Welcome to the introductory episode of TudorCast! This is a little about myself and what I hope to do with the podcast.
Show notes: Not much for this one except to note that the music pieces I used are from Jon Sayles and are a combination of the pieces Now is the Month of Maying and Sweet Nymph come to thy lover.
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Celebrating the Queen’s 80th Birthday
The reason I say “slightly” off-topic, instead of just plain off-topic is that Elizabeth II is a descendent of Henry VII. Okay, maybe that’s stretching it, but it was a good opportunity for me to finally put up the big genealogical tree from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II that has been rotting on my thumbdrive forever. I meant to put this up ages ago but it got lost in the shuffle. You can see the file here (120K jpg).
I am hoping that this is the first of many of these I’ll put together in the future. I had always wanted to try my hand at making my own charts in Photoshop (instead of trying to mark them up in HTML) so people could download or print them as references. A lot of books will put the basic one (Henry VII to Elizabeth), but there are other families that might be useful, so maybe I’ll get some of those up too. I also want to redo a couple of the images I have on the site now, which were scanned from books. I am pretty sure there are a couple of errors in the one of the Descent of Henry VIII’s wives from Edward I, so I might redo (and slightly simplify) that one. I also would like I better one of the descent from Henry VII to James VI/I.
For now, back to sorting through Church and nobility titles… I’ve been doing a big update on that section and it is taking for bloody ever!
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Just wanted to remind folks with HBO that the Elizabeth I series with Helen Mirren will be debuting this coming weekend. Part one is on Saturday (the 22nd) and the second part will be on Monday (the 24th).
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Hello folks! As promised in the post from last week, here is the press release for the Joanna Denny book, Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England’s Tragic Queen
Here’s an excerpt:
No queen has made more impact on the history of England than Anne Boleyn, yet most accounts of her life thus far have been passed down to us by her detractors. Denny’s biography offers a bold new interpretation of Boleyn, demonstrating that she wasn’t the evil temptress of myth, but rather a devout Protestant, an intellectual, and a dutiful queen.
Do you look pale and interesting?
Men with beards and pale, interesting ladies step forward – you could be in line for a part in a major new film.
Cambridge residents will have the chance to act in a sequel to the Oscar-winning 1998 film, Elizabeth. Producers are looking for extras for The Golden Age, parts of which will be filmed in Cambridge and Ely this May.
Find out more here
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This title has already been out in the UK, and is now out in the US. I should have a press release shortly.
The author also has a book on Kathryn Howard that looks interesting and is now out in the UK.
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Jane Seymour is the latest of Henry VIII’s wives to get a novel, which is a welcome addition given the small number of books about her. I’ll be interested to see what approach the author takes. Gardner has previously written books on Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, so my guess is that she is going to write one for each of the wives.
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Because several people have emailed me about these things lately, I thought I would put a note here on the blog about movie news. I’ve added links to the IMDB listings for recently announced Tudor-related movies over on the Movies and TV page. There have been lots of rumors floating around and I’m trying to find out more concrete information for two movies in particular.
The first is a big-screen version of The Other Boleyn Girl. The two names that have been coming up are Keira Knightly as Anne Boleyn (a good choice, I think) and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Henry VIII. Hoffman recently won the Academy Award for playing the lead role in the film Capote.
The other is a sequel to Elizabeth, entitled Elizabeth: The Golden Age, set during the later years of the imprisonment of Mary Queen of Scots and will climax with the conflict with the Spanish Armada. I’ve been hearing news on and off for over a year now about whether or not this project is going forward and if Cate Blanchett will be returning as Elizabeth. Well, today several news articles (a few links below) came out about production starting next month with Cate in the lead. Here’s hoping the history is a little better this time around (but I’m not holding my breath).
From The Guardian: Cate back for Elizabeth II – the sequel that is
From the BBC: Blanchett revives Elizabeth role
From Playbill:
Stage and screen veterans Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons head the cast of the new HBO Films miniseries “Elizabeth I,” which will debut on the cable network April 22 and 23.
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Archaeologists have been revealing details about the discovery of a medieval bridge in Shropshire.
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The bridge, known as St George’s Bridge, once acted as a gateway to the town from Wales and was in existence during the 15th Century.
And why is this of interest to Tudor fans?
It is thought that future King of England, Henry Tudor, used the bridge in 1485 to enter England from Wales on his way to the battle at Bosworth.
Here’s another article, with a picture: Historic gateway discovered at dig
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A “haunted” Elizabethan castle could be snapped up for the princely sum of
The cover story on the March issue of BBC History Magazine is How Bloody Was Mary? by David Loades author of Mary Tudor: A Life. I haven’t had a chance to read the article yet, but it looks interesting!
The National Portrait Gallery in London is marking its 150th anniversary and will be celebrating with a special exhibit on Shakespeare and the “Chandos” portrait, which was the first in the gallery’s collection. More information and a review of the exhibit from The Observer
There has been a slew of news articles out lately about the portraits of Shakespeare and this exhibit, so I’ve just selected a few to point to here:
Britain’s National Portrait Gallery unveils ‘true’ image of Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s Likeliest Likeness, Forsooth
To be or not to be the Bard’s portrait?
The only true painting of Shakespeare – probably
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The major development on the Bermondsey Square site has provided the unprecedented opportunity for archaeologists to explore this important site.
Bermondsey Abbey was founded from Cluny in France shortly after the Norman conquest.
Katherine of Valois, grandmother of Henry VII, died at Bermondsey and Elizabeth Woodville (widow of Edward IV and mother of Elizabeth of York) retired there in Henry VII’s reign.
Media release from the Tamar Protection Society in Cornwall, England on their nearly
Thanks for everyone’s patience while I’ve been sick over the past few weeks. I’m mostly on the mend now (even managed to work in the garden for a couple of hours today!) and will be back at posting and emailing and working on the site.
The British Library is fundraising to secure the unique 16th-century music manuscript ‘My Ladye Nevells Booke’ for the nation. It is one of the finest Tudor music manuscripts in existence and contains 42 pieces for keyboard by William Byrd, the greatest English composer of his age.
Click for images and information on how you can donate
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Sorry for the lack of anything on this blog for nearly two weeks. We had our annual board meeting at work at the beginning of February and literaly 12 hours after it finished, I woke up sick and have been dealing with that ever since. I’m almost back to 100% now though!
Over the weekend I sorted through some links that I’ve had saved for a while and finally added them to the Links of Interest section. I also did some reading and note taking and now need to get down to the library and photocopy some of Statutes of the Realm…
Karen Harper, who has written several mysteries featuring Elizabeth I has now turned her pen to Mary Boleyn. The novel will be coming out at the end of February in the US and UK. You can pre-order it by clicking the link below and help support this website through the Amazon Associates program.
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A follow up to the post from Jan. 25, from Peterborough Today:
A UNIQUE aspect marked this year’s Katharine of Aragon commemorative service at Peterborough Cathedral.
For the first time since the Reformation, a Catholic Priest was invited to address the congregation at the service.
Full article here
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