Sunday short takes

This is the first time in a few weeks I’ve had a few stories stack up so I could do a “short takes”!

* First up, from Foose, a review from the Spectator of G.W. Bernard’s book “Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions” (which I posted about back in February)

* More excavations at the site of The Theatre in Shoreditch (previously mentioned here and here) are going on this summer, and you can follow along at the Museum of London’s “Working Life of the Museum” blog (here’s a , , , 1

Mary Rose artifact may to travel in to space

This is one of those collisions of the two major aspects of my life – space and Tudor history – that I didn’t quite expect. Pretty cool!

News release from the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard website:

During their visit to Portsmouth, the Atlantis Space Shuttle crew were presented with a piece of the Mary Rose, the flagship of King Henry VIII, with a view to sending it up to space on a future mission.

The presentation took place at a gala dinner Sunday 27th June, on board HMS Warrior 1860, another ship that accompanies the Mary Rose at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

And I thought this was an interesting tidbit:

This won

Exhibition of Tudor maps at the Mary Rose museum

From The Portsmouth Historic Dockyard website:

Could a 500 year old map have contained clues to where the wreck of the Mary Rose lay and could this be the first time Portsmouth maps have returned to the city in over 400 years? All these fascinating questions will be raised in a brand new temporary exhibition of international cartographic importance, in the Mary Rose Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard from 2nd July to 17th October 2010.

Mapping Portsmouth’s Tudor Past brings together, for the first time, several important maps from The British Library, UK Hydrographic Office and the Admiralty Library. All but one of these maps are hand-drawn and are works of art in their own right. Together they give us a unique and fascinating insight into Tudor Portsmouth and the view of their world 500 years ago.

The Mary Rose Trust are delighted that the British Library are loaning 5 unique items for this exhibition including the centrepiece of the display, which will be two stunning large-scale maps of Tudor Portsmouth, one dating from 1545 (the year the Mary Rose sank defending the country from French invasion), which is the earliest scale map of an English town and one of the earliest in Europe, and the other dating from 1552, which was probably made for the visit of Edward VI to Portsmouth on the 9th August 1552.

The exhibition also includes two important maps of the Solent from the collection of William Cecil, Elizabeth I

Sunday short takes

* The dig at Shakespeare’s New Place that I’ve mentioned previously has a website where you can follow the excavation and see what they’ve been finding: http://www.digforshakespeare.com/

* Little Miss Sunnydale has posted photos from a visit to Ludlow Castle, along with information on Princess Mary’s time there.

* Gareth Russell has been blogging the fall of Anne Boleyn as it happened in 1536.
The posts so far:
May 1st, 1536: May Day and May 2nd, 1536: The Queen’s Arrest

Shakespeare Dig Begins

The dig at New Place that I posted about last November has begun! Here are some articles about the early finds:

From The Guardian:

Dig seeks William Shakespeare’s shards for ale in his Stratford back garden

Pottery scraps and other finds unearthed on site of New Place mansion may help to rewrite playwright’s story

Archaeologists in Stratford-upon-Avon have made a sensational discovery: Shakespeare’s broken beer jug. Possibly.

Scraps of pottery, broken clay pipe and a 19th century penny have emerged from a muddy hole in what was a garden until a week ago. But this is the most extensive hunt for Shakespeare in his own backyard in 150 years, and every scrap is precious.

In 1597 the playwright returned from London a rich and famous man and bought New Place, the second best house in his home town. He had a fair copy made of his title deeds, now in the archives of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, owner of the site and a string of other properties linked with the most famous playwright in the world. The house vanished centuries ago but Birmingham Archaeology and volunteers are joining forces to recover any evidence left in the ground.

Full article

And another from The Telegraph:

Archaeologists dig up Shakespeare’s ‘cesspit’

Archaeologists believe they are on the cusp of shedding new light on the life of William Shakespeare

Sunday short takes

A few more links that I hadn’t gotten around to posting yet:

The UK National Archives has a page on Flickr which includes, among other interesting images, the infamous “Culpepper Letter” of Kathryn Howard.

Last But Not Least: The Enduring Fascination of Katherine Parr – Guest post by Linda Porter for The Anne Boleyn Files

Leith restages its biggest ever drama 450 years on

London museums: four new openings – including the opening of Discover Greenwich which among other things, will have some displays on and artifacts from the Tudor palace.

An Old Sea Dog

From The BBC:

Dog skeleton from Mary Rose displayed in Portsmouth

A dog which sailed aboard the Mary Rose ship 465 years ago is to take up residence in the Mary Rose Museum at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

The animal’s skeleton, which has been reconstructed by staff at the Mary Rose Trust, will go on display from Friday 26 March.

The dog was discovered trapped in the sliding door of the carpenter’s cabin of the Mary Rose, which sank in 1545.

The dog, named Hatch by museum staff, was probably used as a ratter.

Full article

Lots of photos of the skeleton (and other things Mary Rose) are at the MaryRose500 photostream on Flickr.

And other articles:

* From the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard website: Lost dog returns home

Sunday short takes

* Not exactly Tudor related, but cool: SepiaTown – mapped historical photos from around the world.

* Shakespeare’s Kings and Westminster Abbey – RSC actors performing excerpts from the history plays in the coronation ‘theater’ of the Abbey. I wish I could attend some of these!

* Presentation on objects from Tudor and Stuart playhouses at the Museum of London on April 24

Bosworth Battlefield news round-up

As promised, here are links to more stories about the announcement of the new site for the Battle of Bosworth.

From the BBC (video and pictures):
New Battle of Bosworth Field site revealed

From The Daily Mail:
Is this the field where Richard III lost his kingdom for a horse? Real location of Battle of Bosworth finally revealed after 500 years

From The Guardian:
Silver badge and lead shot pinpoint site of Battle of Bosworth
Archaeologists pinpoint long-disputed site of Battle of Bosworth

And last, but certainly not least, the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Center website
(Their site appears to be down, perhaps from a large influx of traffic? – I’ll keep checking for it to come back up and add a link directly to their news on the battlefield discoveries.)
The site is back up. Here’s a link to their page on the official announcement.

Bosworth Battlefield site revealed

Although there will no doubt be a slew of additional articles, this is the first to land in my news alerts in-box! I’ll do a round-up of all the other articles in a separate post when I have a chance.

From The Times Online:

For centuries it has been impossible to revisit the battlefield because its location was lost after the Civil War. Then, last October, Leicestershire County Council announced that it had found the site but would not reveal its whereabouts for fear of scavengers.

Today the wait is over. The Times can reveal that the Battle of Bosworth was settled round the back of Alf Oliver

Sunday short takes

I guess I’m sort of debuting a new blog feature in this post. I’ve done news round-up/catch-up posts in the past, but I thought I would give them an official name. Sometimes they might be “Saturday short takes” instead, but they will probably always be one of the weekend days since that’s when I have time and both Saturday and Sunday start with “s” and I get to use an alliterative title. 🙂

* You Tube video of the commemoration service for Catherine of Aragon at Peterborough Cathedral. I never got around to posting about this year’s event, but here is a link to a past post about it.

* Rosary from the Mary Rose featured at the BBC’s A History of the World

* Reconstructed face from the Mary Rose goes on display (BBC article). This is the reconstruction that I linked to an article about last March. Additional articles from the Times Online and The Telegraph

* Stirling Castle carvings will be on display at the castle until Feb. 21 (BBC article). This is a continuation of the project that I’ve blogged about a few times (most recently here). The carvings will soon be painted and put in place as part of the project to reconstruct the renaissance royal palace inside the castle. You can learn more at the official Stirling Castle website

* Snack food of Shakespearean theater-goers (Discovery News article). I’m not a fan of seafood but the nuts and dried fruit sounds good. I’ll probably stick with popcorn and Junior Mints though.

* Help Romeo collect flowers for Juliet (appropriate for Valentine’s Day!) in the Shakespeare Game from Shakespeare Country Tourism

Bosworth Field news coming this month

If you recall this post from last October, archaeologists have found evidence for what was probably the actual site of the Battle of Bosworth and now that information is set to be revealed at a conference on February 20. The Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre has information on the event and a document with the program. The Heritage Centre is also planning to open a new exhibition called “Bosworth Battlefield Lost and Found” on February 22.

There is also an article in the March issue of BBC History Magazine, as well as an article by Leanda de Lisle about Lady Jane Grey. I’ll have to make sure I remember to pick one up!

Some fun videos

First up is a time lapse of the initial building work on the new museum for The Mary Rose. I love how the ships in the port go up and down on the tide – it makes them look like toys in a bathtub!

And Adieu from Henry 8.0

I had to shudder at Henry’s treatment of Catherine’s iPod nano though! I got a green one for Christmas and I love it… I’d hate to see it shoved into a jar of chocolate spread.

Another round-up post

Sorry to do another “link dump” post so close on the heels of the last one but it’s just a lot quicker this way (and I’m sure you all don’t want to be bombarded with a bunch of posts at once).

* National Portrait Gallery on the Iconography of Lady Jane Grey

Here’s the article from Art Daily about it and here’s a little information from the National Portrait Gallery’s website. And just a reminder that Painting History – Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey will be opening at the National Gallery (around the corner from the NPG) at the end of February.

* Large medieval waterwheel uncovered at Greenwich

It’s a little before the Tudors, but I’m a sucker for medieval archaeological finds. Here’s an article (with a few pictures) from Medieval News.

* Showtime picks up a series on The Borgias

According to Variety Showtime is looking to continue playing in the Renaissance with a new series about The Borgias. Jeremy Irons will be starring so I’ll probably be watching!

News link round-up

I’m clearing out all the articles that I have saved over the past couple of weeks and dumping them all into this post:

* Debunking the Myth of Lady Jane Grey

Thought-provoking article by Leanda de Lisle at Intelligent Life (a lifestyle and culture magazine from The Economist)

* Mary Rose Trust photos on Wikipedia

Mary Rose Trust releases photographs onto Wikipedia
Unseen Mary Rose pictures revealed in groundbreaking Wikipedia deal

* Exhibition features documents suggesting Shakespeare was Catholic

Shakespeare was a ‘secret Catholic’ new exhibition shows

* Greenwich to become a Royal Borough in 2012

This honors its long connection with the English and British monarchy (lots of Tudor connections there!). The other Royal Boroughs are Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, and Windsor and Maidenhead.

Greenwich Becomes Royal Borough
Queen to grant Greenwich Royal Borough status for Diamond Jubilee

* Catch up on “The Tudors”

Season Three is now available on iTunes (this link goes to the Showtime site, which has a link to the iTunes store)
Unfortunately I didn’t see it in time for the first episode, but Showtime is replaying all of the previous seasons in a lead-up to the season 4 premiere in April. Here’s a link to the schedule.

And finally…

* 2010 sees the 450th anniversary of the refoundation of Westminster Abbey

The history of Westminster Abbey, London – The coming year is the 450th anniversary of Elizabeth I

Archaeological dig at Shakespeare’s New Place

From the BBC:

Archaeologists are preparing to excavate the site of Shakespeare’s final home to find out more about the history of the building.

The New Place, in Stratford-upon-Avon, was built in 1483 and is thought to be where the playwright died in 1616.

The building itself was demolished in 1759, but it is thought remains of the old house are still underground.

Archaeologists will start initial tests on the site on Tuesday and a full dig could be carried out next year.

The experts from Birmingham Archaeology will be searching for the foundations of the New Place and will be looking through the original wells and possibly rubbish pits.

Full article

New Place showed up here back in June as Picture of the Week #23

More Bosworth Field investigation news

My Google news alerts went crazy with all of these articles on the Bosworth Field investigation! Here is my last post on the subject and I’ve linked to several of today’s stories below this excerpt from the Guardian article:

Five centuries of searching for one of Britain’s most significant battlefields has finally ended with the discovery of “extraordinary and unexpected” pieces of artillery in a Leicestershire field.

The finds near Market Bosworth at last pin down the notoriously “wandering site” of the battle that overthrew Richard III