Sunday Short Takes

The Vatican Secret Archives exhibition that I have mentioned a few times previously is now open so there were several articles about some of the treasures that are now on display. Here are some:

* The Vatican’s Secret Archive: selected papal documents go on display in Italy

* Revealed: Signed by 81 noblemen, the threatening letter sent to a Pope ‘asking’ him to annul Henry VIII’s first marriage

* Vatican archive reveals nobles’ threat to papacy

* Mary Queen of Scots poignant letter months before her execution

* Official exhibition site page with more information on some of the documents

Last Thursday was St. David’s Day and the History Today twitter account linked to their index of articles on Wales. Some are available by subscription only, but others are free to read, including:

* The Welshness of the Tudors – Without their Welsh connections, the Tudors could never have made good their rags-to-riches ascent to the English throne, argues Peter R. Roberts.

* Welsh and English Princes of Wales – In this article, the complex relationship between England and the Principality is reflected, as D. Huw Owen traces the claimants of this title from 1245 to 1490, when Henry VII’s son, Arthur, was proclaimed Prince of Wales.

And here are some other interesting things that popped up last week:

* The National Trust discovers letters from Henry VIII and Jane Seymour

* ‘We be delivered a prince’: Letter informing Henry VIII of his longed-for son’s birth is found after 469 years in stately home – (same item as above, but I had to link to this so I could rant about the statement that it was “written in Old English” – NO IT WASN’T!!! It’s Early Modern English. Sorry – this is a big pet peeve of mine that I got from my professor for the History of the English Language class I took in college.)

* How Henry VII branded the Tudors – What has gone down in history as ‘the wars of the roses’ was really nothing of the kind. Doctored manuscripts show how a wily Henry VII dusted off a royal emblem after the event (by Thomas Penn, author of The Winter King

* The BBC History Extra podcast for March 1 features Ian Mortimer discussing the sensations of Elizabethan England

* Dreamer or schemer? Step forward the real Anne Boleyn – Beguiling temptress or feisty schemer? Nearly 500 years on, Henry VIII

Picture of the Week #165

Carew Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Photo May 2003.

Since tomorrow is St. David’s Day, I thought it would be appropriate to head back to Wales with the Picture of the Week. I’ve featured the carvings of the arms of Henry VII, Prince Arthur and Catherine of Aragon at Carew, but I think this is the first time I’ve had a picture of the whole castle.

Upcoming books, lectures, and exhibitions

Time for another round-up of upcoming books, lectures, and exhibitions!

I know I’ve already talked about it several times, but it’s not very often that I get to be excited about an exhibition that comes to my own hometown! Yes, finally, The King James Bible: Its History and Influence opens on February 28 at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. I’m curious to see which pre-KJB works they have on display, since I know the HRC holds some and I believe some from the Folger and the Bodleian are part of the exhibition. I plan to sneak over on my lunch break a couple of times over the next few months. 🙂

Sorry for the short notice on these lectures… especially since the second appears to be sold out!

Sarah Gristwood will be speaking on “Conspiracy theories and castle secrets” at Dover Castle on February 29. Sounds like fun!

David Starkey will be closing out the British Library’s Royal Manuscripts exhibition with a talk on New Learning out of “Old Books: Henry VIII and the Re-Invention of the Royal Library” at the British Library on March 9. (As I mentioned above, this even seems to already be sold out. Hopefully the BL will put it out as a video or podcast, as they occasionally do with other talks.)

An update on a few past books – Thomas Penn’s Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England will be out in the US on March 6 and both David Loades’ The Boleyns: The Rise & Fall of a Tudor Family and Elizabeth Norton’s Bessie Blount: The King’s Mistress are due out sometime in March in the US.

A couple of times I’ve had an idea for a book, only to be irked to find out that someone has already written or is writing something similar. In this case, any annoyance passed quickly when I knew it was being written by someone who would write a much better book! Suzannah Lipscomb’s latest A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England is out on March 15 in the UK and in print on April 24 in the US (the US Kindle edition is linked below and is supposed to be out on the same day as the UK release).

David Loades’ latest book The Tudors: History of a Dynasty us due out on March 1 in the UK and May 10 in the US.

Patrick Williams’ Catherine of Aragon: A Life is due out sometime in March in the US and June 1 in the UK.

Sunday Short Takes

Not a lot of news this week (although I’m sure some got past me while I was in my headcold-induced fog).

A neat video about the conservation of the White Tower of the Tower of London by Historic Royal Palaces:

And a short video about Henry VIII’s defense of Catholicism from BBC Radio 4’s The Art of Monarchy series. Check out the round-up of the series at the Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide blog

Picture of the Week #164

A second IANE carving in the Beauchamp Tower of the Tower of London. Photo June 2003.

I had some interesting conversations on Twitter earlier this week about this second carving, which it seems might also be related to Jane Grey (see previous Picture of the Week).

Sunday Short Takes

* Claire Ridgway of The Anne Boleyn Files has published The Anne Boleyn Collection which includes the most popular articles from the site. I downloaded the US Kindle version for my iPad and the UK Kindle edition is available along with paperback editions.

* Several interesting stories about the Welsh port town of Tenby hit my news alerts this week, which was exciting! In my continuing research on Jasper Tudor and Henry VII’s early years, Tenby plays a role, as you will see from these news items:

* The tunnel of Tenby where Henry VII hid as a teenager – Photo gallery

* Why future Henry VII hid in a Tenby cellar in 1471 – Audio story from BBC news (warning: the audio auto-starts when you go to the page)

* New light shed on the history of Tenby and its 16th Century boom

* And from the Really-Interesting-Looking-Program-That-I’ll-Probably-Never-Be-Able-To-Legally-Watch-In-The-US Department, Helen Castor is doing a 3 part program for BBC 4 based on her book She Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizbeth. The trailer is embedded below:

She Wolves: England’s Early Queens from Matchlight on Vimeo.

Picture of the Week #163

IANE carved into a wall in the Beauchamp Tower of the Tower of London. Photo May 2003.

This carving has been associated with Jane Grey, who, along with her husband Guildford, was executed this week in 1554. Guildford Dudley and the members of his family who were arrested in the plot to put Jane on the throne were kept in this room and left many carvings, so it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that this is a reference to his wife. It is also a possible reference to Jane Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland (mother of Guildford, etc.). Or it’s possible that it isn’t a reference to either!

Sunday Short Takes

* The BBC Radio 4 program Woman’s Hour talked about Margaret Tudor in the past week’s episode. You can listen to it here.

* All Singing, All Dancing – “Sexually explicit jigs were a major part of the attraction of the Elizabethan, Jacobean and Restoration stage, as Lucie Skeaping explains.”

* Nonsuch Palace Gallery to open its doors – This is the gallery that has the model of Nonsuch Palace that I posted about previously

* The February issue of the BBC History magazine has an article on Foxe’s Book of Martyrs that sounds interesting.

In a follow-up to this round-up from two years ago, Greenwich has now been officially made a Royal Borough.

* Greenwich celebrates royal borough honour

* What makes Greenwich a ‘royal’ borough?

Picture of the Week #161

Another section of the Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick. Photo May 1998

As I mentioned when I first posted about this place in Picture of the Week #86, it is on my “to visit again” list since I didn’t go inside when I was there 14 (!!) years ago. Well, it looks like that will probably happen next year since I’ve begun to seriously start researching and planning a trip for 2013. I won’t have any specific info until next year but getting back to Stratford, Warwick and Kenilworth is a definite part of the plans. Most of the rest of the trip, at this early planning stage, will concentrate on East Anglia, an area I haven’t visited at all on my previous three trips.

Sunday Short Takes

Sorry for any trouble you’ve had reaching the blog this week – the database server at my webhost has been hiccuping and causing problems. It seems to be up most of the time now but a little slow at times. Hopefully they’ll get it all worked out soon!

Now, on with this Sunday’s links:

* Hope Walker has posted the first seven entries of her PhD work on Hans Eworth. See the entries here at the Hans Eworth Catalogue!

* Royals’ own set of kings and queens paintings revealed – “A set of paintings of England

Picture of the Week #160

The arms of Prince Arthur at Carew Castle, Wales. Photo May 2003.

This is a close-up of Prince Arthur’s arms – the wider shot was Picture of the Week #8 and Catherine of Aragon’s were Picture of the Week #102. Arthur’s are the royal arms of the time (three fleurs-de-lis and three lions passant) with a three point label across the top, denoting him as the eldest son.

Here’s a full color version that makes it a little easier to pick out the details from the photo (image adapted from a file at Wikimedia Commons):

SOPA and PIPA blackouts

I decided not to blackout any of my blogs and sites today partly from laziness and partly in fear that I would totally screw something up, but I do want to register my support for those who are protesting by taking down their sites. I have contacted my congressional representatives and I hope any of you in the US will consider doing the same.

So, what is this all about? This is one of the most straightforward explanations:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

And if you go to any of the major sites who are participating in the blackout and protest, you’ll find more links about the potential danger of bills like these.

Upcoming books and events

I’m a little late on this, since the first book is already out!

Books

* Nancy Bilyeau’s debut novel The Crown is now out in the US and will be out next month in the UK. Stay tuned for a guest post from Nancy soon!

* Kelly Hart’s Jane Seymour is out February 1 in the US and UK, but I haven’t heard much about this one.

* Our Man in Rome by Catherine Fletcher is about Henry VIII’s representative to the Pope during the Divorce. It is out February 2 in the UK and comes out in the US under the title The Divorce of Henry VIII: The Untold Story from Inside the Vatican on June 19.

Festival

Peterborough Cathedral’s annual Katharine of Aragon Festival will run January 27 to 29 this year. More information is available on their webpage for the festival. (Note, the graphic on the page currently has last year’s dates, but if you download the program it has the correct information.)

Edited 1-18-12: I corrected the info on Our Man in Rome: Henry VIII and his Italian Ambassador – I mistakenly thought that there were two separate books coming out, when in fact there were two titles for the same book. I get fooled by that occasionally!

Sunday Short Takes

* BBC1 to screen War of the Roses epic – I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I’m happy to see some more historical drama on TV (especially that period) but on the other, we’ll have to deal with more distortions, misconceptions, and mistakes that need to be set straight.

* Bloody Tales of the Tower – Presented by Suzannah Lipscomb and Joe Crowley for National Geographic. Now *this* one I am unreservedly looking forward to!

* US publication of sequel to Mantel