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

Merry Christmas!

I’m recycling the image from the past couple of years, but here they are again, our favorite family decked out in holiday cheer:

And here’s Henry 8.0 trying to order Christmas puddings:

Henry in that hat looks kind of like the version in the “family photo” up top. 🙂 And Henry going on about The Stig – love it! (Yes, I’m a Top Gear fan.)

And last but not least, here’s an article about how Henry VIII really celebrated the holidays, from the Mail Online:

Stuffed peacock, fake snow and lashings of dancing girls… Henry VIII had a VERY merry Christmas indeed!

Five hundred years ago this Christmas, there was a new king on the throne of England. He was 18 years old, as handsome as a prince in a fairytale, sporty and over 6ft.

He spoke elegant French and Italian – and Latin, of course, like all educated people – wrote his own songs and sang them himself.
He was credited with a sweet nature and was in love with his wife. So, what would you give the young Henry VIII for Christmas? What was there left for him to want?

Full article

TannerRitchie Publishing’s annual sale

This year it is 50% off downloads! Just head on over to the TannerRitchie Publishing website to take advantage of the offer.

They also have a blog, are on Twitter and an RSS feed of new titles, which I just added to my newsreader so I can keep up with things they are adding to their collection. It has been a while since I checked their site and it turns out I missed a lot of new additions!

Another Tudor property up for sale

Yet another interesting property up for sale to add to the list that I’ve blogged about. It’s probably a good thing I don’t have a ton of money, since I’d never be able to decide what place to buy! 🙂

From the BBC:

Henry VIII’s love nest for sale

A property where newlywed Henry VIII stayed with his second wife Anne Boleyn has gone on the market after being rebuilt from a state of near collapse

The gatehouse on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent is all that remains of Shurland Hall, the Tudor palace owned by a courtier of the King, Thomas Cheyney.

It was probably built especially for Henry and Anne’s visit, when the King spent three days hunting.

The Spitalfields Trust has restored it and put it up for sale for

Suzannah Lipscomb lecture at Fordham University in New York

Unfortunately I’ve managed to miss posting about Suzannah Lipscomb’s other talks in the US, but I can at least get this one in under the wire:

“Prince to Tyrant: What Changed Henry VIII” by Suzannah Lipscomb, Research curator at Hampton Court Palace

Wednesday, 11 November 2009 at 6 p.m.
Fordham University
Tognino Hall
Duane Library
Rose Hill Campus
441 East Fordham Road
Bronx, New York 10458

Link to events at Fordham University’s History Department

Several stories of interest

Instead of bombarding everyone with a bunch of individual posts, here are three links that caught my eye in the past few days that I didn’t get a chance to post.

* From The Telegraph:
Rags to riches as tapestry masterpiece is restored to its former glory

A tapestry that has survived against the odds since the fifteenth century is to go on display for the first time in 20 years, following five years of restoration returning the masterpiece to its former glory.

* From The Guardian:
David Starkey on Henry VIII: Famous for 500 years

In this podcast, David Starkey asks why Henry continues to fascinate us in the 21st century, and how did a boy with such a conventional upbringing become such an unconventional king?

* From The BBC:
The map that changed the world

Almost exactly 500 years ago, in 1507, Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann, two obscure Germanic scholars based in the mountains of eastern France, made one of the boldest leaps in the history of geographical thought – and indeed in the larger history of ideas.

Near the end of an otherwise plodding treatise titled Introduction to Cosmography, they announced to their readers the astonishing news that the world did not just consist of Asia, Africa, and Europe, the three parts of the world known since antiquity. A previously unknown fourth part of the world had recently been discovered, they declared, by the Italian merchant Amerigo Vespucci, and in his honour they had decided to give it a name: America.

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

UK National Archives early maps of Ireland

From the BBC:

Wild wolves, fearsome chieftains, forts, castles and sea monsters – one could be forgiven for thinking this a fairytale. But it isn’t – this was the serious business of State map making – four centuries ago. Today, for the first time, The National Archives is launching a digitised collection of Early Irish maps (c.1558 – c.1610) from the ‘State Papers Ireland’.

The collection comprises more than 70 different maps , amongst the earliest cartographic representations of Ireland, depicting plantations, fortifications and townships during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.

The maps were usually made in response to a particular threat, to show a siege or battle, or to help inform defence strategy against a background of ongoing clashes with Irish chieftains.

Maps were one of the English colonists’ tools, along with the written survey and the gun. They show information useful for defence, such as the location of castles and forts, difficult terrain for armies such as mountains and lakes, and strategic islands and river crossings.

The job of map making required quick-witted, brave and determined men who were willing to risk life to paint a picture of the countries beyond the seas from England.

Full article

Link to slide show of some of the maps

Link to the Irish Maps collection at the National Archives

Holbein painting of Henry VIII featured in The Bulletin

The headline made me do a double-take:

Henry VIII In Wedding Dress (1540) By Hans?Holbein The Younger

I know what they meant, but of course my brain instantly jumped to a vision of Henry VIII in white satin and lace with a bridal veil.

The article is an informational one about Holbein, his painting in general and specifically his portrayal of Henry VIII. Read it here

(And while I’m on a kick of being pedantic and talking about some of my reporting pet peeves, there is one in this article. Holbein was not at the British court, he was at the English court!)

Oatlands exhibition now open

The exhibition that I mentioned in this post from August is now open. Here is the website for the Elmbridge Museum, which is hosting the exhibition.

Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Surrey Comet about the exhibition:

Oatlands Underfoot: Stones and Stories From a Forgotten Palace, was opened on September 26 by the mayor of Elmbridge, Councillor James Vickers.

It reveals the story of Oatlands Palace, which was built by Henry VIII and once stood near the centre of Weybridge.

Coun Vickers said:

Update on archaeological investigation of Bosworth Field

I’ve posted about this ongoing investigation a few times in the past and I’m not too surprised that it is now looking like the traditional site for the battle is incorrect. Some of the early results were pointing in that direction. I’m looking forward to reading the final report!

From The Telegraph:

For hundreds of years history followers have visited Ambion Hill in Leicestershire, believing it to be the site of the Battle of Bosworth, which marked the end of the War of the Roses and the beginning of the reign of the Tudors.

… Richard Knox, curator of Bosworth Battlefield, said it was now likely that the proper site was on low-lying ground between the villages of Shenton, Stoke Golding and Dadlington, first proposed by the historian Peter Foss in 1990.

The key to the mystery is likely to be finding the former marshland that Henry is said to have used to his advantage to attack the vastly larger army of his enemy from the flanks.

Investigations there have found ancient names given to the area such as Fenn Hole and Fenn Meadow, and a team is currently scouring the area with metal detectors.

Mr Knox said: