursday 26th. The following days, Friday 27th and Saturday 28th March, will mark the end of the journey with the reveal of the tomb and a service to mark the completion of the reinterment, and events which will look to the future having laid the King to rest.

And I wanted to put up a note in case any of you have had trouble accessing the blog over the past week or so. WordPress is occasionally a little wonky on this site (which I’m pretty sure is an issue with my hosting provider and isn’t the fault of WordPress) and last week it was very slow or down completely on and off. My host did some upgrades too, which might have been part of that. I think everything is behaving normally again for site visitors but you may still experience some slowness or connection time outs. In those cases, just try again later and hopefully it will be back up. There seem to still be issues on the Dashboard site of things (where I write posts and approve comments, etc.) so I don’t think all of the bugs have been worked out yet. Fingers crossed that it gets sorted since it would be a bit of a pain to move the site!

Upcoming Books and Exhibitions for August 2014

Books

James Evans’ Merchant Adventurers was released last year in the UK and the US version, with the slightly different title Tudor Adventurers, is due out on August 15.

And Terry Breverton’s Jasper Tudor: The Man Who Made the Tudor Dynasty will be out August 19 in the US and August 28 in the UK. (It won’t be a big surprise to anyone who has been around here for a while that I’m really looking forward to this one!)

Continuing events, exhibitions, and displays

* CLOSING AUGUST 1 – The Society of Antiquaries is holding a free exhibition of some of the Society

Sunday Short Takes

Get ready for a bunch of links this week!

The King Richard III Visitor Centre in Leicester opened this weekend, so here are a few articles related to that:

* Richard III: A look inside Leicester’s new visitor centre – This link from the Leicester Mercury has a short video tour

* Richard III visitor centre in Leicester opens its doors to the public

And in more archaeology news:

* Archaeological dig uncovers Rufford medieval church thought to have been destroyed by Henry VIII

* Help find Tudor mansion in Markeaton Park

Some more interesting stories that came along:

* Henry VIII’s armour returns to Leeds Castle after 500 years

* How Does It Feel? – Understanding the emotional lives of people in the past is one of the most difficult challenges facing the historian, argues Suzannah Lipscomb. – I thought this was interesting in light of the “feelings” questions I’ve gotten on the Q&A blog over the years.

* A Tudor-Stewart marriage: oak chest wedding gift for James IV and Margaret Tudor discovered

And some BBC History Extra Tudor podcast goodness:

* Richard III and dirty Tudors – The past week’s podcast

* Top 10 Tudor podcasts – and a round-up of past Tudor-related podcasts you might have missed

Just for fun:

* Could you become a citizen of Elizabethan England? – Another entertaining quiz from BBC History Extra (I always do their weekly quiz – to date I think I have gotten a perfect score on only one occasion)

And finally:

I only recently found the Society of Antiquaries You Tube channel and I’ve embedded one of their recent videos of a short informal gallery talk about Tudor portrait sets. There are more at the channel including a few about their portrait of Richard III.

Upcoming Books and Exhibitions for July 2014

Books

Linda Porter’s Crown of Thistles has been out in the UK for some time now (paperback link below) and will be released in the US as Tudors Versus Stewarts: The Fatal Inheritance of Mary, Queen of Scots on July 1.

And in new books this month, John Edwards’ Archibishop Pole (part of the Archbishops of Canterbury series) is due out in both the US and UK on July 28. Unfortunately this book has “academic pricing” (i.e. is quite expensive!) but that’s one of the many reasons I love libraries!

New exhibit

Just one opening in July:

The new King Richard III Visitor Centre opens on July 26 in Leicester and will feature the exhibition “King Richard III: Dynasty, Death and Discovery”. The visitor centre is built where Richard III’s skeleton was discovered and you will have an opportunity to visit the preserved gravesite as part of the exhibition.

Continuing events, exhibitions, and displays

* If you missed out on In Fine Style when it was at Buckingham Palace, you can catch it now at the Palace of Holyroodhouse from March 14 to July 20.

* The Society of Antiquaries is holding a free exhibition of some of the Society

Guest Post: Kyra Cornelius Kramer on Henry VIII myths

For Henry VIII’s birthday, I’m happy to welcome Kyra back for another guest post, this time doing a little Tudor mythbusting! – Lara

Happy Birthday to Henry VIII, who was born on this day 523 years ago!

As a gift to him, I have devoted this day to debunking a lot of bunk about his life that I had *assumed* was true until I delved deeper during researches for my own book about this infamous King. There is nothing like research to leave you both enlightened and appalled by your former state of unsuspecting belief. Of course, there are myriad myths about Henry and I cannot cover them all, so I

Sunday Short Takes

* The July issue of History Today features an article by Janet Dickson on the The Final Years of Elizabeth I’s Reign (article preview at link)

* Richard III tomb design unveiled in Leicester – The wooden coffin will be made by Michael Ibsen, a distant relative of Richard III, while the tomb will be made of Swaledale fossil stone, quarried in North Yorkshire.

And finally, a few more interesting historical houses up for sale for your “what would I do if a had a few quid to spare” dreaming…

* The Norfolk house fit for King Henry VIII – yours for just