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Category: Tudor History news and events

Sunday Short Takes


Medal of Anne Boleyn, the only known likeness from her lifetime and subject of the biggest Tudor news story of the past few weeks

 

Yes, finally, I’ve gotten around to doing another news round-up! The last few weeks have been insanely busy and therefore insanely tiring, so some things fell by the wayside (blogging, laundry, etc.) But now I’m getting caught up, so here’s a mega news dump.

 

The biggest ‘news’ of the past couple of weeks in the Tudor-sphere was the story about facial recognition software that was used on images of Anne Boleyn, which spawned a bunch of articles such as the two below:

* Possible Anne Boleyn portrait found using facial recognition software

* Portraits of Anne Boleyn may not be her, say experts

But it didn’t take long for those knowledgeable in Anne Boleyn’s portraiture to respond with a bit more level-headed analysis than the hyperbolic headlines. A few examples of those below:

* Anne of the Thousand Faces – by Roland Hui on his Tudor Faces blog.

* Anne Boleyn-ollocks – From Bendor Grosvenor on his Art History News blog.

* Update on Nidd Hall Portrait and 1534 Anne Boleyn Medal – From Claire Ridgway at The Anne Boleyn Files, who actually contacted the project coordinator and surprise! – the press got it all wrong.

 

And here’s a bunch of random, interesting articles that I saved:

* Wolf Hall in The National Archives – Nice compilation of documents from the UK National Archives with examples of real-life documents related to events in episodes of the Wolf Hall series.

* Hampton Court’s lost apartment foundations uncovered – A routine maintenance job at Hampton Court palace has uncovered the lost foundations of the splendid royal apartments of two ill-fated queens, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.

* Skirret: the forgotten Tudor vegetable – Wolf Hall has unearthed Tudor delights, ignored for centuries the sweet root vegetable has returned to Hampton Court

* Storm washes Armada wreckage on to Sligo beach

* Cambridgeshire church plague graffiti reveals ‘heartbreaking’ find – “Heartbreaking” graffiti uncovered in a Cambridgeshire church has revealed how three sisters from one family died in a plague outbreak in 1515.

* Henry VIII’s evidence to support break with Rome turns up in Cornish library – Book of legal and philosophical advice on king

Sunday Short Takes

It should be no surprise that there was a lot of news last week coinciding with the premiere of “Wolf Hall”! I’ve just a made a few selections from a bunch of articles that came across my path.

* Adapting Wolf Hall for TV: how I played historical guessing game – Catherine Fletcher writes about being a historical advisor on “Wolf Hall”.

* Seductress or Scholar – The Real Anne Boleyn – Leanda De Lisle writes about Henry VIII’s second Queen for Newsweek

* Where to find the best Tudor sights in England – As the dramatisation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall begins its run on BBC Two, historian Suzannah Lipscomb reveals her favourite Tudor homes and palaces around the country

* Tudor timeline: 10 momentous dates – It was one of the most transformative periods in English history, but which dates in the Tudor calendar had the greatest impact? Historian Lauren Mackay maps out the top 10

* Rare Tudor hat finds new home at Hampton Court Palace – Hat linked to Henry VIII acquired by charity Historic Royal Palaces in Hampton Court

Sunday Short Takes

Here’s what caught my eye in the past week or so!

* How Thomas Wolsey made Hampton Court fit for a king

* Lucy Worsley: the fuss over Prince George was nothing compared to the uproar over Henry VIII’s son

* The Dublin King with John Ashdown-Hill – Interview with the author at Nerdalicious

* A Collection of Christmas Cokentryce! – @TudorCook did a Storify of the three cokentryce cooked up at the Hampton Court Kitchens over the holidays

* Brave New Worlds: The Shakespearean Moons of Uranus – Podcast from the Folger Shakespeare Library (and includes a mention of McDonald Observatory, part of the department where I work!)

Upcoming Books, Events, and Exhibitions for January 2015

Books

As far as I know there was only one book from December that I missed, the paperback release of David Loades’ Catherine Howard: The Adulterous Wife of Henry VIII.

And I only have one new US release – Pirate Nation: Elizabeth I and Her Royal Sea Rovers by David Childs was released last fall in the UK and will be out January 15 in the US.

Now for the new books for January!

First up is Mary McGrigor’s biography of Margaret Douglas – The Other Tudor Princess: Margaret Douglas, Henry VIII’s Niece which will be out January 5 in the UK and will be released in May in the US.

Next is The Dublin King: The True Story of Lambert Simnel and the Princes in the Tower by John Ashdown-Hill, out January 5 in the UK and in May in the US.

And finally, Lady Katherine Knollys: The Unacknowledged Daughter of King Henry VIII by Sarah-Beth Watkins will be released at the end of the month in both the UK and US.

Lecture

* Dressing Elizabeth: The Phoenix Portrait as Evidence of a Royal Wardrobe – January 29th at 7:00 p.m. at the National Portrait Gallery, Professor Maria Hayward will discuss the wardrobe and jewels of Elizabeth I

Continuing Exhibitions

* Treasures from the Royal Archives opened at Windsor Castle on May 17, 2014 and runs through January 25, 2015 and features some items from the Archives that have never been on display before.

* The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered display at the National Portrait Gallery opened September 12, 2014 and will run through March 1, 2015.

Television

* Wolf Hall, the 6-part drama based on the books of Hilary Mantel’s award-winning books, will premiere in the UK on BBC Two in January and will air in April on PBS in the US. You can learn more about the series at the BBC Media Centre. There will also be several documentaries on BBC Two and BBC Four to accompany the series.

See the first trailer for Wolf Hall, embedded below:

Latest Richard III Research Results

As promised, here is my round-up of the latest news on Richard III!

First up, I wanted to point to this article about how to apply to attend the Richard III services and reinterment in March 2015. Information on the balloting process is here at the Leicester Cathedral website. If any of you get in, please let us know!

Now, on to the newest results!

If you want to read the peer-reviewed research paper that the results were published in, it is available here from Nature Communications. (I was able to access the full paper from home without my university login, so I expect that everyone should be able to read it.) And here is the official press release from the University of Leicester.

The BBC has a good summary of everything in this latest round of announcements.

And the University of Leicester has a great video summary:

The tl;dr version is that:

1) The DNA tests against a second all-female line of descent confirmed the initial tests (the mitochondrial DNA matched Richard III *and* Michael Ibsen, whose mtDNA was used in the first test).

2) Looking at some parts of the genome gave a probability that Richard III had blue eyes and blond hair (at least as a child, and it may have darkened as he got older)

3) The testing of the Y-chromosome along an all-male line did not match, revealing a false-paternity event

4) A statistical analysis of all of the accumulated evidence shows a 99.999% probability that the skeleton found in 2012 is indeed Richard III.

A few comments from me –

First, these are very exciting results and once again reminded me how much I love it when science and history can work together for a better understanding of our past. That said, I was pretty annoyed that most of the articles in the press focussed on the ‘false-paternity event’ and ran with a whole lot of misleading or down-right wrong headlines – often questioning whether or not Elizabeth II is the rightful Queen (ugh!). The Y-chromosome result was very interesting, don’t get me wrong! But since we don’t even know for sure where the false-paternity event occurred it’s just another historical mystery. There were 19 possible places where the event occurred and the odds favor it happening in the 15 steps that aren’t related to the succession to the throne. And even if it did happen in a place that impacted the Tudors (another popular target in the unfortunate headlines, and related to the current Queen since she is a direct descendant of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York), Henry VII claimed the throne by right of conquest. And even that wouldn’t really impact the current Queen’s claim to the throne since there are many other factors, primarily the Act of Settlement in 1701. I know I shouldn’t be surprised at sensationalist headlines meant to get clicks and sell papers, but it is still so frustrating to see so much misinformation out there, especially when it threatens to overshadow some very exciting results (including the Y-chromosome finding). Okay, rant over. 🙂

Previous Richard III news round-ups:

* September 2012

* February 2013

* February 2013 round 2

Sunday Short Takes

Of course, the big story this week was the newest round of results and discoveries from the continued testing of the skeleton of Richard III. I’ll recap all of that in a separate post since there is a lot of interesting information to talk about.

From the other news of the week:

* Tudors at sea: 8 ways to survive a voyage

* Rare 17th century map of Manchester found in John Rylands Library goes on show

* Tanner Ritchie Publishing is holding its annual holiday sale, a great time to grab some downloads of primary sources.

* A Code of Conduct for Historians – a thought-provoking article from Suzannah Lipscomb for History Today

* Death at St Paul’s – Richard Dale investigates the mysterious death of Richard Hunne in Lollards Tower at Old St Paul

Sunday Short Takes


Wax figures of Henry VIII and his wives up for auction. Photo: BBC.

Sorry for the lack of news round-ups this month, I’ve been trying to cram too much catch-up stuff into the weekends lately! So here’s several weeks’ worth of stories that caught my eye:

* Madame Tussauds figures and five shops to be auctioned – Anyone want to buy wax figures of Henry VIII *and* all the wives? If I had the money (and space to put them) I’d be tempted to buy them just get the costumes. I love that dress on the Anne Boleyn figure!

* Richard III reburial fundraising appeal starts – The diocese of Leicester said it had raised

Sunday Short Takes

Yes, two blog posts in one day! I would love to say that I used my extra hour from the time change for extra productivity, but in reality I was catching up on about two weeks’ worth of not enough sleep (seriously, I can’t believe I managed to sleep nearly 10 hours in each of the last two nights, I was that tired).

* Jousting secret explains how Charles Brandon rose in the court of Henry VIII – [N]ew records show how he managed to stay in favour at court

Sunday Short Takes

Just a few stories this week!

* Five Things From the Mary Rose That’ll Make You Go ‘Oooh’! – Actually, I would say these make you go “Eewwwww” more than “Oooh”!

* Choral music not heard since era of Henry VIII has been played for first time in 500 years – Choral music not heard since the time of Henry VIII has been brought to life for the first time in 500 years. The manuscript, a book of 34 religious songs, was given to Henry VIII as a lavish gift from a French diplomat in his early reign. (Autoplay video at link)

And finally, a video from one of my favorite places:

Welcome to Westminster Abbey

Upcoming Books, Events, and Exhibitions for October 2014

So… yeah… I completely forgot to write this post last weekend to get it out before the end of the month. Whoops! And *that’s* why I have now put a reminder on my Google calendar for the 27th of every month!

Books

Dan Jones’ The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors (US title: The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors) was released September 4 in the UK and will be out October 14 in the US.

In new books this month, Amy Licence’s latest, The Six Wives and Many Mistresses of Henry VIII: The Women’s Stories is out at the end of the month in the UK and next month in the US.

Out at the end of the month in both the UK and US is Geoffrey Parker’s Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II, an important figure in the Tudor story.

Events

The Annual BBC History Weekend is Thursday October 16 through Sunday October 19 in Malmesbury. There are a number of Tudor-era historians speaking, although I think some talks may already be sold out. They often put recordings of talks from this on their podcast, so I’ll be sure to link to those on the news blog as they are posted (assuming they are).

Continuing Events and Exhibitions

* The Royal Shakespeare Company’s plays of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies has finished the run in London, but will be moving to Broadway in the US in the spring. More details in early 2015!

* Treasures from the Royal Archives opened at Windsor Castle on May 17, 2014 and runs through January 25, 2015 and will feature some items from the Archives that have never been on display before.

* The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered display at the National Portrait Gallery opened September 12, 2014 and will run through March 1, 2015.

Sunday Short Takes

The biggest story of the week were further details on the death of Ricard III –

* King Richard III’s Final Moments Were Quick & Brutal

* King Richard III killed by blows to skull

* Richard III died in battle after losing helmet, new research shows

And other news from the week –

* Mary, Queen of Scots letter auction sells for

Sunday Short Takes

The National Portrait Gallery’s The Real Tudors opened this week, so there was quite a but of coverage of that (although my pre-order of the accompanying book still hasn’t shipped from Amazon – grrrr).

* The Tudors as we’ve never seen them before

* National Portrait Gallery researchers reveal ‘airbrushed’ Elizabeth I in X-ray of portrait

* Tudor portraits exhibition at National Portrait Gallery reveals bug

Sunday Short Takes

Back with another round-up, including a few things I should have posted last week!

* This week’s BBC History Extra podcast features Tracy Borman speaking on Thomas Cromwell, the subject of her new book and cover article for BBC History magazine’s September issue.

* Also from BBC History Extra: 10 things you need to know about the battle of Bosworth

An update to a story that I posted about last year:

* Views fit for a Queen revealed at Kenilworth Castle

* Leicester’s Building at Kenilworth Castle reopened after more than 350 years

And just for fun…

* The top 10 codpieces in art

And finally – this may be my new favorite in the on-going series of “neat historical houses for sale that I’ll never be able to afford”:

Wings Place, Ditchling, Hassocks, East Sussex

Upcoming Books and Exhibitions for September 2014

Books

I missed it last month, so here’s Debra Bayani’s Jasper Tudor: Godfather of the Tudor Dynasty – now out in the US and UK. The Amazon links below go to the full color edition, but there is a less-expensive black and white one as well. Yes, this one is on my wish list as well – it’s great to see so much new interest in Jasper!

And Jessie Childs’ God’ Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England, which was released in the UK in March, is now out in the US.

In new books this month, The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered, the book to accompany the new display at the National Portrait Gallery in London (more info on that below) will be released in the UK and US on September 11. (And big thanks to the NPG for making this a reasonably priced paperback!!)

Next up is Dan Jones’ The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors (US title: The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors) will be out September 4 in the UK and October 14 in the US.

And finally, Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII’s Most Faithful Servant by Tracy Borman will be out on September 11 in the UK, but won’t be out until January 6, 2015 in the US.

New display

The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered

This new display at the National Portrait Gallery opens September 12, 2014 and will run through March 1, 2015.

From the NPG website:

his special display, focusing on the portraiture of the Tudor monarchs, will allow visitors to rediscover these well-known kings and queens through the most complete presentation of their images staged to date.
Works from the Gallery

Sunday Short Takes

It seems that I have things *mostly* back to normal, so here’s this week’s news round-up!

* 2015 Anne Boleyn Files Tudor Places Calendar Now Available – The 2015 version of Claire’s excellent calendar, once again filled with gorgeous images from submissions to the photo contest. (And no, I’m not getting anything for endorsing it, I’ve just really liked the past ones!)

* Richard III had lavish diet of swan and wine, new forensic study reveals – This is a summary of the research on the BBC History Extra site, but if you would like to read the original journal article it is available here: Multi-isotope analysis demonstrates significant lifestyle changes in King Richard III (Yay for open access!!)

And yet another entry in the “dream home” category:

This is Thurston End Hall, located in Suffolk about 10 miles away from Bury St. Edmonds. And it can be yours for the low, low price of

Sunday Short Takes

I only had one news story this week but it’s a pretty important one so I wanted to mention it:

* King Richard lll to be reinterred in March 2015 – The date of the service in which Richard lll will be finally laid to rest will be Thursday 26th March 2015. This is one of three services which will remember the life and death of the only Monarch of England without a marked grave. The mortal remains of Richard lll will be received into the care of the Cathedral on the evening of 22nd March, will lie in repose for 3 days and will be reburied on the morning of Thursday 26th. The following days, Friday 27th and Saturday 28th March, will mark the end of the journey with the reveal of the tomb and a service to mark the completion of the reinterment, and events which will look to the future having laid the King to rest.

And I wanted to put up a note in case any of you have had trouble accessing the blog over the past week or so. WordPress is occasionally a little wonky on this site (which I’m pretty sure is an issue with my hosting provider and isn’t the fault of WordPress) and last week it was very slow or down completely on and off. My host did some upgrades too, which might have been part of that. I think everything is behaving normally again for site visitors but you may still experience some slowness or connection time outs. In those cases, just try again later and hopefully it will be back up. There seem to still be issues on the Dashboard site of things (where I write posts and approve comments, etc.) so I don’t think all of the bugs have been worked out yet. Fingers crossed that it gets sorted since it would be a bit of a pain to move the site!