Sunday Short Takes

Since I didn’t do a round-up last week, I didn’t get around to posting about the discovery of Sir Francis Drake’s final fleet and the possible resting place of Drake himself. Here are a few of the many news stories that ran about the discovery:

* Sir Francis Drake’s final fleet ‘discovered off the coast of Panama’

Sir Francis Drake’s body ‘close to being found off Panama’

Wrecks that promise to unlock the mystery of Francis Drake’s final resting place

And a few other news items that caught my eye last week:

* Brierfield treasure hunter finds Tudor ring

* Britain’s oldest family business opened when Henry VIII ruled

And finally, Medievalists.net visited the Making History exhibition at the McMullen Museum at Boston College (I mentioned it in a previous Sunday short takes) and recorded an interview with the museum’s director. Tudor history fans will recognize the portrait in the background!

Upcoming exhibitions and books

Here’s the round-up of some of the upcoming books and exhibitions for late October through November. Again, there are probably things I’ve missed but the Tudors are just too popular!

Books

* I have conflicting information on a new work on Catherine of Aragon by Patrick Williams… some have it out this past week, but it looks like June 1 of next year is the official release date. If anyone knows more, please let me know.

* A new work by Eric Ives entitled The Reformation Experience is out November 18 in the UK and August 1, 2012 in the US:

* Philip of Spain, King of England: The Forgotten Sovereign by Harry Kelsey will be released November 30 in the UK and January 31, 2012 in the US. I’m looking forward to this one since I don’t know a whole lot about Philip’s time as King consort to Mary I.

Exhibitions

* As I posted about yesterday, the British Library’s Royal Manuscripts exhibition opens November 11 and runs through March 13, 2012. Among the works exhibited will be Henry VIII’s Psalter and the Hours of Elizabeth the Queen (a work owned by, but not created for, Elizabeth of York).

British Library’s Royal Manuscripts exhibition

The British Library’s next major exhibition Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination opens November 11, 2011 and runs through March 13, 2012.

I was originally planning to just mention this in my next round-up of upcoming books and exhibitions, but since I had collected several links about it, I thought it deserved a post of its own.

Although the opening is a few weeks away, the British Library has already been posting about the exhibition for a few months on their Digitised Manuscripts blog and have added a bunch of images to their Facebook page. They also have launched an app for tablets and smart phones with some information and zoomable images from the exhibition. I bought the iPad version and it’s lovely! And, if you’re in the area, they will have a two-day conference on December 12 and 13.

If anyone makes it to the exhibition or conference and does a write-up, let me know!

Sunday Short Takes

* Ludlow Castle seeks new keyholder – Want to be the custodian of the castle where Arthur Tudor died?

* Revealed, Henry VIII’s lost pleasure palace: Amazing scale model recreates Nonsuch Palace more than 300 years after it was destroyed – More photos of the recreation of Nonsuch Palace that I posted about in a previous Sunday Short Takes

* Scottish football ‘more than 500 years old’ – Way back when this blog used to be a static “News and Events” page I had a post about the ball mentioned in this article, but it must not have made it through the transition. This new documentary evidence sheds some interesting light on the history of sport in the 16th century.

Sunday Short Takes

Short round-up this week:

* Inteview with Dr Erin Sadlack, author of The French Queen’s Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in 16th Century Europe at the Lady Jane Grey Reference Guide Blog.

* Treasures from the London Library: The Strongest Link – Part of a History Today series of articles on Treasures from the London Library that includes lots of interesting 16th century texts.

* And from the History Today archive: The Sinking of the Mary Rose (originally published in 1982, the year the ship was raised)

Sunday Short Takes

* Kenilworth Castle displaying mysterious portrait of Elizabeth I – This is the painting that I posted about last year that was studied by the National Portrait Gallery. Here’s more information from English Heritage.

* British Library’s Treasures in Full: Renaissance Festival Books – I thought I had posted about this collection before, but I couldn’t find it in the archives. This is a collection of over 250 16th and 17th century books from around Europe digitized by the British Library.

* Ancient music books accessible to all – Another great digitization project, this time of early music books. The archive is at Early Music Online.

And finally…

* Wendy Dunn is teaming up with Natalie Grueninger of On the Tudor Trail to bring back the Tudor Ghost Story Contest! I know some of you will be pleased to hear this since I still occasionally get emails asking if the contest would be back – and now it is! There will be a US $5 fee to enter, with all of the money going to the Mary Rose Trust.

Upcoming movies, exhibitions and books

Time for another round-up post of upcoming items of interest! This post covers the end of September and all of October. As always, I know I’m missing stuff – there is just too much to keep up with! I might have a follow-up “things I missed” post halfway through October. 🙂 As usual, I’ve added my Amazon affiliate links on the books. As a reminder of my standard disclaimer – purchases made through my affiliate links earn the site a small commission (which pretty much goes right back to Amazon when I buy more Tudor history books!).

Books

* David Loades latest Tudor history book “The Boleyns: The Rise and Fall of a Tudor Family” is out September 28 in the UK (the US info is scant).

* Thomas Penn’s novel book about Henry VII “Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England” is out September 29, 2011 in the UK and March 6, 2012 in the US. It’s nice to see a novel work featuring Henry VII!
[Edit – I goofed, apparently this is a non-fiction book. Thanks for the correction Susan! And my comment about it being nice to see a book featuring Henry VII still stands. :)]

* Alison Weir’s “Mary Boleyn” is out officially (apparently it has been showing up in airport bookstores already!) October 4 in the US and October 6 in the UK

* “Bessie Blount: The Story of Henry VIII’s Longtime Mistress” by Elizabeth Norton is scheduled to be out October 28 in the UK (again, US info is scant, but it may be out the same date?)

Exhibitions

* Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible opened last week at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. and will run through January 15, 2012. (I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m so excited that the exhibit will be coming here to Austin, TX after its run at the Folger!)

* Mary Queen of Scots – a small display at the British Library about Mary’s last years as a prisoner in England. This also runs to January 15, 2012.

Movie

* The film “Anonymous” by director Roland Emmerich will be out in theaters on October 28 in both the US and the UK. I’m not a big fan of the whole “Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare” conspiracy theory – in particular the “Prince Tudor” variation in this film – but the film looks like it will be a visual treat. Vanessa Redgrave (who played Anne Boleyn in the 1966 “A Man for All Seasons”) is an older Elizabeth I and her daughter Joely Richardson (recently seen as Katherine Parr in “The Tudors”) plays the young Elizabeth. You can see trailers at the movie’s official site.

Sunday Short Takes

* Nancy Bilyeau’s debut novel “The Crown” will be out early next year, but US readers can enter to win an advanced copy through Goodreads! Find out more about the drawing here. And allow me a small moment of pride in mentioning that Nancy is a submitter and commenter on my Tudor Q&A blog. I’m always amazed by the knowledgeable and talented people who have stumbled across the site!

* A Tudor Herbal c. 1520 – I think How to Be a Retronaut is embarking on a campaign to get on to this round-up every week by continuing to post cool things like this!

* Market news: Elizabethan costume piece tops Cowdray sale – A portrait once thought to have been of Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerdts, sold above the estimate for

Sunday Short Takes

A lot shorter than last week…

* Article by John Edwards, author of Mary I: England’s Catholic Queen – The book is the one I mentioned in my late-August round-up of Upcoming lectures, classes, exhibitions and books

* The Tudor Pattern Book – another gem from How to be a Retronaut

* The October issue of BBC History Magazine is out and features an article on Sir Francis Walsingham. Be sure to also check out the podcast interview with the article’s author.

And finally…

* Lady Jane Grey makes an appearance – This was tweeted to me and had a better version of the photo than the one that showed up in my news alerts. I’m still amused at the use of Tudor or Tudor-influenced art in fashion, although having Henry VIII on your knickers still takes the cake.

Elizabeth’s Haunted Portrait

No, not a tale of spooky happenings around a piece of art, but rather a funny Halloween decoration I stumbled upon at the craft store the other day.


(Sorry for the cruddy cell phone pics.)

This is one of those things that has one image when you look at it from one angle and then another when viewed from the other side. I should have taken the photos with the glowing red eyes on too. They had a couple of others, all based on Renaissance portraits, and I *think* one of them was Sir Walter Raleigh, or perhaps Sir Francis Drake.

And no, I didn’t buy it since I didn’t see how much it was and I was already spending enough money on the magnifying lamp I went in for. (Fellow needleworkers will understand – I was stitching on a small project that had some parts that were on 28-ct fabric over one and my eyes basically said “No way lady!”, hence the new lamp.)

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Picture of the Week #141

Arms of Marie de Guise at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo May 2000.

For ages I thought that this was a symbol of Mary Queen of Scots, but when I went to post it today I realized that didn’t make any sense and it eventually dawned on me that it had to be of Marie de Guise. This panel is facing one belonging to James V on the same part of the Palace (visible to the left end in Picture of the Week #34) so I realized the MR was probably his wife, not his daughter. I did a little digging and turned up an entry for it on the database of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and sure enough, it was Marie de Guise!