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“The Tudors” Margaret/Mary Tudor info

I posted this over on the Q&A blog, but I thought it would be worth repeating here since I’m still getting questions about it:

As I’m sure some of you have figured out by now, the portrayal of Margaret Tudor’s story in the Showtime series is NOT the same as the life of the real Margaret Tudor. In the series, the story is basically that of Mary Tudor (Henry VIII’s sister), but my guess is that they decided to use Margaret’s name to avoid any confusion with the other Mary Tudor (Henry VIII’s daughter).

Since the series started out in 1520 when Francis I was already King of France, they couldn’t fit the real marriage saga of Mary Tudor into the series timeline as it actually happened in history. In reality Mary married Louix XII of France in 1514 and he died a few months later in 1515 and was succeeded by Francis I. Since this all took place before the time that the series started (1520), they moved it to a later year and used the King of Portugal instead of the King of France. Mary (or Margaret, in the series) does later marry Charles Brandon and they are the grandparents of the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey.

The real Margaret Tudor was married to James IV of Scotland (and had two marriages after that) and was the mother of James V of Scotland, who in turn was the father of Mary Queen of Scots. Margaret’s great-grandson was James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England after the death of Elizabeth I. So, as you can see, Margaret’s real story is very different from that of the character with that name in the Showtime series.

Now, to complicate things even further, the character biographies on the Showtime series website give the history of the REAL characters, which will be quite confusing to anyone who reads them and is watching the series (and seeing a different story!).

TudorCast #11 – April 2007

This month’s featured website is the Folger Shakespeare Library

Music from Magnatune.com

La Primavera, The Dufay Collective (album “Cancionero”) and Jacob Herringman (album “Blame Not My Lute”)

Individual tracks:

Introduction: “Greensleeves” (excerpt) from La Primavera
Between the news and website of the month: “Passameze” from Jacob Heringman
Between the website and This Month in Tudor History: “Propinan de Melyor” from The Dufay Collection
Between This Month and the Tudor Hisory Glossary: “Wolsey’s Wilde: (excerpt) from La Primavera
Between Glossary and the Tudor texts: “Lightlie Love Ladies” from Jacob Heringman
Between the texts and the wrap-up: “Oxenford” (excerpt) from La Primavera
End of podcast: “Recercata Segunda” from La Primavera

Episode transcript

Direct mp3 download

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Showtime orders second season of “The Tudors”

Apparently it’s official now!

From Variety:

Showtime is firming up plans for 2008, giving an early renewal to just-launched drama “The Tudors” and greenlighting production on a new Tracey Ullman skein.
…

Second season will document the marriage of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn, the birth of daughter Elizabeth, the Reformation and (spoiler alert!) the beheading of Boleyn. Jonathan Rhys Meyers will return as star of the skein.

Full article

Couple of small site maintenance updates

I’ve finally gone through and checked all the links in the “Links to Other Sites of Interest” and deleted some dead ones and updated some that have moved since my last run-through (about a year ago!). I still have a bunch in my bookmarks that I need to add, and I’ll get aroud to that eventually.

Also, probably most important to students, I’ve added a “Last Update” date at the bottom of most pages, so now you don’t have to email me for that information if you need it for a bibliography. Now I just need to remember to add it to all the glossary and chronology pages I’m re-writing!

Design of the new Kenilworth Elizabethan Garden

From Kenilworth Today:

If planning permission is given the go ahead, planting will start this autumn and the rest of the architectural features including the fountain, aviary, terrace steps and arbours will be installed in spring 2008.
The first stage of the work will involve the formation of the terrace and layout of the paths.
English Heritage has spent the last two years carrying out research on the scheme, including two seasons of archaeological investigation on the site.
The excavations identified the overall dimensions of the original Elizabethan Garden as one acre, slightly smaller than the area of the Elizabethan-style beds laid out on its site in the 1970’s.

Full article, including picture of the planned design

Lots of articles on The Tudors TV series

… But I’m not going to even attempt to link to them all. Actually, I’m not going to link to any of them since I’m too lazy to pick and choose amongst the dozens that have shown up in the past few days. The majority of the articles were reviews, and pretty positive from the sentence or two that shows up on the Google news alert summary.

Personally, I’ve still only seen the first episode (first online and then on Showtime on Sunday) and I don’t know if I’ll get around to seeing the second one online before it airs this weekend. So, only going on one episode, I’ll say that I’m enjoying it so far. I’m an unashamed Sam Neill fan, so I’m really liking his Wolsey. The series basically seems like a Tudor-themed soap opera, but when you look at Henry VIII’s real-life marital career, it isn’t all that different from some of the characters on soaps!

Update:

Ooops! Meant to add this link to a short You Tube video about Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ previous roles and his role as Henry VIII.

Elizabeth I’s christening gown re-discovered

I had several Google news alerts come through on this story today, but it has left me scratching my head a little.

From The Times Online (with picture)

The christening gown worn by the future Queen Elizabeth I nearly 500 years ago has been discovered during a clear-out at a stately home.

The gown, left, was found at Sudeley Castle in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, recently the setting for Liz Hurley

First Two Episodes of “The Tudors” online

Okay, I meant to post about this several days ago, but I’ve been completely swamped.

As probably a lot of you know by now, the first two episodes of Showtime’s “The Tudors” series are now online in various places, and some cable and satellite systems are playing them as well (I think in ‘on demand’ services?). I think you have to be in the US to watch them on Showtime’s website, but I don’t know if international viewers can see them through other online venues.

Watch at Showtime’s “The Tudors” website

Unfortunately I’ve only been able to see about the first five minutes of the first episode so far. I was trying to watch a little of it at work but our network connection to the outside world went down (not good at a major university!). I’ll try again during lunch tomorrow. Alas, my satellite internet at home just isn’t up to snuff for streaming video. Anyone want to buy me a T-1 line?

Update:
For those of you outside the US, here are some other options to investigate if you want to see the first two episodes:

Two Tudors episodes will be available via free VOD on Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Cablevision Systems, Mediacom Communications, Atlantic Broadband, Bright House Networks, RCN and other operators.

At the same time, Internet users will be able to watch them via streaming video at Amazon.com’s Internet Movie Database — the first time that site has ever streamed a full-length episode of a TV show — as well as Netflix’s Watch Now, Yahoo, Microsoft’s MSN, CBS’ Innertube, Brightcove, CNET Networks’ TV.com and MeeVee.com

I was surfing on DirecTV last night and saw the last minute or so of one of the episodes on the CDUSA channel (580). Looks like they are on again tonight so maybe I’ll finally catch them!

Slight template change

I’ve changed the template for the blog a little so that the timestamp that links to the post and the comments link now appear right under the title of the post and there is a separater between all the posts. Hopefully this will help people get their comments on the right post. I had a couple more end up in the wrong place, and I’d like to try to keep the responses with the correct post.

Yet more portrait news

The first is a follow-up to something that I posted back in May and July 2006 about a Holbein portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger that was up for auction. It failed to sell in July after there were questions about whether or not it was really by Holbein. But now it has been re-authenticated and will go up for sale again, and this time for

A few follow-ups

A bit more on the DNA testing of Mary Tudor’s hair (including a picture of the locket):

HOPES that a lock of royal hair kept in west Suffolk could solve the centuries-old mystery of what befell the Princes in the Tower appear to have been quashed by a leading cleric.
…
It is thought these [bones] might belong to the two princes which, using modern DNA testing techniques, could have been checked against the lock of hair in Bury, because Mary Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII, would have the same mitochondrial DNA as the princes.

Such a possibility has now been ruled out by the Dean of Westminster Abbey who said:

More on “The Tudors” series coming to Showtime

If you can, check out the Showtime webpage for the upcoming “The Tudors” series. These are two of my favorite photos from the batches I’ve seen so far. They also have downloads for desktop wallpaper and chat icons, more photos and videos. I’m not expecting 100% historical accuracy from the series (and I’m one of those who isn’t quite as picky about it, within reason) and am looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a fun, sexy romp with some of our favorite kings and queens.

This is one of the new previews, set to “Lacrymosa” by Evanescence (I’m a big fan … love their lead singer’s voice)

DNA testing and The Princes in the Tower

A fascinating article that reader Linda passed along…

The hair that could unlock the riddle of the Princes in the Tower

The mystery of what happened to the Princes in the Tower is one of the most enduring in English history.

But an academic hopes that a locket of hair and the latest DNA testing techniques could at least reveal whether the skeletons of two children found in Westminster Abbey really are Edward V and his younger brother Richard.

…

But John Ashdown-Hill, a 56-yearold PhD student at Essex University, hopes that DNA analysis of a locket of hair believed to belong to the boys’ niece, Mary Tudor, could reveal the answer.

Full article

I’d love to see some real results come of this, although I’d like to see some additional comparisons done. Unfortunately it all will ultimately boil down to being able to test bones that are currently in Westminster Abbey, and they have been reluctant to give permission in the past. Since the technology just keeps getting better and the amount of material needed to get a sample can be small, perhaps they will allow testing now or soon?