Sunday Short Takes

As occasionally happens, a story that isn’t really “new” all of a sudden becomes “news”. In this case, the portrait above, which was called Katherine Parr for years, has been re-identified as Catherine of Aragon. I knew of the new identification a few years back (which is why there is a note about it in my Katherine Parr gallery… and I still haven’t re-done the galleries so it is still there waiting to be moved!) And it appears that the reason that it is all over the news now is that the National Portrait Gallery in London has put it on display with a portrait of a younger Henry VIII. Be sure to check out their article about the conservation of the portrait. (My copy, above, is pre-conservation.) Here’s just a sampling of the links that came through my news alerts:

* National Portrait Gallery reunites Henry VIII with Catherine of Aragon

* Catherine of Aragon reunited with King Henry VIII… but only as an oil painting

* Tudor portrait re-identified after experts notice Henry VIII’s wife was wearing the wrong clothes

The University of Leicester has announced the date and time for the Richard III excavation press conference and the associated documentary from Channel 4! Unfortunately the press conference will be at 4 a.m. in my time zone so I probably won’t be watching live.

* Date set for Search for Richard III press conference

* Richard III: The King in the Car Park

And a few other stories:

* Views fit for a queen for first time in centuries – Kenilworth Castle will proudly show off views not seen in centuries thanks to plans by plans by English Heritage to transform the remains with innovative viewing platforms. (I hope they have it finished by mid-May, when I hope to be there!)

* Elizabeth’s faithful tutor – Simon Adams and David Scott Gehring explain how the Virgin Queen’s little-known teacher may have influenced the religious policies of her reign

* RSC wins rights to stage Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell novels

Picture of the Week #212

Elizabeth I costume at the Globe Theatre in London. Photo May 1998.

Sorry about the relatively poor quality of this photo – I shot it quickly! When I first visited the Globe in May 1998 and they had this display with the costume worn by an actress portraying Elizabeth I during the opening festivities the year before. The photo doesn’t do the dress justice – it was gorgeous!

Sunday Short Takes

In the continuing saga of the possible Richard III discovery… we should know the results of the scientific testing soon:

* Richard III dig: Conclusions to be revealed in weeks

* Step by step: the Science of the Search for Richard III – I couldn’t remember whether I had linked to this previously or not, but I figured it would be a good refresher to post now.

The petition I mentioned back in May calling for a statue of Henry VII in Pembroke has been delivered to the National Assembly for Wales:

* Petition calling for a Henry VII statue in Pembroke is handed over

And finally…

* Roland Hui is now selling his reproduction Tudor miniature on Etsy!

Frequently Asked Questions of 2012

As we start another new year, it’s once again time for the round-up of questions that were submitted to the TudorHistory.org Questions and Answers Blog the over the course of the previous year.

The number of questions has continued to drop off, this time down to about 130. I still think that it is mostly due to the end of “The Tudors” and that people who are just now watching it can find a lot of their answers in the archives. I have to admit that the slower pace of incoming questions was a bit of a relief too since I had such a busy year!

Two main subjects came in as the most popular types of questions this year. The first were questions about primary sources (where to find some, specific questions on a source, etc.) which is awesome to see. The other, also pretty neat, were people looking for information on some less well-known Tudor-era figures that they had traced their ancestry to. (Which reminds me, once again, I need to find out more about my Norris ancestors from Norfolk from that time period. Could be something interesting in there!) Next up were Stuart’s questions to help his recreation of Henry VIII’s 1513 invasion of France. Be sure to check out his blog for lots of photos of the great work he’s been doing!

Of individual people, Elizabeth I and the wives of Henry VIII (with Anne Boleyn, as usual, leading the group) got the the most questions. Henry VIII got quite a few too, as well as lots of questions about other Tudor figures besides the wives and monarchs. Burials, tombs, and funeral practices were popular topics once again, although I think they are still down from previous years. Clothing, jewelry and portraits came up with some frequency again this year. Opinions on books and authors and ideas for papers or projects continued to be popular topics. Possible bastards of Henry VIII made an appearance again, but only a couple of questions this time (although there are continuing comments on the older posts). The rest were a variety of topics including architecture, wars, MPs, court customs and much more.

I’m looking forward to the questions that 2013 brings!

Previous round-ups:
2011 questions
2010 questions
2009 questions
2008 questions

Sunday Short Takes

The first Sunday Short Takes of 2013!

A few stories showed up last week related to the new National Portrait Gallery’s “Hidden: Unseen Paintings Beneath Tudor Portraits” that I mentioned in the January 2013 upcoming books and exhibitions post.

* X-rays reveal hidden secrets of Tudor portraits

* The Tudor Catholic-catcher and the Popish plot behind his portrait: How subversive artist painted Elizabeth I’s henchman over the Virgin Mary (… how he would have hated that!)

The National Archives Podcast series already has another Tudor-related item out:

* Geography, art and the sinking of the Mary Rose

In closely-related news…

* In pictures: Portsmouth’s new Mary Rose museum nears completion

And a few fun, lighter stories from the past week:

* Scale model Lego Tudor castle to go on display in Winchester

* If this be the food of love then bake on: Inspired Shakespeare fan creates three-tiered cake featuring the bard’s most famous characters

Upcoming book and exhibition for January 2013

2013 is starting off with a couple of things to look forward to!

Book

David Loades has another book on a wife of Henry VIII, this time wife no. 3 Jane Seymour. It’s out at the end of January in the UK and is listed as February 2013 for the US:

Exhibition

This looks really interesting:

Hidden: Unseen Paintings Beneath Tudor Portraits will run from January 3, 2013 to June 2, 2013 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

A description of the exhibit from the website:

Recent technical analysis undertaken as part of the Making Art in Tudor Britain project has revealed that some of the Gallery

Sunday Short Takes

Yes, they’re back! Sorry for the silence last weekend in particular – I got really ill about a week and a half ago and I basically slept all of last Saturday and Sunday. Thankfully I got better before the holidays!

* The BBC’s Your Paintings (which I first mentioned back in 2011 when it was getting started) has now compiled the nation’s collection of 210,000 paintings!

* The UK National Archives podcasts have a new one out on Bess of Hardwick

And finally, there were several articles out on the recreation of the Blue Boar Inn in Leicester where Richard III stayed the night before the Battle of Bosworth. I *really* want a 3D printer!

* King Richard III’s medieval inn recreated by archaeologists

* Model of Richard III’s Blue Boar Inn made in Leicester

* And a short video from the University of Leicester:

Survey results!

The news was pretty light this week so in lieu of the Sunday Short Takes, here are the results of the survey that I put together as part of the give-away of “Anne of Holywood”. I’ve sent emails to the two randomly chosen winners, so if you entered the drawing, keep an eye on your email!

Question 1: Which Tudor monarch would you like to learn more about?

I wasn’t too surprised to see Henry VII lead this one, especially with more attention being paid to the earlier Tudors with the Richard III (potential) discovery and Thomas Penn’s “Winter King” being so successful this year.

Question 2: Which of Henry VIII’s wives would you like to learn more about?

I was a little surprised with this result, since I expected Anne of Cleves or Katherine Parr to lead (and they did come in second and third). I was a little surprised that Jane Seymour got so few votes since I know I could stand to learn more about her (but Anne of Cleves would have been my vote).

Question 4: If you could have preserved any of these places from total or partial destruction so that their Tudor-era versions still existed today, which would you choose?

I have to admit that Nonsuch running away with the vote here surprised me a bit. I personally would have voted for Richmond, but I can see where the interest in Nonsuch comes from.

Question 5: Have you ever seen a Shakespeare play performed live, or performed in one yourself?

Not much of a surprise here, although I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been an even larger percentage voting yes.

And here were the responses for the open-ended question “If you could choose one Tudor-era figure besides the monarchs and wives to learn more about, who would it be?”:

Not many surprises here either. The top vote getter – by a long shot – was Thomas Cromwell, which I would attribute to Hilary Mantel’s books.

The runners up were:
Jane Parker Boleyn
Charles Brandon
Thomas More
Mary Tudor Brandon.

The rest were:
John Dudley
Elizabeth of York
Catherine Willoughby
Frances Howard
Anne Askew
Arthur Tudor
Margaret Tudor
Thomas Culpepper
Francis Bryan
Robert Dudley
Margaret Pole
Elizabeth Blount
Walter Raleigh
Jasper Tudor
Bess of Hardwick
Allen Apsley
Mary Boleyn
Duke of Buckingham (I’m assuming Edward Stafford, the 3rd Duke)
Tudor women in general.

Thanks to everyone who participated! The main reason I did the survey was to choose winners for the drawing, but this gives me a good idea of how to approach my next round of updates after I finish the code updating I’m almost, finally, through with!

Upcoming books and events for December 2012

A pretty light month this time around!

Books

The Tudors on Film book that I posted about last month has had the US release date moved back to December 31 (which is what I originally had), which is also the UK release date. Here are the links again:

You can learn more about the book at their website.

Events

Henry VIII: The Musical, which I first mentioned a couple of months ago in a Sunday Short Takes, will have its London debut on December 21 and 22. Below is a new promo video, which you can also see at their website along with photos, songs and more videos from the production. You can also purchase tickets at the website.