Category: Tudor History news and events

To mark the publication of the Institute of Historical Research’s special Henry VII issue (that I posted about a few weeks ago) they are hosting an celebration on October 20 at 6:00 p.m. Here’s a PDF with information on the event.

You can purchase access to the articles through Wiley InterScience and if you prefer a print copy, you can purchase the Henry VII issue for

This would be a fun conference to attend –

From The Guardian:

Scholars seek to rescue image of John Dee, last royal wizard

He was accused of sorcery, but many claim John Dee was one of the most original thinkers of his day

A group of international scholars are meeting in Cambridge today to rescue the reputation of the last royal wizard, Dr John Dee, from the false charge of sorcery that has dogged him for 400 years

Just a follow-up to the post I made earlier this month – The National Library of Scotland now has a section about the letter on their website, including an English translation, french Transcription, images of all pages of the letter and historical background.

Looks like there will be some fun family events and some neat documents on display.

From The Wiltshire Times:

The age of the Tudors will be brought to life at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham at an annual open day later this month.

Visitors will get to meet the crew of Henry VIII

From the Times Online:

A letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, to her brother-in-law Henri III of France six hours before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587 is to go on display in Edinburgh for seven days.

The letter, which is stored in conditions that ensure its preservation, was last seen in public 30 years ago; since then, visitors have only been able to see a digitally enhanced reproduction.

Full article

And another article with a small picture of the full page

Site of the National Library of Scotland

I was going to write up a post about this, but the Medieval News blog did one already, so I’m just going to link to their post: Historical Research devotes special issue to Henry VII

A member of my email list posted about an upcoming lecture on Elizabethan shipbuilding at Gresham College (founded by Thomas Gresham in 1597), so I took a look and starting exploring their site. I was delighted to find a bunch of past lectures online, some of which are Tudor history topics.

Here are some upcoming lectures on Tudor history topics (and that I hope will be posted in their archives):

Elizabethan Merchant Ships and Shipbuilding

The Faces of a King: New research on portraits of Henry VIII

And I’ve got to put a plug in for this one:
400 years of the telescope

From The National Post (Canada):

British historians have unearthed a letter written 510 years ago by King Henry VII that sheds startling new light on Canadian history.

The letter reveals a previously unknown English expedition to this country in 1499 and may add the name of William Weston — an obscure shipping merchant from the west England port of Bristol — to the pantheon of early New World explorers.

The regal dispatch, believed to have been written the year after Anglo-Italian navigator John Cabot perished on his second voyage of discovery to Canada, indicates Weston was set to embark on his own transatlantic journey to “serche and fynde” the same distant territory.

Specifically, the king names Weston’s destination as “the new founde land” reached by Cabot in June 1497 — the first European landfall in North America since the age of the Vikings.

That makes Henry’s letter, believed to have been written on March 12, 1499, the earliest known use of the phrase that would eventually be used to designate Canada’s easternmost province.

Until now, the first mention of “new found land” in connection with Canada’s Atlantic shore was from a 1502 entry in Henry VII’s royal daybook.

Full article

And another article, with the same text but includes an image of the letter

Update: BBC History Magazine will have an article about this discovery in the September issue.

And here’s an article from PhysOrg

If any of you subscribe to the newsletter of the National Archives (UK) you may have already seen this, but they mentioned in the most recent issue that they are offering a one month trial of the State Papers Online Part II. Just follow the link for instructions.

This poem should be familiar to a lot of fans of Tudor history

Whoso List to Hunt by Thomas Wyatt

This week, a heartfelt but enigmatic love poem from the court of King Henry VIII

Thomas Wyatt’s double life as poet and Tudor courtier brings to mind a famous aphorism of WH Auden’s: “Private faces in public places/ Are wiser and nicer/ Than public faces in private places”. Wyatt was a successful “public face”: he first entered the service of Henry VIII at the age of 13, and, despite vicissitudes (including two spells of imprisonment), he retained his head, and enjoyed a triumphant later career as ambassador to the court of Charles V. He travelled widely through southern Europe: he imported, popularised and, with the help of the Earl of Surrey, gave an English shape to the Petrarchan sonnet. But what we hear in his poetry is never secondhand or artificial: it is a personal note, a note of authentic private feeling, which dominates, and is never dominated by, poetic conventions. Perhaps it was a similar note of personal credibility that sustained his popularity in the public glare of the court. Or perhaps it was sheer cunning.
…
Whoso List to Hunt

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind,
But as for me, alas, I may no more;
The vain travail hath wearied me so sore,
I am of them that furthest come behind.
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow; I leave off therefore,
Since in a net I seek to hold the wind.
Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I, may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain,
There is written her fair neck round about,
‘Noli me tangere, for Caesar’s I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.’

Full article