Home Articles posted by Lara (Page 96)

North Wales Church with Tudor ancestral connections vandalized

This is just sickening:

A church’s Elizabethan Tudor Rose window has been smashed to bits by thieves just a fortnight after clergymen proudly showed it off to the Prince of Wales.

They climbed in through the remains of the stained glass window at St Gredifael Church in Penymynydd, Anglesey, seized an ancient cannonball and hurled it through another Elizabethan window.

Full article (2 pages)

This is the window that was smashed, which some of you might recognize as the image that used to be on the front page of the website:

Click on the image to go to a page with a little bit more about the window and a link to the full sized picture. I’ve also got a few other pictures of the church itself, which I visited in 2000. (I’m in the process of re-doing all my photos from the negatives, so at some point I’ll have some nicer and bigger versions of the church photos up.)

Looking for the bones of Richard III

From the Leicester Mercury

The mystery has baffled historians for centuries – what became of the remains of Richard III?

Folklore and many history books claim that the king’s bones were dug up and hurled into the River Soar some 50 years after his death in 1485.

Others contend that they remain where they were laid.

Archaeologists may get the chance to find out when they excavate the site of the former Greyfriars Church, in St Martins, Leicester.

Full article

Couple of short news items

Sixteenth Century Falconry tag to be auctioned

A rare silver varvel, or falcon’s tag, that belonged to the powerful and oppressive lawyer, Richard Rich, is to be sold at auction in July.
…
This silver tag is of shield form with one side engraved “Lord Rich” above a na

New episode of the podcast up

The May 2007 episode of TudorCast is up! This marks one year of the podcast. I can’t believe it was actually over a year ago that I thought about doing this, and I really can’t believe that I actually have put together a year of podcasts. Thanks to everyone who has given me feedback over the past year!

TudorCast #12 – May 2007

This month’s featured website is FindAGrave.com

Picture of Henry VIII and Wives in the eye of a needle:

Lyrics/poem “When to her lute Corina sings” by Thomas Campion

WHEN to her lute Corinna sings,
Her voice revives the leaden strings,
And doth in highest notes appear,
As any challenged echo clear;
But when she doth of mourning speak,
E

Another Tudor typo

Or more accurately, another example of a common Tudor history mistake making its way into a newspaper. I don’t necessarily expect a column in a mid-sized American town’s newspaper to get all their English history correct, but it still irks me when they get this particular one wrong:

Henry VIII is not buried in the abbey, but his daughters, Elizabeth I, and the half-sister she ordered beheaded, Mary, Queen of Scots, are.

I even had a history teacher in high school that couldn’t keep Mary “Bloody Mary” Tudor (the half-sister) and Mary Queen of Scots (the beheaded one, a COUSIN) straight, but it still frustrates me how many people mix these two up.

Okay, rant over. 🙂

Cutty Sark

Not at all Tudor related, but I was heartbroken to see the fire on the Cutty Sark this morning. The good news is that about 50% of the ship was away for restoration. The bad news is that right now the fire is being treated as “suspicious”.

I’ve visited the ship twice, although I’ve never actually gone aboard for some silly reason. The picture above goes to the Greenwich set from my 2003 trip, which includes a few photos the ship.

Here’s a link to an article at BBC News

And here is a link to the Cutty Sark Trust.

Update September 2008
From The Times:

The fire that engulfed the Cutty Sark last May, resulting in

Johansson is *still* Mary Queen of Scots

With the flood of news alerts that came through over the past two days, you’d think this was big breaking news. I guess this is really a follow-up to news from back in September about Scarlett Johansson playing Mary Queen of Scots since her attachment to the project isn’t anything new. What apparently is new is that a production company (Relativity Media) has signed on to fund the movie.

There were a ton of articles about this, so I am just randomly choosing the most recent two that came through my news alerts:

From The Herald and from The Independent

Trailer for “The Golden Age”

Historically accurate or not, it certainly looks like good drama. I’m really looking forward to a modern-day special effects take on the Armada too!

Update: The trailer was taken down (can’t say I’m really surprised).

Update 2: Courtesy of Monique, here’s another link to the trailer. This time you can download a nice quality Quicktime version. Looks great on my computer!

Henry VIII in the eye of a needle


Willard Wigan, an artist who works on the microscopic scale has sold his collection to John Lloyd. Included in the collection is a sculpture of Henry VIII and Wives done in the eye of needle (detail of Henry and two wives above). You can see the full version of the Henry VIII piece and read about other works in This is London and the Times Online.

Tudor play recreated at Hampton Court Palace

From UKTV:

Actors and academics are restaging a Tudor play at Hampton Court Palace 500 years after it was first performed.

A Tudor play is being restaged at Hampton Court Palace in London, 477 years after it was performed at the same location for King Henry VIII.

The Play of the Weather by John Heywood was written specifically for the English king and it uses the weather to parallel the varying demands placed on a king by his subjects, the Times reports.

Full article

And another one, from News Blaze

Another book from “The Tudors” series

This one isn’t due out until November, but it is available for pre-order. I didn’t see a listing at Amazon.uk, but I’ll add it if/when it shows up. Looking at the other works by Anne Gracie, I’m guessing this is a historical romance based on the series.



Thanks to Kathy for emailing me about it!