Registration for the amazing tour that I posted about back in September will be closing on February 16th, so if you’ve been thinking about booking now is the time!
Category: Tudor History news and events
Round-up of a few other interesting things…
Because it’s getting late and I’m tired, here are the other three things I wanted to post tonight, all in one post:
* Alison Weir, Arguing the Case for Anne Boleyn – Interview and book excerpt at NPR
* The British Library’s new Timelines: Sources from History – Neat timelines with document images, and the few that I looked at included links where you could print or download a PDF of the documents.
* Middle Temple Hall launched a new website with some cool virtual tours. The Hall is one of the Inns of Court and was constructed between 1563 and 1572. It was also the site of the first performance of Twelfth Night in 1602.
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!
New “Bloody Mary” London Dungeon attraction
Yeah…. I’m not so sure how I feel about this. I’m not a Mary “fan” by any stretch of the imagination, but I really hate to see people of history reduced to stereotypes. I know the job of The London Dungeon is to entertain through horror, but this just kind of rubs me the wrong way.
The London Dungeon is turning the temperature up this February half term with a flaming new experience
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
* 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?
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!
Man and Monarch traveling exhibit at the Mary Rose Museum
The traveling exhibit of the British Library’s Henry VIII: Man and Monarch is now on its way to Portsmouth where it will be at the Mary Rose Museum from December 12th to January 17th.
Check out the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard page for more information, including other educational and family events.
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
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
How to wash a giant 16th century tapestry
Posted by the Historic Royal Palaces on their YouTube page (you can watch a larger version there).
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.
Previously unseen artifacts from the Mary Rose
The Mary Rose Trust unveiled some previously unseen artifacts as part of their new fundraising initiative that I
Archaeology News, Tudor History news and events 4
The Mary Rose Trust will be launching their public appeal tomorrow (Oct. 12) and have sent out this informational email. I previously mentioned the new appeal briefly here. Five things you probably didn 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!) Well, I tried to update the post I made about this earlier in the week and it seems to have disappeared into the ether. In case it doesn’t reappear, here’s a link to the correction page at The Guardian which notes the error. 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:
Five things you probably didn’t know about
Holbein painting of Henry VIII featured in The Bulletin
Update to “Mary Queen of Scots in the Tower”
Oatlands exhibition now open
