Home Archive by category "Tudor History news and events" (Page 18)

Category: Tudor History news and events

BBC History Magazine Tudor issue, podcasts and audiobook

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that BBC History Magazine had a Tudor history special issue coming, and it’s now out in the UK. (I’ve found it usually takes a few weeks to a month to show up on newstands and in bookstores in the US – if anyone has already seen it in the States please post in the comments!)

In addition to the issue, BBC History Magazine launched their first audiobook, a guide to the Tudor Kings and Queens.

More information:

The audiobook features interviews with five leading historians of the period, with each expert discussing the life and times of one of the Tudor monarchs.

* Dr Steven Gunn of Oxford University starts us off with Henry VII

* Professor George Bernard of Southampton University introduces us to Henry VIII

* Reading University

Sunday Short Takes

Just a few short links today since I have several things that I want to dedicate their own posts to in the next few days…

* In honor of the final Harry Potter movie, a Tudor recipe for Buttered Beere from Historical Foods

* Rare portraits of England’s early monarchs in London display – More from the Making Art in Tudor Britain research project of the National Portrait Gallery

* All the King

Sunday Short Takes

* I’m sure most of you have already heard about this but the National Portrait Gallery announced last week that the funding goal for the preservation work on the Anne Boleyn portrait has been reached! They will update that page periodically with progress reports. (My original post about the needed work can be found here.)

* Vatican’s Secret Archives on display in Rome exhibition – From the article: “An appeal by the English Parliament asking the Pope to annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon will be among 100 priceless documents from the Vatican’s Secret Archives to go on display in an unprecedented exhibition in Rome.”

* Cardinal Thomas Wolsey statue unveiled in Ipswich – Pictures from the unveiling of the statue project that I’ve linked to in the past

* King Henry VIII Gets a New Coat – The Henry VIII statue at the Mary Rose Museum (my Picture of the Week #122) got a bit of a spruce up earlier this year and is now back in place

Sunday Short Takes

* Alas poor William, I knew him: Scientists in bid to dig up the grave of Shakespeare to work out how he died

* New Battle of Bosworth trail reveals the true location of the historic English battlefield

* BBC History Magazine’s August 2011 Tudor Special

* BBC – Your Paintings – From the “About” page: Your Paintings is a website which aims to show the entire UK national collection of oil paintings, the stories behind the paintings, and where to see them for real. It is made up of paintings from thousands of museums and other public institutions around the country.

The Anne Boleyn Files 2012 Tudor Places Calendar is Launched!

Some of you may recall the calendar photo contest by The Anne Boleyn Files from earlier this year (my brief mention of it was here) and now the winners and calendar have been revealed! The image that won and graces the cover (above) is stunning. I especially love it since it is the polar opposite of all my photos from a rainy, gray day at Leeds Castle.

The calendar includes photos of the places listed below and the births and deaths of the Tudor kings and queens, plus the dates of important battles during the Tudor period.

Lord Leycester’s Hospital, Warwick, Warwickshire
Blickling Hall, Aylsham, Norfolk
Old Palace, Hatfield, Hertfordshire
Ludlow Castle, Ludlow, Shropshire
Hever Castle, Hever, Kent
Hampton Court Palace, Richmond, London
Haughmond Abbey, Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire
Leeds Castle, Maidstone, Kent
Glastonbury Abbey, Glastonbury, Somerset
Coughton Court, Coughton, Warwickshire
Pembroke Castle, Pembroke, Pembrokeshire

Also, $1.50/

History Today article on Mary Seymour

I’m sure most of you have seen this already since half the Tudor blogosphere beat me to it (bad combination of my time zone and a busy morning at work), but the Mary Seymour article that I mentioned in the Sunday Short Takes a couple of days ago has now been posted at the History Today website. I was so pleased that this turned out to be one of the articles that they posted the full text of so everyone would get a chance to read it!

What became of the baby daughter of Henry VIII’s widow Katherine Parr and her disgraced fourth husband Thomas Seymour after their deaths? Linda Porter unravels a Tudor mystery.

On August 30th, 1548 Katherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII and then wife of Thomas Seymour, Lord Sudeley, gave birth to a daughter at her fourth husband

Sunday Short Takes

* Tombs in Suffolk studied with aid of space-age science and Here come the Tudors… in 3D – In a follow-up to a story that I had in some news round-ups back in December 2010 and January 2011, researchers have revealed results of their laser scanning of the tombs of Henry Fitzroy and Thomas Howard.

* In the July Issue of History Today – A small but intriguing mention of an article in the upcoming issue about the fate of Katherine Parr’s daughter. What happened to Mary Seymour is in the top 5 of the most frequently asked Tudor history questions I’ve seen.

* Stirling Castle – A Glimpse of Magnificence – I know you’re all probably sick of me linking to things about the Stirling Castle renovations, but as you’ve probably guessed, I’ve found the whole project quite interesting. Here’s a video overview of the project now that it is open to the public.

Of arrows, maypoles and… bears

After musing about maypole-induced deaths in the article I linked to on Sunday, I found out through this article from the BBC that the truth was even stranger than I had imagined:

Maypole injuries were not only caused by careering into another country dancer. Thomas Alsopp of Coventry was standing in the former cemetery of the Coventry Greyfriars under a stone wall on 26 April 1558 when a maypole fell over.

It hit the city wall and knocked a stone out of the top of it, which hit him on the left part of his head and penetrated his brain, killing him instantly.

And the bears I alluded to in the title:

Bears were part of the Tudor entertainment scene. There were performing bears and there were bears kept for the bloodthirsty attraction of bear-baiting. […] But sometimes they escaped. A widow called Agnes Rapte was killed by Lord Bergavenny’s bear when it broke loose at his house at Birling, Kent in 1563. Another victim, Agnes Owen from Herefordshire, was killed in her bed by a runaway bear.

Read the full article for more stories of bizarre Tudor-era deaths.

Sunday Short Takes

* Tudor coroners’ records give clue to ‘real Ophelia’ for Shakespeare – I saw a lot of articles going around last week on this discovery by Dr. Steven Gunn, but I liked the discussion in this one of safety in the period in general. I’m particularly intrigued by the fatal maypole accidents…

* Mary Arden’s Farm blog – If you’re interested in Tudor and Elizabethan daily life topics, check out this new blog from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

* English Heritage Free Sites Audio Tours – English Heritage has put up mp3 versions of audio tours for their free sites that you can download. Be sure to check out some of the other goodies in their multimedia library!

* Damon Albarn and the Elizabethan magical mystery man and The Mystical Artefacts Of John Dee At The British Museum – I don’t get a whole lot of hits on my “John Dee” news alert, so it was particularly surprising to get two in one week (even though they are related, prompted by a new opera)

* Gunpowder Plot documents among millions of papers put online by National Archives and Fourth and final part of State Papers Online – I’ve linked to related stories on this topic in the past and it’s nice to see that it is finally complete. Unfortunately there still doesn’t appear to be a way for individuals to access it without an institutional affiliation (which I’m lucky to have through work!).

* And finally, Mullions XP – Operating System For The Tudor Times, a fun video sent to me by Stephanie through twitter. Enjoy!

Sunday Short Takes

Yes, the Sunday news round-up is back! Sorry it’s been quiet around here, I’ve been working on a few projects and taking some time off but now I should be back on a regular schedule until I take some more time off in August.

* I’ve mentioned this project many times over the past few years, and now the restored royal apartmetns at Stirling Castle are open! The video in the link to the STV story has some neat views and a snippet of the weavers still working on the reproduction tapestries for the castle. STV – Stirling Castle apartments reopen after makeover (with video) and BBC – Doors open after

Piece of The Mary Rose onboard Space Shuttle Endeavour

I kept putting off posting this story until the shuttle actually launched and after several delays it finally has!

I first heard about the possibility of a piece of The Mary Rose flying on the space shuttle when the crew of a different shuttle flight visited the Historic Portsmouth Dockyard last summer. They took the artifact with the hope that it would be flown on a future flight, which is indeed what happened. Here are some of the article links I collected about it, back when Endeavour was originally supposed to launch back in April:

From nasa.gov: Robonaut Hand, Ship Bearing Head to Space

From The Telegraph: Mary Rose artefact to be sent into space on Endeavour

From The BBC: Mary Rose artefact on space shuttle Endeavour

Sunday Short Takes

Very short news summary today before I head out to food at Mom’s. 🙂

* Year of events in Winchcombe to celebrate Catherine Parr’s 500th birthday – (One nitpick – the article starts out: “She was the only one of Henry VIII’s wives to survive his rule …” It always bugs me when people are casual with their wording about Catherine outliving Henry because of course Anne of Cleves did as well. I’ve occasionally gotten emails from people telling me I must be wrong about Anne of Cleves being at Mary I’s coronation because as well all know, Catherine Parr was the only one who outlived Henry. *sigh*)

* The Making of a Monster – Another book examining the first part of Henry VIII’s life and reign (Amazon links below)

Sunday short takes

* Bess of Hardwick’s life of letters to go on display – Related: Hardwick Hall at the National Trust website

* Dr. Stephan Edwards has updated his Lady Jane Grey website Some Grey Matter with a new design and new information, including research on The Syon Portrait

* The Folger Shakespeare Library’s exhibit Manifold Greatness for the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible has a nice online companion site and there is some Tudor history content in the section on the lead-up to James’ reign and creation of the Bible. I was also thrilled to see that the only other US venue for the original version of the exhibition after its run at the Folger will be at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin!

(Updated 04-19-11: I should mention that the exhibition is currently at the Bodleian Library at Oxford until September before it goes to the Folger in Washington D.C. and finally comes to the Harry Ransom Center here in Austin)

* For my fellow needleworkers, a CBS story visiting the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace (Hopefully this video will work outside the US. If not, I apologize in advance!)

* There was a neat article with lots of images in the Daily Mail about a new reprint of Braun and Hogenberg’s Cities of the World, an atlas from the 16th century. Amazon links below, along with a couple of books that I have with Tudor-era maps that some of you may be interested in:

The Counties of Britain – A Tudor atlas by John Speed

Maps in Tudor England by P.D.A. Harvey

Sunday Short Takes

* Dr. Susan Bordo is writing at new book called “The Creation of Anne Boleyn” and wants to hear from Anne Boleyn fans, particularly women 20 years old and younger. She and her research assistant Natalie have started a Facebook group for discussion: The Creation of Anne Boleyn

* Dame Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) – Elizabeth Taylor, Mary I and Hans Eworth

* Lucy Worsley: ‘Lots of historians are sniffy about re-enactors’ – Interview with Lucy Worsley including information about her new series If Walls Could Talk

* Spotted at The Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide Blog – Lecture by Anna Whitelock “Woman, Warrior, Queen

Sunday Short Takes

* All the world’s a stage: British Museum to hold blockbuster Shakespeare show ahead of London Olympics

* Mary Rose treasures to go on show – Video story from the BBC. They talk longbows with Robert Hardy, whom some will recognize as Robert Dudley from “Elizabeth R” with Glenda Jackson, and others will recognize as Cornelius Fudge from the Harry Potter movies (and of course, many, many other things). I always forget that he is an expert on longbows until something like this comes along to remind me!

* David Starkey and Jennifer Scott discuss the Royal Portrait

Midweek news round-up

Since I haven’t gotten around to a Sunday Short Takes for the last couple of weeks, here’s a midweek round-up:

* The new Fit for a King exhibit of 500 years of royal armour opens April 1 at The Tower of London. The exhibit will be on the top floor of the White Tower.

* The Anne Boleyn Files has started a calendar competition for photos of Tudor places they will be producing in 2012. Check out the details here!

* And also at the Anne Boleyn Files, a nice write-up of a lecture by David Starkey on Acton Court, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn