Katherine Swynford biography coming in 2007

In the October 5th newsletter from Alison Weir’s site at Random House, she mentions that the next non-fiction book she is working on will be about Katherine Swynford, mother of the Beaufort line that Henry VII was descended from. Most people will probably be familiar with the 1950s historical fiction book Katherine by Anya Seton, which is to the best of my knowledge the only book about Katherine around. It will be nice to see a non-fiction book about Katherine and to see all the sources she has been able to dig up on this too-little-known Tudor ancestor!

(Thanks to Monia for the link!)

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The Seventh Window

The Seventh Window

The above link takes you to a website about a new book resulting from collaborative work on the Seventh Window of Sint Janskerk in Gouda, Netherlands, which was donated by Mary I and her husband Philip II. There is also a CD available of detailed photos of the window and its cartoon. Click above for more information on the project!

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Webpage for The Virgin Queen

Click the link above for the webpage up at PBS.org for the new Elizabeth I drama! There is one photo on that page, but also check the main page for Masterpiece Theatre for another photo up at the top right. She is pictured with a crown and her hair loose, so my guess is it’s part of the coronation.

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Elizabeth I drama coming to PBS in November

One of the two new mini-series about Elizabeth I will be running on PBS in the US as part of Masterpiece Theatre in November. Look for The Virgin Queen starring Anne-Marie Duff on Sunday Nov. 13 and 20. Check your local listings at PBS.org for exact times.

No word yet on the Helen Mirren version, which recently aired in the UK, but I’ll update if I find any information!

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Links section updated and reorganized

I’ve reorganized, updated and added to the links section over the past few weeks. A few of the things I’ve done on the reorg – I’ve compressed the pages that separately linked to the monarchs, six wives, etc. into one page, with the exception of Elizabeth/Elizabethan England and Shakespeare/Stratford/Globe stuff, since they were pretty lengthy. I also added a British History page down in the Other Resources and a Writing and Research Resources page. And finally, I expanded what was included in some of the existing pages, such as adding manuscripts to the online book and texts page.

I still have lots of bookmarks to sort through, but I wanted to get what I had finished up, since I might not get around to working on them again for a little while.

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Boring Administration stuff: Old News and Events posts

I’m going to start posting the old news stuff that is still relevant to the blog and probably delete the old pages. Anything that appears with a date stamp from before March 2005 will be an archive post. It will take me a while to sort through about six years of posts, so expect them to show up gradually. They will show up on the left bar under “Archives” according to the month they were originally added in. Thankfully Blogger allows you to change the time and date on posts, so I can “force” them to go to the archives instead of showing up as a new post.

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New stuff at the Cafe Press store

I’ve added a few new products over at the Cafe Press store for the site (link above). I added the mini-button (1 inch diameter w/ Tudor Rose emblem), a white baseball cap, and rectangular magnets. I’m still working on the calendars and should have at least the one page version up this week, but the 12 month one is taking a while to put together.

(original links have expired and have been removed)

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Latest Alison Weir book – A novel!

Due out next year (April in the UK… info on other locations when I get it) is Alison Weir’s first historical novel, called “Innocent Traitor” about Lady Jane Grey.

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Another Mary Rose Update!

Here is some more about the relics brought up from the Mary Rose, from The Guardian.

(original links have expired and have been removed)

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Figurehead of the Mary Rose found

Divers brought up the Tudor Rose last week while surveying the site before attempting to raise an anchor from the wreck. The above link goes to an article on The Guardian website.

You can learn more about the Mary Rose and its history at www.maryrose.org

(some original links have expired and have been removed)

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Upcoming Tudor lectures

If you’re lucky enough to be in and around London for these –

The National Portrait Gallery London will host a talk about the Sittow portrait of Henry VII (yes, the 7th… who doesn’t get nearly as much attention as his son and grandchildren!), which will be celebrating its 500th anniversary. The lecture will be by Dr. Tarnya Cooper, who is the curator of the 16th century paintings at the gallery. Check it out Thursday 27 October at 1:10pm!

David Starkey will be giving a public lecture on the 9th of November 2005 at 7pm on “The Private Life of Henry VIII”. The venue is the Skeel Lecture Theatre the Queen Mary University of London.

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A Different Kind of Fox TV

Fox TV

As part of a film project, a fox was let loose in the National Portrait Gallery in London and then followed with the closed circuit TV. The video is available on the Channel 4 website. The fox and/or the artist had good taste… they started in the Tudor galleries! If you have never had a chance to get to the NPG, this is your chance to see where a lot of the famous Tudor portraits hang.

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Miniature Collection on Display at Scottish NPG

The above link goes to an article at The Scotsman. One of the treasures that will be on display in this collection is a tiny pair of miniatures in lockets painted by Nicholas Hilliard of Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley.

(original links have expired and have been removed)

Here is a link to the National Galleries of Scotland. If you are unable to make it to the exhibit (like me!), there is a catalog of the miniatures available from the SNPG shop for £9.95.

The Virgin Queen on Channel 4 next week

For those of you in the UK, the Elizabeth I program starring Helen Mirren will start on Channel 4 on Thursday, September 29. The link goes to the Channel 4 page about the mini-series. Just from the few pictures I’ve seen, I think Helen Mirren makes a good older Elizabeth. I’m probably biased though, since I’ve always admired her as an actress!

Hurricane update: The current track is still keeping us clear of the worst in central Texas, although we’re looking at the possibility of a lot of rain if the storm gets pushed back into our area early next week by an approaching cold front. I know my house is okay because we’re on a hill, but there are a lot of areas around Austin that can be flooded if we get a lot of rain over a short period of time. And once again, for those of you might have had to evacuate, I hope you’re somewhere safe and sound now.

(original links have expired and have been removed)

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Hurricane Rita and Texas

As some of you know by now, I live in Texas and yes, we have a big hurricane aiming towards us. I’ve already gotten a couple of emails, and I just wanted to let everyone know that I appreciate them thinking about me. I live in a small town about 25 miles east of Austin, so I’m not very close to the coast and I will not be evacuating. With the current track (always subject to change), it looks like we’ll get some rain and moderate winds where I am. If the track returns to the forecast path of yesterday, then we may still have a category 1 hurricane to deal with by the time Rita is in Central Texas. Should that happen, we’re going to pack up the animals and go into Austin, since our house is in a relatively high and exposed area where winds could be a problem.

I have no idea if I’ll be answering email quickly or not in the next few days, so I would appreciate your patience if you are waiting for a response on something. If there is strong rain on Saturday, the satellite internet at the house will probably be knocked out and I won’t be able to send anything or do any updates. If things turn worse for those of us inland, we’ll probably be obsessively watching the Weather Channel, but I might want to deal with Tudor things to take my mind off the other stuff!

And, of course, any readers who are in an area of potential danger, please take care of yourself!

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Just a reminder

Please, please, if you wish to send me a suggestion, etc. send email directly to my address mentioned on the Send Mail page and not through the forms. Those forms are just for Pen Pal Messages, Query Submissions and New Link Submissions. And PLEASE check that you have typed your email address correctly. I was just trying to get back to someone who sent a suggestion and it bounced back. Thanks!

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Help If You Can

Part of the reason I’ve been slow in posting updates this week was that I’ve been trying to keep up with the unfolding tragedy going on in my neighboring states in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I know a lot of my readers are overseas, and I don’t know how much coverage this is getting in the rest of the world. It’s bad… there is no other way of putting it. If you can help with a donation, please do so.

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Upcoming Elizabeth I programs

After finally sorting out which was which, I’ve got informaiton on the two upcoming television programs on Elizabeth.

One is starring Helen Mirren as Elizabeth I and Jeremy Irons as the Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Interestingly, Irons is also playing Leicester in the upcoming film with Cate Blanchett. Typecasting as Robert Dudley?

Here is a link with more information about the Helen Mirren program, including a small photo: http://www.companypictures.co.uk/elizabeth.asp (original links have expired and have been removed). Funny enough, Helen Mirren is getting a little bit of typcasting too… she’ll be playing the second Queen Elizabeth (the current monarch, of course) in another upcoming program. Some of you have probably also seen her as Queen Charlotte in The Madness of King George.

The second will be later this year on BBC One and will be starring Anne Marie Duff as Elizabeth. Here is a BBC blurb about it:

Anne-Marie Duff stars as The Virgin Queen in a new drama for BBC ONE about the life of one of Britain’s greatest monarchs, Elizabeth I.

Paula Milne’s powerfully authored drama about the long and eventful life of England’s iconic Queen is currently filming against a backdrop of some of Britain’s most beautiful houses and landscapes.

The Virgin Queen explores the full sweep of Elizabeth’s life: from her days of fear as a potential victim of her sister’s terror; through her great love affair with Robert Dudley; into her years of triumph over the Armada; and finally her old age and her last, enigmatic relationship with her young protégé, the Earl of Essex.

The cast also includes: Joanne Whalley as Queen Mary; Dexter Fletcher as the Earl of Sussex; Tara Fitzgerald as Kat Ashley; Sienna Guillory as Lettice Knowles; Tom Hardy as Robert Dudley; Ian Hart as William Cecil; Robert Pugh as Lord Chancellor Gardiner; Kevin McKidd as the Duke of Norfolk; Hans Matheson as the Earl of Essex; Emilia Fox as Amy Dudley; Ben Daniels as Francis Walsingham; Ewen Bremner as Sir James Melville; and Bryan Dick as Thomas Wyatt.

Also, I’ve added the older “Gunpowder, Treason and Plot” to the Tudor movies list, since it started out before the death of Elizabeth I. I still haven’t seen this program, so I didn’t release that it did include stuff from Tudor times.