Hampton Court Palace‘s 500th anniversary events will start this Friday, and there is a lot going on!
Here are some highlights:
The Henry VIII talks at Hampton Court Palace
And of course, I have to link to the shopping. Here’s the web store for the Historic Royal Palaces – I love the “Divorced, Beheaded, Survived” charm bracelet. There is also a neat one with each of the wives’ badges.
This just goes to show you how many things may still be hiding in archives, libraries, attics, etc.
From The Guardian:
A drawing of Henry VIII’s famous victory over the French at the “Siege of Boulogne” in 1544 is to go on public display for the first time in more than 400 years after lying undiscovered and mislabelled in the British Library archives.
The image, drawn by a “war artist” commissioned to record the Tudor king’s military achievements, dates to 1545 and is one of four “views” documenting Henry’s second invasion of France.
For centuries art historians have pondered why there was never a final picture showing the surrender of the city. Just three drawings survived, one showing Henry landing in Calais, another of him on the way to Boulogne, and a third of the siege in progress.
“Everybody just assumed that the end of the siege had not been done,” Peter Barber, head of map collections at the British Library, told the Observer. But due to a cataloguing error the existence of a fourth drawing had gone unnoticed. It only came to light when Barber began re-cataloguing the manuscripts of Sir Robert Cotton, which had been left to the nation by his grandson, Sir John Cotton, in 1702 and passed to the British Museum on its founding in 1753.
The drawing will be on display at the British Library’s “Henry VIII: Man and Monarch” exhibition
Then head on over to the Lady Jane Grey Reference Site blog and submit them! The deadline is April 15.
And best wishes to Ms. de Lisle on that lower back trouble!
[Update – Please submit the questions at the link above, not at this site]
These are mostly updates to previous topics, so I’m just going to lump them all together:
* Henry, Mind of a Tyrant by David Starkey will be running on Channel 4 in the UK on Mondays in April. You can listen to a stream of the soundtrack by Philip Sheppard on the composer’s website
* A new painting of the Mary Rose that was reconstructed with new information of examination of the wreck and artifacts.
* Rediscovering Henry VIII – An article by David Starkey from the Times Online about the upcoming British Library exhibition Henry VIII: Man and Monarch that he is the guest curator of.
* Two articles about information that may have been lost during the restoration of the Cobbe portrait (that may or may not be of Shakespeare): Forsooth, restorers botched up bald bard William Shakespeare from The Guardian and Restorers ‘wiped away’ precious details from rare William Shakespeare portraits from The Telegraph
News from the Old Royal Navy College at Greenwich:
A weekend of Tudor-themed festivities will take place in Greenwich to help mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII
And it is possibly the face of someone responsible (in part) for the sinking.
From The Daily Mail:
The face of the man who may have sunk the Mary Rose has been recreated more than 400 years after Henry VIII’s flagship went to the bottom of the Solent.
For centuries, historians have been unable to explain the loss of the Mary Rose in July 1545, which sank very close to land during a battle with the French.
Evidence from the wreck of the ship suggests it turned with its gunports open, was hit by a squall and swamped by a wave that poured in so fast the ship sank without trace within seconds.
Only a handful of the more than 400 crew and soldiers aboard the Mary Rose survived. Although the remains of more than 170 individuals were recovered, few could be identified as specific members of the crew.
The head of the man has been remodelled by internationally renowned forensic artist Richard Neave from a skull recovered from the wreck.
He was found with a bosun’s call, a whistle, which signified seniority and could prove he was at least partly responsible for the disaster.
It would have been the bosun’s job to ensure gun ports were closed.
Full article (with pictures)
From The Daily Mail:
Power, treason and the best legs in court
HOUSE OF TREASON BY ROBERT HUTCHINSON
What is treason? In Tudor times, as in Stalin’s, it is the charge by which anyone whom a tyrant fears as a rival can be permanently removed – by execution.
The Howards, Dukes of Norfolk, were not only rich and powerful, they were extremely vain. They called themselves ‘right high and mighty princes’. They built themselves palaces with tennis courts – the indoor sort.
And out of the four successive fathers and sons considered here, two were beheaded and two came within an ace of having their arrogant heads severed.
There were no more regular guests in the Tower of London than the high and mighty Howards.
Add to this that two of Henry VIII’s wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, beheaded for cuckolding him, were Howards – well, Anne’s mother was – and you have a full house of losers in the lethal game of musical chairs that was the Tudor court.
You might say they had it coming. But you might also say they were victims of Tudor paranoia – the Howards were powers behind the throne, so no wonder Henry and Elizabeth felt insecure.
Amazon links (of course… I always feel like I’m bashing you guys over the head with these things!)
I came across this article about some of the technology used to scan four suits of Henry VIII’s armor from various times in his life.
From TCT Magazine:
Henry VIII Reverse Engineered by The Scan Team & Konica Minolta
Royal Armouries are staging an exhibition in conjunction with Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) at the Tower of London to mark the 500th anniversary of his coronation. The exhibition will offer an accurate illustration of the King throughout his reign. Fortunately a number of Henry
This time it is some written works –
From The Telegraph:
Academic ‘discovers’ six works by William Shakespeare
An academic claims to have discovered six previously unrecognised works by William Shakespeare.
Dr John Casson claims to have unearthed Shakespeare’s first published poem, the Phaeton sonnet, his first comedy, Mucedorus, and his first tragedies, Locrine and Arden of Faversham.
He also explores the plays Thomas of Woodstock and A Yorkshire Tragedy, and claims to prove that a ‘lost play’ called Cardenio is a genuine work by Shakespeare and fellow playwright John Fletcher.
Dr Casson spent three years studying writings thought to be connected to Shakespeare and poring over the life and letters of aristocrat Sir Henry Neville, considered by some academics to be the latest candidate for the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays.
He has published his findings in a book, titled Enter Pursued by a Bear.
“Some people have said, ‘we don’t know if this is by William Shakespeare’, so I’ve been able to study them and say ‘yes, here’s the evidence for Shakespeare but here’s also the evidence for Neville,’ so I’ve been able to link the two,” Dr Casson said.
“I started off looking at works where we weren’t sure whether they were by Shakespeare or not and I tested them to see if there was any evidence for Henry Neville.
“I’ve found evidence pouring out and I’ve been able to show Shakespeare’s development from his early days.”
…
Dr Casson, an independent researcher and psychotherapist, said: “The folio on display contains what many think are the complete works of Shakespeare, but I have discovered six new plays that are all by the Bard, but which never made it into this 400-year-old collection.”He added: “What we thought were the first plays by Shakespeare appeared anonymously in the early 1590s.
And for anyone interested in getting the book, here are the Amazon links from my affiliate store:
From The Daily Mail:
King Henry VIII was a real mummy’s boy, his handwriting suggests.
According to historian Dr David Starkey, his handwriting was so similar to his mother’s it can be assumed he was emotionally dependent on women.
An exhibition opening next month at the British Library compares and contrasts his handwriting to his younger sister Mary and their mother, Elizabeth of York.
Dr Starkey revealed to the Sunday Times: ‘Henry was brought up very, very unusually, in a female household.’
All have the same bold, square and rather laboured forms of writing, which is unlike the writing of most men in the royal court of that period.
Dr Starkey has deduced that the young prince must have been taught to write by his mother in what were unheard of circumstances for nobility, let alone royalty, in those times.
From This is Lincolnshire:
A 500-year-old letter written by the father of one of Henry VIII’s six wives has been donated to Lincoln Cathedral.
Visitors will now be able to see the note about Anne Boleyn which is said to have started a chain of events radically altering the course of English history and ended with her being beheaded.
International opera singer Jane Eaglen, from Lincoln, has donated the letter.
It will go on display at the cathedral’s Medieval Library in September to commemorate the 500th anniversary of King Henry’s ascension to the throne.
The letter was penned on August 14, 1514, by Sir Thomas Boleyn
With, of course, some celebrations of the Henry VIII anniversary rolled in. I’d love to see this!
From This is London:
A TUDOR pageant is to take place on the Thames to mark the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s coronation.
Actors playing the king and members of his court will be aboard a magnificent flotilla sailing from the Tower of London to Hampton Court Palace. The pageant will be the highlight of a month-long series of cultural activities celebrating the history of London, which was launched today by Mayor Boris Johnson.
From This is Kent:
TELEVISION presenter David Starkey is set to unveil a rare royal portrait in Hever in March.
The Tudor historian will unveil the 16th century portrait of Henry VIII’s mother Elizabeth of York, which will mark the start of Hever Castle’s celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the famous monarch’s accession to the throne on March 13.
A spokesman for Hever Castle said: “The portrait will form part of the Henry VIII: The Pampered Prince exhibition, which will provide an insight into a mother who spoiled and doted on her son, which had a great affect in shaping Henry VIII, famous for his pursuit of fame, indulgence and women.” Visitors will also see a representation of the complete collection of portraits of the six wives of King Henry VIII.
Hever Castle re-opens on March 1 and is open Wednesdays to Sundays.
Portsmouth will have some events (more details forthcoming), there is an exhibit of items from The Mary Rose in Croydon and The Vyne will have a Tudor weekend in October.
Thanks to Kathy and Nicola for sending in the new events!
A replica Elizabethan cannon, based on the one raised from the wreck off Alderney that I have blogged about before, has been test fired.
From The BBC:
The English navy at around the time of the Armada was evolving revolutionary new tactics, according to new research.
Tests on cannon recovered from an Elizabethan warship suggest it carried powerful cast iron guns, of uniform size, firing standard ammunition.
“This marked the beginning of a kind of mechanisation of war,” says naval historian Professor Eric Grove of Salford University.
“The ship is now a gun platform in a way that it wasn’t before.”
…
Until now, it was thought Queen Elizabeth was using the same cannon technology as her father, Henry VIII. His flagship, the Mary Rose, was ultra-modern for its day.
…
It is known that during Elizabeth’s reign, English sailors and gunners became greatly feared. For example, at the beginning of Henry VIII’s reign, the English fleet was forced to retreat from heavily armed French galleys.By the time of Elizabeth, even Phillip of Spain was warning of the deadly English artillery. But no-one has ever been able to clearly show why this was.
The new research follows the discovery of the first wreck of an Elizabethan fighting ship off Alderney in the Channel Islands, thought to date from around 1592, just four years after the Spanish Armada
Full article – with video
(and I’m totally amused by the fact that the volume on the video player goes to 11)
If you’re in the UK and missed the initial airing of the Timewatch episode, you can watch it at the Timewatch website.
And here is an interesting related article from The Times Online:
Mystery of Francis Walsingham and the sunken canon
I received an email from Philip Sheppard the composer for the music to David Starkey’s upcoming TV program on Henry VIII that included a short preview of one of the tracks. I think you all will enjoy it, it’s quite beautiful.
You can read more about the series and hear the preview of the music here:
Dr David Starkey series on Henry VIII announced with score devised by Philip Sheppard
I updated the Henry VIII 500th anniversary events page with a new listing from the Museum of Richmond – From Henry VII to Henry VIII in Richmond. Here’s the page for the associated events.
Still trying to clear out the back log…
I follow Cooking the Books (an unofficial blog of the kitchens at Hampton Court, which would be of interest to anyone interested in Tudor food) and I just had to feature a link to this Flickr photoset with pictures of a snowy Hampton Court. So beautiful!!
And since I’m still not completely thinking clearly, I totally forgot to link to my guest blog post at Executed Today for February 13 on Kathryn Howard. I wish I had more time and concentration to make it longer and work in more primary sources, but I was trying to put it together while I was still sick. So if there are any egregious errors, blame it on the cold medicine. 🙂
And from The Edinburgh News, a short article about an upcoming celebration at Linlithgow Palace that will feature the marriage of Margaret Tudor and James IV of Scotland.
Information on the event from Historic Scotland
From The Portsmouth News:
Mary Rose Trust members are celebrating after plans to re-house Henry VIII’s warship were given the green light.
Staff were told on Tuesday night that Portsmouth City Council had given permission for the
This is another article that has been sitting in my back-log:
From The Times Online (Times Literary Supplement):
What should we think of Henry VIII? This year we will all have to decide. For the 500th anniversary of his accession, the British Library and the Tower of London will host exhibitions, Channel 4
