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Upcoming books, talks and exhibitions

Updates to previous books that are already out in the UK – Suzannah Lipscomb‘s A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England will be out in hardback in the US on April 24th. It’s already available on Kindle in the US (and it’s already in my hands thanks to Suzannah and her publisher – review coming after I finish Winter King!). That same day A.N. Wilson’s The Elizabethans is due out in the US in hardback and Kindle.

Another title in Macmillan’s Queenship and Power series (click the link for all of the titles in the series) – Retha Warnicke’s Wicked Women of Tudor England is due on April 10 in the US and UK:

Just in time for Shakespeare birthday celebration time, I, Iago by Nicole Galland, a novel based on the famous character from Othello, is due out on April 24th in the US and UK:

Alison Weir will be giving a talk about her upcoming book A Dangerous Inheritance at the Mary Rose Museum on April 4th. Although the book isn’t due out for a few months, they will have copies on hand for her to sign. More details at the Mary Rose Museum website.

Exhibitions

Sudeley Castle is celebrating the 500th anniversary of the birth of Katherine Parr for the next six months, starting April 1st when they open for the 2012 season. They also announced last week that the Duchess of Cornwall will be patron for the celebrations. Click on the logo for more information:

And finally:

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich will be presenting – Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames an exhibition that will run from April 27, 2012 to September 9, 2012.

Sunday Short Takes

Short round-up this week. I’m sure there was stuff I missed during my crazy busy week!

* Peterborough Cathedral’s Spanish queen – The connection between Peterborough Cathedral and Henry VIII’s Spanish queen is little known outside the city.

* Cranmer’s Ambiguous Legacy – Archive article from History Today posted for the anniversary of Cranmer’s execution last week

* Tudor England beckons debut author – Nice profile of Nancy Bilyeau and her first book The Crown (which I read and thoroughly enjoyed and will eventually write a review of… hopefully before the sequel comes out!)

And finally, a video guide to Kenilworth Castle by Dan Snow. Somehow I missed this when it was posted back in September!

Sunday Short Takes

A few stories from the always-fascinating wreck of the Mary Rose:

* Mary Rose skeletons studied by Swansea sports scientists

* Acid damage is latest battle for the warship Mary Rose

And the latest History Extra podcast from BBC History Magazine features Suzannah Lipscomb talking about Tudor courtiers and Kate Hay talking about the Great Bed of Ware. Be sure to check out the related slide shows:

* The Vyne, Hampshire

* The Great Bed of Ware

Help edit the Devonshire Manuscript!

I received an email about this interesting project – using the Wiki platform to create a group-edited critical edition of a 16th century manuscript.

The Devonshire Manuscript is a verse miscellany from the 1530s to the early 1540s and contains works by Sir Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, as well as several items attributed to women writers, such as Lady Margaret Douglas (later Countess of Lennox) and Mary Howard Fitzroy (wife and then widow of Henry VIII’s illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy Duke of Richmond and Somerset). Previous work on the manuscript has concentrated on Wyatt’s poems but this one seeks to incorporate the whole work and place it into its broader context.

If you’re interested in helping out with the project (or just reading and following its progress) check it out at Wikibooks – The Devonshire Manuscript

Picture of the Week #167

Glastonbury Abbey. Photo May 1998.

I was looking back through the photos I have for the Picture of the Week and realized that I haven’t used one of Glastonbury since March 2009, so I thought it was time for another. As I mentioned before, Glastonbury was dissolved in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.

Seventh blogiversary today!

I know it’s silly to keep marking these anniversaries but I just can’t help it. 🙂

On March 14, 2005 I took the plunge into the blogging world and replaced the old “What’s New” and “Tudor News and Events” page with a proper blog.

On a related note, I was looking back over some old records for a project I’m assisting on and was trying to figure out what date to use as the anniversary for the site as a whole. Some parts of the site actually date back to 1995 when it was part of my personal homepage for a while before it split off into what it is now. So I have mostly settled on July 1, 1997 since that was when I moved everything over to a dedicated for-pay webhost with it’s own URL (I bought the domain name three years later). So, I guess that means that I’ll be reaching 15 years this summer!

Eastbury Manor House

A while back I received an email from Eastbury Manor House about their upcoming events and looked into the property some more since I wasn’t familiar with it. Eastbury was built during the reign of Elizabeth I and is owned by the National Trust and managed by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, where it is located.

This summer they will have a special Tudor tie-in event to the Olympics:

Saturday 7 July Tudor Olympics!
Indulge in some Tudor games. Meet Amy barn Owl, Tink the hawk and have your picture taken for a pound with birds of prey. There will be the opportunity to stroke these birds and find out more but there will not be a flying display. Get ready for some action and meet two Tudor archers in camp. Have a go at archery all day, suitable for 5+ with demonstrations at 11.30 and 1.30 if you are brave enough. There will be Children craft activities.

You can find more information about the property at: National Trust: Eastbury Manor House and London Borough of Barking and Dagenham – Eastbury Manor House: A magnificent Tudor survival

Sunday Short Takes

Relatively short round-up this week:

* Portrait of Margaret Beaufort, mother and grandmother of kings, is unveiled – Historian David Starkey shows painting of ‘the most powerful woman in Tudor England’ at Hever Castle

* One That Got Away – Interesting story of a manuscript made for Henry VIII from the British Library manuscripts blog

* Time of the Tudors, 1485-1603 – From the People’s Collection Wales

* Experts confirm 16th century letter was written by Mary Queen of Scots – A MYSTERY letter unearthed in Blair Castle in Ayrshire has been confirmed as being written by Mary Queen of Scots. The letter, valued at

Sunday Short Takes

The Vatican Secret Archives exhibition that I have mentioned a few times previously is now open so there were several articles about some of the treasures that are now on display. Here are some:

* The Vatican’s Secret Archive: selected papal documents go on display in Italy

* Revealed: Signed by 81 noblemen, the threatening letter sent to a Pope ‘asking’ him to annul Henry VIII’s first marriage

* Vatican archive reveals nobles’ threat to papacy

* Mary Queen of Scots poignant letter months before her execution

* Official exhibition site page with more information on some of the documents

Last Thursday was St. David’s Day and the History Today twitter account linked to their index of articles on Wales. Some are available by subscription only, but others are free to read, including:

* The Welshness of the Tudors – Without their Welsh connections, the Tudors could never have made good their rags-to-riches ascent to the English throne, argues Peter R. Roberts.

* Welsh and English Princes of Wales – In this article, the complex relationship between England and the Principality is reflected, as D. Huw Owen traces the claimants of this title from 1245 to 1490, when Henry VII’s son, Arthur, was proclaimed Prince of Wales.

And here are some other interesting things that popped up last week:

* The National Trust discovers letters from Henry VIII and Jane Seymour

* ‘We be delivered a prince’: Letter informing Henry VIII of his longed-for son’s birth is found after 469 years in stately home – (same item as above, but I had to link to this so I could rant about the statement that it was “written in Old English” – NO IT WASN’T!!! It’s Early Modern English. Sorry – this is a big pet peeve of mine that I got from my professor for the History of the English Language class I took in college.)

* How Henry VII branded the Tudors – What has gone down in history as ‘the wars of the roses’ was really nothing of the kind. Doctored manuscripts show how a wily Henry VII dusted off a royal emblem after the event (by Thomas Penn, author of The Winter King

* The BBC History Extra podcast for March 1 features Ian Mortimer discussing the sensations of Elizabethan England

* Dreamer or schemer? Step forward the real Anne Boleyn – Beguiling temptress or feisty schemer? Nearly 500 years on, Henry VIII

Picture of the Week #165

Carew Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Photo May 2003.

Since tomorrow is St. David’s Day, I thought it would be appropriate to head back to Wales with the Picture of the Week. I’ve featured the carvings of the arms of Henry VII, Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon at Carew, but I think this is the first time I’ve had a picture of the whole castle.

Upcoming books, lectures, and exhibitions

Time for another round-up of upcoming books, lectures, and exhibitions!

I know I’ve already talked about it several times, but it’s not very often that I get to be excited about an exhibition that comes to my own hometown! Yes, finally, The King James Bible: Its History and Influence opens on February 28 at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. I’m curious to see which pre-KJB works they have on display, since I know the HRC holds some and I believe some from the Folger and the Bodleian are part of the exhibition. I plan to sneak over on my lunch break a couple of times over the next few months. 🙂

Sorry for the short notice on these lectures… especially since the second appears to be sold out!

Sarah Gristwood will be speaking on “Conspiracy theories and castle secrets” at Dover Castle on February 29. Sounds like fun!

David Starkey will be closing out the British Library’s Royal Manuscripts exhibition with a talk on New Learning out of “Old Books: Henry VIII and the Re-Invention of the Royal Library” at the British Library on March 9. (As I mentioned above, this even seems to already be sold out. Hopefully the BL will put it out as a video or podcast, as they occasionally do with other talks.)

An update on a few past books – Thomas Penn’s Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England will be out in the US on March 6 and both David Loades’ The Boleyns: The Rise & Fall of a Tudor Family and Elizabeth Norton’s Bessie Blount: The King’s Mistress are due out sometime in March in the US.

A couple of times I’ve had an idea for a book, only to be irked to find out that someone has already written or is writing something similar. In this case, any annoyance passed quickly when I knew it was being written by someone who would write a much better book! Suzannah Lipscomb’s latest A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England is out on March 15 in the UK and in print on April 24 in the US (the US Kindle edition is linked below and is supposed to be out on the same day as the UK release).

David Loades’ latest book The Tudors: History of a Dynasty us due out on March 1 in the UK and May 10 in the US.

Patrick Williams’ Catherine of Aragon: A Life is due out sometime in March in the US and June 1 in the UK.

Sunday Short Takes

Not a lot of news this week (although I’m sure some got past me while I was in my headcold-induced fog).

A neat video about the conservation of the White Tower of the Tower of London by Historic Royal Palaces:

And a short video about Henry VIII’s defense of Catholicism from BBC Radio 4’s The Art of Monarchy series. Check out the round-up of the series at the Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide blog

Picture of the Week #164

A second IANE carving in the Beauchamp Tower of the Tower of London. Photo June 2003.

I had some interesting conversations on Twitter earlier this week about this second carving, which it seems might also be related to Jane Grey (see previous Picture of the Week).

Sunday Short Takes

* Claire Ridgway of The Anne Boleyn Files has published The Anne Boleyn Collection which includes the most popular articles from the site. I downloaded the US Kindle version for my iPad and the UK Kindle edition is available along with paperback editions.

* Several interesting stories about the Welsh port town of Tenby hit my news alerts this week, which was exciting! In my continuing research on Jasper Tudor and Henry VII’s early years, Tenby plays a role, as you will see from these news items:

* The tunnel of Tenby where Henry VII hid as a teenager – Photo gallery

* Why future Henry VII hid in a Tenby cellar in 1471 – Audio story from BBC news (warning: the audio auto-starts when you go to the page)

* New light shed on the history of Tenby and its 16th Century boom

* And from the Really-Interesting-Looking-Program-That-I’ll-Probably-Never-Be-Able-To-Legally-Watch-In-The-US Department, Helen Castor is doing a 3 part program for BBC 4 based on her book She Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizbeth. The trailer is embedded below:

She Wolves: England’s Early Queens from Matchlight on Vimeo.

Picture of the Week #163

IANE carved into a wall in the Beauchamp Tower of the Tower of London. Photo May 2003.

This carving has been associated with Jane Grey, who, along with her husband Guildford, was executed this week in 1554. Guildford Dudley and the members of his family who were arrested in the plot to put Jane on the throne were kept in this room and left many carvings, so it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that this is a reference to his wife. It is also a possible reference to Jane Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland (mother of Guildford, etc.). Or it’s possible that it isn’t a reference to either!