* New evidence discovered regarding first English voyage to America – Historians from the University of Bristol have uncovered compelling new evidence concerning the first English-led expedition to North America in 1499 hidden deep within huge parchment rolls and only legible by using ultra-violet light.
* Is this the real face of Elizabeth I? – Artist Mat Collishaw is on a quest to reveal the real woman behind the mask of this famously image-conscious monarch.
Hey, look – a Sunday Short Takes! It’s not like there has been a lack of Tudor news lately, but I have been lacking in time to sit down a write up a post about them.
A lot of the big news of late has been archaeology related and this first story managed to run it’s whole course before I had a chance to write about it.
* In Praise of the Go-Between – Archives are one thing, the public another and connecting the two is one of a historian’s hardest challenges, as Suzannah Lipscomb knows from experience.
* Dundee student solves historic mystery of Lord Darnley – Emma Price, 23, has recreated the face of Henry Stuart, a.k.a. Lord Darnley, who was the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, as part of her MSc Forensic Art and Facial Identification course at DJCAD.
* Shakespeare’s New Place to re-open in Stratford-on-Avon – A splendid new oak and bronze gateway will open on the original threshold of Shakespeare’s New Place, inviting visitors to walk in the playwright’s footsteps, explore a dramatic new landscape and exhibition, and meet the man behind the famous works this weekend.
The big story of the week was the re-opening of The Mary Rose Museum, which now gives visitors a full view of the dried remains of the ship. Here is a selection of stories about the event:
* York Early Music Festival – Alamire – Listen to Alamire performing Anne Boleyn’s Songbook (stream available for 18 more days so listen soon! – and big thanks to the reader who sent this in!)
Even though I had a bunch of articles last weekend, I didn’t get around to doing a round-up post. So, here’s an extra big one!
Lots of Shakespeare news in the past couple of weeks, which I’m sure is just the beginning of the Bard frenzy we’ll see in the next few months leading up to the 400th anniversary of his death in April 2016.
First up – several articles about the recent discoveries in the dig at New Place in Stratford (I admit, I tried to sneak a peek when I was in the town in May but I couldn’t see much):
And finally, here is a story about the upcoming release of a performance of music from Anne Boleyn’s songbook, including videos of Alamire performing some of the music:
Hello all… so the Sunday posts have been a little quiet of late! Things have been very crazy for the past month or so, so I’ve been really trying to take the weekends off from *everything* (except laundry!) and just relax and recharge to tackle another work week. Things are sort of calming down (or, probably more accurately, I’m finally learning some new job duties well enough that they don’t take as much time and I’m not as stressed by them) so I hope to get back into a groove with Sunday posts when there is enough news to post about.
I missed the upcoming books and events for September post, so I’ll mention below a couple of things that would have been in that post. The rest will be in the October round-up.
Welcome to this week’s news round-up! There probably won’t be one next week because I’ll be traveling for work, but I’ll save up any interesting stories that come along and do another round-up on the 19th.
I was over at the Harry Ransom Center over my lunch break to see the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland exhibition before it closes on Monday and I stopped by to see the Gutenberg Bible as usual and noticed that they had turned the page since my last visit. And that got me wondering how and when they turned the pages. Just my luck, that same day they posted about it on their blog! And now you can learn about it too – The Gutenberg Bible turns a new page
I’m going to put some of the Richard III stories in a separate post later in the week since I already have several and there will be many, many more as the reinterment week progresses. So here’s the best of the rest!
Is it possible to accurately recreate a loaf of medieval bread? – A talk by Richard Fitch, the Historic Kitchen Interpretation Coordinator at Hampton Court Palace, at the 9th Experimental Archaeology Conference held in January 2015. And if you’re at all interesting in historical cooking at Hampton Court Palace, be sure to give Richard at follow on Twitter at @tudorcook.
It should be no surprise that there was a lot of news last week coinciding with the premiere of “Wolf Hall”! I’ve just a made a few selections from a bunch of articles that came across my path.
* Where to find the best Tudor sights in England – As the dramatisation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall begins its run on BBC Two, historian Suzannah Lipscomb reveals her favourite Tudor homes and palaces around the country
* Tudor timeline: 10 momentous dates – It was one of the most transformative periods in English history, but which dates in the Tudor calendar had the greatest impact? Historian Lauren Mackay maps out the top 10
A fascinating look into the recreation of a Book of Hours for “Wolf Hall” by professional calligrapher Patricia Lovett:
It makes me want to dig out my old calligraphy supplies and start doing it again! (Like I really have time to start doing another hobby, even if it was one I used to do. Sheeesh.)
* Portraits of Power – Thomas Penn and his colleagues have embarked on a project to publish a series of short biographies of England’s and, subsequently, Britain’s monarchs.
Wax figures of Henry VIII and his wives up for auction. Photo: BBC.
Sorry for the lack of news round-ups this month, I’ve been trying to cram too much catch-up stuff into the weekends lately! So here’s several weeks’ worth of stories that caught my eye:
* Madame Tussauds figures and five shops to be auctioned – Anyone want to buy wax figures of Henry VIII *and* all the wives? If I had the money (and space to put them) I’d be tempted to buy them just get the costumes. I love that dress on the Anne Boleyn figure!
* Shakespeare Folio found in French library – Librarian and Medieval literature expert Rémy Cordonnier has discovered a rare and valuable William Shakespeare First Folio.
We’re back! There were finally enough stories to put together a round-up this week!
* The Black Death and Tudor adventurers – The final History Extra podcast of 2013 featured James Evans, author of Merchant Adventurers: The Voyage that Launched Modern England
* Susan Bordo, author ofThe Creation of Anne Boleyn, discussed the Tudor queen on BBC Radio 4’s program “Woman’s Hour” and you can listen to that part of the show here (11 minutes).
And one final link for my follow needleworkers: I was looking through my latest issue of Cross Stitch & Needlework and saw they have a blackwork Tudor rose as one of the designs. And the cool thing is that they have the pattern as a free download on their website!
And a couple of follow-up stories related to Kenilworth Castle:
* Kenilworth Castle moat flood plans put on hold – I thought I had previously mentioned the discussions about re-flooding the mere at Kenilworth but I couldn’t find a post about it. Well, it looks like the plans are on hold for now anyway.
* Don’t always blame the mothers – With the kitsch BBC drama The White Queen moving to its conclusion Margaret Beaufort is the villainess viewers love to hate.
And there were a few articles from BBC History Extra website about the Battle of Bosworth:
Also from BBC History Magazine, the September 2013 issue has a cover article on the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Flodden between England and Scotland.
